Upping the ante on the JFF

IN HIS role to increase corporate backing and to achieve the marketing goals of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), marketing chairperson Chris Dehring says he is committed to delivering a first-class experience that appeases all stakeholders to tap into the potential that the programme has.

Dehring was named head of the Marketing Committee late last year as part of the structural changes that the federation has taken to meet ambitious targets for both the men’s and women’s national teams in the wake of major tournaments.

Jamaica are in a World Cup year with the Reggae Girlz preparing for the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in July, while the Boyz have begun the road to the 2026 Men’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, a tournament that represents, in Dehring’s mind, the best chance Jamaica has of qualifying for the first time in more than 20 years.

Dehring outlined that given the increase of the player pool for the national teams, it represents the best opportunity to lure corporate Jamaica into meaningful and lucrative partnerships, given the success of the Reggae Girlz and the potential of the Boyz.

“The level of resources that are available to us in terms of potential player assets that are out there, both on the men’s and women’s teams, both from the development of local resources as well as tapping into the international database is probably unprecedented,” Dehring told The Sunday Gleaner.

“Qualifying for back-to-back Women’s World Cups is a major achievement that we will certainly rally around and we need to make sure that our women are treated and lauded in the best way possible and prepared to do as best as they can in that World Cup. But also there is a huge event, the Men’s World Cup which is on the horizon (in 2026) and we probably have our best chance since 1998. So both give us, probably, the ideal platform to approach the corporate world, to approach sponsors. So I would say that the atmosphere and the conditions are probably more favourable than they were two or three years [ago],” he said

Dehring’s commitment to delivering a first-class experience stemmed from a conversation he had with Concacaf president Victor Montagliani at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

“One of the things he [Montagliani] said he did was that anybody that made a national team when they are onboarding had to be a first-class experience. And it’s not just for international players, it’s also for local players. It must be aspirational that when you get on a national team, that onboarding, that experience has to be so good that everybody wants to have that experience when they finished talking about it to other players,” Dehring said.

“From the manual that they get that tells them all the dos and don’ts and these are their entitlements. Something as simple as that making sure that experience is first class as an organisation has got to be a priority. And even though we have onboarded Adidas we have to make sure that every time a corporate sponsor signs on, their experience is first class. They believe that they are dealing with a professional organisation and over time that type of experience will lead to an improved reputation of the JFF and hopefully, fans will come on board.”

While the Adidas partnership will be a boost, it is the fans that Dehring believes will be crucial in getting on board with the new direction. JFF is employing a social media strategy to boost fan engagement, something that he hopes will be unique and will tie into the first-class experience that he is aiming for.

“The Jamaican fans both locally and in the diaspora are absolutely critical to everything the JFF does. That fan base is what made the office impregnable on the road to France in 1998. That fan base is what you are using to generate sponsorship. How corporate Jamaica reacts to you is a microcosm of how the fan base reacts to you. So we have to make sure that the fan base is on board,” Dehring said.

“We can deliver that first-class experience. I never said a first-world experience but a first-class experience. That is going to be key.”

daniel.wheeler@gleanerjm.com