AN innovative idea that is expected to catapult Jamaica's football into the fast-paced stratosphere of the information highway "to unprecedented levels" has gained traction with at least one local stakeholder.
Pro-Goals Sports, a sports talent management firm with headquarters in the USA, has brought the exciting concept of having critical information about Jamaica's players and leagues beamed to the rest of the world through an Internet-based data bank to the organisers of Jamaica's top league.
[Hide Description] (L-R) WALLEN... at forefront of getting Jamaicans aboard. JUREIDINI... it’s a player’s or club’s passport
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This information would then be at the fingertips for football clubs, agents, scouts, managers, coaches and corporate entities to peruse at leisure.
Following a meeting with the Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA) on Tuesday, the local body "has agreed in principle" to soar with the idea.
Already, the process of collating the data has started and should be uploaded to the major football information depository, SoccerAssociation.com, in "30 days" and in time for the new Premier League season.
Managing director of Pro-Goals Sports, Romel Wallen, is the man at the forefront of getting Jamaican interests on board to what has become a common practice in the world of professional football, and he says the "benefits are limitless".
"It (SoccerAssociation) is perhaps the number one used football research tool globally as it is used by most major clubs, agents and scouts. It is also great exposure for local clubs, because the database is designed to direct you through clubs to find players of interest. It's great marketing for clubs," Wallen told the Sunday Observer.
Confident of its potential for success, the Jamaican argued that the local Premier League in particular stands on the periphery of being cast into a dimension few thought of prior.
"This will take the DPL from relative international obscurity and place it into a virtual football arena that is viewed globally," he said.
"For the players, they can be inspired by the fact that their week-to-week work locally will be viewed by the global football community, placing less emphasis on them having to be on the national team," Wallen outlined.
Jamaican players are already in the SoccerAssociation database, but only the approximate 25 playing for top clubs in Europe and the USA, plus those in the wider Reggae Boyz pool.
Therefore, the new move by Pro-Goals Sports and the PLCA seeks to also integrate all other players plying their trade in the top local league for international exposure and assessment.
"We've had relative success in getting local footballers professional opportunities, this increased exposure can only help," Wallen added.
SoccerAssociation.com, which stores profiles of players of over 200 leagues and all international playing countries, archives current match-to-match league data for players globally and Jamaica will be the first Caribbean country to be added.
"It's a big stepping stone for our local league to gain some international credibility, or at the very least an identity," said the Pro-Goals Sports head.
Wallen's partner Robert Chambers is the director of Pro-Goals Americas based in Florida.
Meanwhile, PLCA executive, Clyde Jureidini, welcomed the new initiative and did not hesitate to point to the obvious benefits for the local league and its players.
"Essentially it will add credibility to the Caribbean/Jamaican football landscape at the international, national, club and grassroots levels by falling in line with global best practices in the information age," he said.
Jureidini, who also serves as general manager for Harbour View FC, which is one of the top local exporting clubs, suggested that Jamaica's current ranking as the Caribbean's number one at 38th on the FIFA listing will certainly boost the image of the country in this exciting marketplace.
"We should be more exposed to proper analytical evaluation of our league, administrators, clubs, players, management and referees by FIFA agents, scouts and professional clubs on a daily basis.
"The PLCA would facilitate the data entry on a timely basis, value-added exposure to its sponsors, streaming live in addition to guiding all 12 (Premier League) clubs to post individual websites to support and add more intricate details of players, managers and sponsors," Jureidini explained.
The respected football manager said he and the rest of the PLCA team, headed by Edward Seaga, were sold on the idea because it held immeasurable benefits for broad-based development of the sport.
"It is a player's/club's passport... this not only stops at the Reggae Boyz level but goes deeper into clubs, schools, grassroots archives... a path of growth, development and designed programmes that are tracked accurately to push all participants to log data sequentially each session, day, week, season, year and competition," said Jureidini, who exhibited an intimate knowledge of the workings of SoccerAssociation.
The possibilities, if the passion of Jureidini and Wallen is anything to go by, are seemingly endless.
"(For one) players are readily perceived as more marketable worldwide, moving the transfer values upward; this starts negotiation from a level of professionalism, not merely as amateur or semi-professional at best when Jamaican players or clubs are not seen on the football websites road map internationally," Jureidini concluded.
Read more:
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sport/Web-based-data-bank-to-log-J-can-players_9233412#ixzz1SPv6ml4W
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