Golding aiming to improve Arnett funding

New Arnett Gardens football club chairman, Mark Golding, says increasing the professionalism throughout the club and emphasising youth development will be his mandate in the role. Golding, assumed office last Wednesday, the day, former chairman Omar Davies resigned, after approximately two decades in that position. Now, Golding says that he wants to make what he describes as major changes to the club's administrative structure.

"I have been putting the management team in place, working with the players and coach and some existing managers. We want to build on the tremendous achievement of the club and increase professionalism in the management of the club.We are looking for the cooperation of existing staff as we transition to the new system," he told The Gleaner.

"I have already started (working). I met the coach and the players. I have started to work out our plans and what we want to do, so the process has began and we want to continue to move the club in a positive direction," he added.

He continued that he wants to make the club viable and help youngsters realise their dream of playing professionally overseas.

"I want to improve the finances and focus on the development of younger players and try to ensure the spirit of the club will continue as an institution to the people of southwest St Andrew. We will focus more on helping young players so they can build a career out of football and enhance their own communities through their progress in life," he stated.

Meanwhile, the parliamentarian says his transition to chairman has been smooth because of his involvement with the club over the last year, despite some other key executive members pulling out. General manager Richard Bennett, otherwise known as Charlie Chaplain, and Chris Bicknell offered their resignation, while Golding plans to defunct the presidency and put Patrick Roberts on the board instead.

Golding said Bennett made it clear he came in to support Davies and would leave whenever he departed. He (Bennett) has been replaced by Peter Thelwell, while Bicknell wanted to clear the way for him to name his own executive members.

"Any transition is a challenging process and changes have to be managed. But with the goodwill of the persons involved, any little issues can be smoothed out. We all want what's best for the club and the community and I am quite familiar with internal issues and specifics aspects of the club.

"But apart from the management, I want a new board in place so we can conduct the business in a more streamlined way, with a board to provide oversight and guidance to management.

"So my aim is to maximise revenue with the club. There are things we can do to improve the revenue, but that will take time. In the meantime I will do what is necessary to keep the club functioning as I have been for the last year," he said.