‘Fantastic’ Year For SLFA

WITH one major tournament to complete the year, President of the St. Lucia Football Association Lyndon Cooper has described the year as a fantastic one for his organization.

He was speaking to members of the media at a press conference at the SLFA headquarters on Barnard Hill in Castries.

Cooper said: “We are 85 to 90 percent through with the programme and activities for the fourth quarter. We recently completed a Level A Health Course with 37 participants. The primary focus was on the Physical Education for teachers associated with the primary school students as well as a few national coaches. We also have the national league development programme where we are 90 percent complete. The first part of the re-registration, re-establishment or re-doing the SLFA membership of the governance programmes is ongoing”.

Cooper said to date, the SLFA had completed most of its competitions. Ongoing was the President’s Cup which will be completed next weekend. He added: “We also have the first aid course where 20 participants took part. It is our intention to train at least 80 individuals to ease the SLFA from the first aid or first responder’s issues at every national game. Most recently we completed the D Licences Course, which is the second for Saint Lucia in two years, with 32 individuals”.

The Association has also completed an in-house workshop session, a planning workshop and a strategy session with a few of its key staff members.

“That is where we are at presently developing the four year plan for the SLFA and our affiliates. Still on the developmental front the SLFA last week also staged a Beach Football Course in the north of the island”.

Cooper said the SLFA was about 98 percent complete in terms of renovations or upgrade of its new headquarters (Project 1) in La Clery. “We should be given a final date as to when it will be officially used as our new office. And we have a number of activities that we are attempting to close before year end and that includes the grassroots course for girls, slated for December 10 -12”.

In January the SLFA will stage one of the most talked about events on its calendar, the national football awards, where it will reward or recognize “every single person who has made a contribution to the game of football”.

Cooper said: “We have commenced with the registration of every club playing national football and are actually members of their respective leagues. We want to achieve the proper running of the clubs, by extension the respective members, which will trickle down to the SLFA so we could have some good management and development skills for the next four years.”

Meanwhile, SLFA General Secretary Victor Reid gave a brief rundown on the awards night. He said: “The whole objective is to help us show appreciation to those who have helped us through the year. The two main awards would be the male and female both junior and senior footballer for the year. That would be the most prestigious. We will do our own profiling as we will present a parent award, football club, football league, sponsor of the year, team of the year, media, referee of the year, sponsor appreciation award, football supporters appreciation award, community sponsors, lifetime award, best football facility, manager of the year, coach of the year, administrator of the year and Special Olympics”.