No funds for demotion, says Garel

Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA) general manager Pat Garel says that there is no money set aside for teams demoted from the Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL).

Garel was responding to Molynes United president Herman Cruickshank’s comments in Monday’s Gleaner that promoted clubs need a financial allocation to help offset the expenses they face when they progress to the nation’s highest football league.

However, she said that while all 12 RSPL clubs usually get a preseason allocation, that was not the case this season as the PLCA was still in negotiations with title sponsor Red Stripe on a new deal. It meant that the contract was not secured until the last-minute, and no preseason funding were available for this year.

“Demoted clubs don’t get any money,” Garel said. “There was never any allocation for demoted clubs. The clubs that are demoted go back in their parish competition, so, therefore, they go back under the umbrella of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) competition, which is where their support should come from. So when they are demoted, they are no longer a part of the PLCA.

“Once they have finished playing, there is no further financial assistance from the sponsorship as our money to the clubs come from the sponsorship we get over the season.

“We had just finished a five-year contract period with Red Stripe, so we were at the end of that five years and we had not concluded the new negotiations, so there was no financial assistance but teams started getting their monies by the end of September. We will probably have preseason money next season. It was just unfortunate that this season that based on where the contract negotiations were, no money was available to any of the 12 clubs for preseason.”