Latest News
Bring back U20 leagues – Jureidini
February 27, 2025
General manager of Harbour View Football Club, Clyde Jureidini, is calling for a return of under-20 football competitions locally, as he believes that a big part of young players' development is compromised without this tournament.
Jureidini pointed out that apart from the St Catherine Football Association, no other parish body has staged an under-20 football competition for the last 10 years.
He noted also that the under-20 level is the most crucial years for young players transitioning into the senior ranks.
"Three to five per cent of the players are going to become professional footballers. Others will play other competitions such as the tier two, or parish competition, or go to universities and colleges overseas.
"But you are going to be losing 90 per cent of the footballers that you have been developing in your clubs and academies, because the only competitions that run above age 17 are the Manning and the daCosta cups. That goes for the next two years until they are 19. But football development does not stop at 19. You are just getting into it," Jureidini said.
"There are no under-20 competitions any more for the last 10 years. There has been no under-21 competitions for about 12 years. So not many players can jump into your senior parish teams," he reasoned.
Jureidini pointed out that with the influx of academies there are ever more young players being developed, and said football organisers have not ensured that youth players in the senior years of their development get many opportunities to keep playing and developing, so they can better make the transition into senior football.
"We are developing more players now because of the explosion of the academies. So we are developing more players at the base level and when they get to maturity there is no league to put them in. What are they going to do?
"You tell them prepare to be professional footballers and they cannot get any work. We are acting like we are developing them but they are going nowhere fast," he continued.
Jureidini believes the absence of under-20 level competitions across the island contribute immensely to Jamaica only qualifying for one Under-20 World Cup and no Olympic football tournament.
"There's no under-20 or under-21 competitions. So it is a stark reality that we have never qualified for an Olympic tournament in football, which is under-23," he said.
"We have never qualified. So there is a lack of genuine development or the continuation to develop into maturity in our football development programme.
"Last year there were three under-17 competitions; KSAFA had one, the JFF (Jamaica Football Federation) had one and the PFJL (Professional Football Jamaica Limited) had one, and going forward from this year we are going to have an under-17 World Cup every year," he stated.
"So we need to address the next stage after 19, which is under-21 and the next stage after under-21 is the under-23, because before people really graduate out, we have to fill out our tertiary level of development," he stated.
"When you leave (high) school you go to work in a workplace you want to work, or you go into various institutions such as UTech (University of Technology) or UWI (University of the West Indies) or teachers' college. If you want to do something else you go to a specialised school and then you go into a career.
"A lot of parishes don't even have an under-17 competition. St Catherine has an under-20, but they do not have an under-17 any more. Some players who played under-17 for us (Harbour View) last year transferred there (St Catherine) because they do not play under-17 any more and they want to play football," he said.
