Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

BOXHILL

LIFE OF Jamaica (LoJ) is back on board with the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) as it handed over $3 million worth of sponsorship to the national programme yesterday.

This was more good news for the JFF which released unaudited figures showing a profit of more than $20 million for the year 2006.

This follows a profit of more than $17 million recorded the year before. The profits are a huge turn around for the JFF which reported almost $9 million in losses in 2004 and a massive $31,827,813 deficit in 2003.

Exciting times

"Once again, another private sector company has shown a willingness to associate with an activity that is well loved by their clientele," said JFF President, Crenston Boxhill, at a press conference held at the JFF headquarters yesterday to announce the LoJ deal.

"On behalf of the federation, we would like to thank LoJ. These are exciting times and it will go a long way in assisting our teams in their preparations for upcoming events," he said.

The funding comes just ahead of the national team's partici-pation in the Lunar New Year Cup in Hong Kong in a few weeks time.

Enforces our commitment

LoJ was previously involved with the National Under-20 team when it began its World Cup campaign in 2005.

"We love football and we love Jamaica, and this enforces our commitment to the national programme," said Richard Byles, president and CEO of LoJ.

"We look forward to being in South Africa in 2010 and based on the role that Jamaica has played - even in terms of a historical perspective - it is fitting that we should be there," Byles said.