New Govt going with football
Published on: 2/5/08.
by EZRA STUART
FOOTBALL IN BARBADOS will receive maximum support from Government and a home for the sport is on the agenda of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP).
Prime Minister David Thompson made this pledge while delivering the keynote address at the Barbados Football Association's (BFA) lavish annual awards ceremony at Almond Bay, Hastings, Christ Church, last Sunday night.
"There is a need for special facilities for football. Ronald [Jones, the BFA president] has spoken to me about the need for a proper football stadium. I know that despite their best efforts at the National Stadium, they didn't have the resources to make the facility the kind of facility needed," Thompson said.
"If the resources were available, they would probably have been used to upgrade the facility but that's not the place for it. They need to have a home for football in Barbados and the Democratic Labour Party is interested in that as well,"
He said football would be given priority with the establishment of constituency councils which would be provided with a monetary grant.
"We have agreed that every constituency in Barbados should have a fund which we are going to start with the sum of $100 000," Thompson said, but warned that all of the monies would not be spent on football.
"It is for a number of things which the constituency council, not just the MP (Member of Parliament) either, will sit down and work out are priorities in that constituency and football for me is a priority," Thompson said.
"And therefore, I will encourage all of my MPs to work with the facilitators and the organisers of football because in a sense football is the poor man's sport in this country and it needs the assistance," he said.
Speaking before an audience that included new Minister of Sport, Dr Esther Byer-Suckoo, Thompson emphasised that the resources would need to be used in a very positive way to enhance young people through sporting activities.
"So through providing that home as well as providing the resources which should be used to assist teams in paying for good quality coaches for developing proper coaching programmes, for assisting in purchasing gear and also in some cases to give stipends to persons who are in need, I believe that we can improve football in this country.
"And I want only to say, that I give you my commitment that the Democratic Labour Party and this Government will give maximum support to football in this country.
"Football is one of those sports in which people from all walks of life but particularly people who are the most marginalised in this country, are able to come together, play together and to leave with a sense of achievement and fulfilment," he said. (EZS)
