JFF, JN target sustainable women's football programme

Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) President Michael Ricketts, said the federation intends to use the funds received through their partnership with Jamaica National (JN) to create a sustainable local women's football programme.

JN on Thursday announced a four-year platinum sponsorship package with the JFF.

Ricketts pointed out that the monetary terms of the agreement have not yet been finalised, but says the intention is to use to funds from this deal to help establish and promote women's football locally. This, he noted, will encourage stronger representation on the international scene.

"We have not worked out the (sponsorship) details in terms of money, but it will be a four-year deal supporting women's football. We welcome this support and we are hopeful more of the private-sector members will come on board, because we still need a lot of support going forward to aid the women's programme," Ricketts told The Gleaner.

Catalyst for development

The JFF boss is hoping that the country's historic qualification to this year's FIFA Women's World Cup will serve as a catalyst for the development of the game among women in Jamaica and provide a platform for future international success.

"We don't want this (World Cup qualification) to be a one-off qualification, we need to put things in place so that the programme is sustainable, and we are hopeful other entities will come on board and give us some support. But this (sponsorship) is to sustain women's football. We are looking at things like starting a girls' primary school league. We want to start from the grass-roots and then we intensify the programmes from there. We have a programme that is sustainable and we would love for other women age-group teams to qualify as well. So we just need to ensure that we have the financial support," Ricketts shared.

Ricketts also noted that the sponsorship is not specifically for the national women's football teams, but is for developing women's football across the nation.

"Essentially, this (sponsorship) is for women's football. It is a four-year programme and we want to use it to ensure our women's programme stays afloat, but we want to invite others to come on board, we want to give it our best shot as regards the sustaining of our Under-15s, Under-17s and Under-20s, and of course our senior programme," he stated.