ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC- The President of the Grenada Football Association (GFA), Cheney Joseph wants his organisation to revisit its current competition structure and make changes, possibly by 2015.
Joseph said that local footballers are not playing enough organised competitive games and this deficiency is affecting their ability to compete at the higher level.
“I believe the GFA needs to review its current structure with regards to competitions,” Joseph said at a press conference on Wednesday.
“We at the GFA should focus primarily on the Premier League and developmental football, and may be women, and allow for the parishes to take on the parish competitions”.
Joseph’s proposal calls for a scrapping of the first and second divisions and organising parish leagues where teams will instead play in a national championship for promotion to the Premier League.
He said the change will lead to more football being played at the community level and possibly create the environment for a semi-professional league.
“I am proposing that the GFA should have the Premier League as its flagship competition, allow each parish to run its own competition for the clubs within the parish and let the champion teams from each of the parishes play in a national championship to gain promotion to the Premier League,” Joseph explained.
“It’s something that I am advocating and I would hope that we can get a discussion at GFA on this and hopefully by 2015 that can come into place. That will give credence to the importance and relevance to the semi-professional league which we have been speaking about”.
Joseph said that such an initiative should be less costly to clubs and will encourage more football and greater rivalry within the parishes. It will also provide an opportunity to create partnerships with sponsors within the parishes.
