JFF goals ambitious but doable – Dehring
Published:Wednesday | January 11, 2023 | 12:56 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
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JAMAICA FOOTBALL Federation’s Marketing Committee chairperson Chris Dehring says the chances the organisation has to hit their ambitious targets is great, but has stressed the importance of proper long-term planning. Dehring was appointed head of...
JAMAICA FOOTBALL Federation’s Marketing Committee chairperson Chris Dehring says the chances the organisation has to hit their ambitious targets is great, but has stressed the importance of proper long-term planning.
Dehring was appointed head of the marketing committee late last year as part of the organisation’s structural adjustments, prompted by former finance committee chairperson Dennis Chung’s move to general secretary.
Dehring said that accepting the role during the change in personnel was an opportunity to exhaust the leverage of contacts that he has to maximise the potential that both men’s and women’s national team programmes have, especially with major tournaments on the horizon.
“It’s the right time for me in the sense that the years of linkages that I have made in the sports world are probably heading towards the twilight with some of its influence. So it’s the right time for me to make whatever use I can still of the linkages that I have in the global sporting arena. But for the JFF, they have obviously chosen this moment to make some significant changes, so it’s a credit to them. They have had a long chequered history, both good and bad. And I think that this administration should be given a chance to try and make changes that they see fit,” Dehring told The Gleaner.
“We have two very talented squads in terms of the men and women at different levels than probably ever before. In the history of Jamaica, we have never had this kind of talent at our disposal to represent our national teams.”
Jamaica will have a busy 2023 schedule highlighted by the Women’s World Cup this summer in Australia and New Zealand but it will also be the first year of the road to the 2026 Men’s World Cup.
According to Chung, a marketing consultant will be appointed shortly and Dehring is thinking long-term strategies for both programmes to avoid past mistakes.
“One of the challenges that organisations like the JFF had, you are always running from one event to the next so the planning process gets pushed aside. And we have seen when the planning process gets pushed aside, you never really developed an overarching plan and direction and so you pull from one event to the next. So we have to have that discipline to sit down and work through a comprehensive marketing plan,” Dehring said.
It is also the start of the federation’s deal with Adidas, a landmark move that while Dehring believes will reap rewards, and has put pressure on the JFF to deliver and to rebuild the trust of corporate sponsors for them to get on board.
“When you attract an address you better make sure you hold on to Adidas because if Adidas drops you because you are failing to deliver the types of expectations it is a major body blow. So we have to put in place the type of major marketing plan because the risks are higher,” Dehring said.
“The last two years we would have the familiar type of incidents that we had in the past. We have to work to turn that around. You can’t just hire a few people, bring on board different parties into committees and think that reputations are going to change. We have to demonstrate it. We have to make sure that things work.”