Don't take our money, local clubs warn PFAJ

Carvel Stewart, vice-president of the Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA), says the Premier League clubs are unconvinced that the Professional Football Association of Jamaica's (PFAJ) latest move to play the play-off games at a neutral venue is in their best interest.

Stewart said the clubs are arguing that they would lose significant revenue that can only be made during play-off matches.

Therefore, they have rubbished the reasoning given by the PFAJ that this is to improve the standard of the league and to provide even more revenue for the clubs.

"The clubs have a major concern about the finances. The clubs believe that they will earn more at their home stadiums than they will earn at neutral stadiums because it goes with the sharing of after the cost. So the clubs were not convinced that the play-offs from the neutral ground would be equal to or exceed the income they would get from their home ground.

BENEFIT OF THE CLUBS

"They have said the optics of the television product is better from those venues. They (the PFAJ) think that more spectators will attend because they will be down to six clubs and there will be people from the other six clubs and elsewhere who will want to attend those matches," Stewart noted.

However, president of the PFAJ, Don Anderson, insists that the move is mainly for the benefit of the clubs.

"The objective is with the clubs' interest in mind. If we could have bigger crowds, better control, and increase revenue, then the clubs could benefit more. Last season, I went to a game at a particular venue two hours before the game started and I could not get in, so these are the considerations. So the move is designed to make more money for the clubs during the play-offs than they would normally do," Anderson.

"Concacaf is on a programme where they are trying to professionlise all the countries in the region and this move is in that direction. At the end of the season, we can have enough funds to assist the clubs so we can make that progress to professionalism. So we only have good intentions," he said.