TIME TO SHAPE UP – President Says Quality of Game Needs Improving.
ST. LUCIA Football Association President Lyndon Cooper has send out a stern warning to coaches working with female footballers on the island, that the quality of the game being played here needed to be drastically improved to ensure the future growth and development of female football.
Cooper at the time was addressing the 30 participants at the official opening ceremony of the Grass Roots “E” Level Course currently ongoing at the VigieMulti Purpose Sports Complex.
The “E” Course is the first licensing course offered under the auspices of CONCACAF to affiliate members. It features practical and theoretical sessions for coaches from the different leagues and schools. The three day programme ends today.
Cooper in his address to the participants said that the Association’s vision for the continuous development of female football was to ensure that it was given the same prominence and achieved the same results as both the boys’ and men’s games.
He told the coaches: “Without you, it is going to be an impossible journey. We have allocated the necessary resources in the last four years. It is our intention to re-allocate additional resources for the next four years in order to achieve that objective”.
Cooper said the last two years had seen “a great step forward” in the women’s game, but he believes that the vision and the development plan had been lost by the failure to develop national tournaments and to develop under-20 national competitions.
“We are also aware that there is still much to be done towards the development of women’s football throughout St. Lucia. The plan that we are currently developing will focus on competitions, management, education, and promotion”.
Declared Cooper: “The challenges facing the SLFA regarding women’s or girls football are not new, but they should not characterize nor should they chart the progress over the last four years. We as an organization and you as a member, you as a school must find inventive ways in the approach that is needed to overcome challenges that girls’ football face both at the district and at the school level. The level of uncertainty for us in female football, still faced in St. Lucia, must not allow us to lose hope or focus. We must find ways and the mechanism that is needed to attract stakeholders in order to ensure that we achieve the objective set for the next four years”.
He said one of the overall aims and interests for the next four years was to make football the sport of choice for the female population of St. Lucia.
Copper declared: “I must emphasize that the quality of the game being played here needs to be drastically improved if we are to ensure the future growth and development of female football. It is important that we address those issues adequately as the current systems and the structures in place do not meet the requirements of improving that agenda. It is only by improving the quality of the level of our girls and women, that we can truly reap the benefit of the sport”.
He added: “The journey of our work begins right here, with you the participants. We need to develop our girls grass roots programme in both the districts and the schools. We need to ensure that the schools’ programme is in compliance with the overall objectives of the SLFA as it will continue to be the breeding ground for the redevelopment of … women’s football”.
Cooper said as soon as it was practical, a women’s coordinator for female football would be appointed to ensure the success of the girls’ and women’s programme the SLFA was going to unfold. He added: “This programme will be implemented in both the secondary and the primary schools in order to ensure the leagues remain viable as an entity for the continuous development of the SLFA.”
Cooper said the SLFA had decided to place primary schools football on the front burner for 2016 so the appeal and the concept now was for coaches to assist the association in achieving the ultimate goal to make football the number one choice for girls and women in St Lucia.
He added: “We will also provide the schools and the districts with incentives and guidelines, guidance for the future development of the sport. We will continue to place emphasis to creating opportunities for women to serve in football administration whilst continuing to include them in the decision making process of the organization”.
