Management personnel from the Saint Lucia Football Association [SLFA] Inc. recently completed a comprehensive two-day Extensive Mentorship Programme facilitated by CONCACAF to help sharpen the officers’ administrative and operational skills.
The two-day workshop took place at the SLFA’s base, La Clery, earlier this month. Regional football officials that included Senior Manager of One CONCACAF and Head of Caribbean Projects Howard Mc. Intosh and Director CONCACAF Caribbean Member Associations Affairs Horace Reid facilitated the workshop.
According to an SLFA spokesperson, the workshop was designed to provide the SLFA’s Executive Committee members and Senior Staff with insights into the latest practices in the administration of Football and share best practice for adoption by the Association.
Mc. Intosh noted that the SLFA has been always trying to improve “the governance of football in Saint Lucia”. He said the Concacaf executive Mentorship Programme was developed with the aim of improving governance and administration in football throughout the Confederation.
“Back in 2021 we had the first workshop in the series …and the idea is to introduce to the board members the best practices and to discuss case studies around the region and in football that have to do with improving the governance,” the CONCACAF official explained.
He said the two day workshop with the council members was “very intercutting” as thy covered a range of topics relevant to the development of football on island and the region, generally.
“Our focus really …has been on leadership and good governance,” added Mc. Intosh. “In our leadership, we discussed the attributes of leadership and looking at how we improve our leaders and how we create new leaders in football. And the governance side …is to emphasize good governance and the importance of good governance and the benefit of having good governance.”
The Concacaf official asserted: “At the end of the day, we want to improve the relationship with all our stakeholders to ensure that football in Saint Lucia is better and it is first going to come from the leadership that is provided by the members of the SLFA Council.”
While commending the SLFA executive for its effort to develop the sport, Reid declared, “I see a collective that loves the game, is serving the game and has put its interest and intent for the game.”
He described the SLFA collective unit as “great servants of the game …and keep working to improve your product so that Saint Lucia’s football can continue to grow and get better.”
Reid noted that Saint Lucia now have players performing favourably at the international level and the SLFA has put forward upgraded facilitates to provide improved training for its players.
He underscored the input of SLFA President Lyndon Cooper, whom he said, “has been very clear in his thinking and also has a very clear vision …and I want to encourage him to keep going , keep being the person you are and keep leading this fraternity to even beyond its capacity.”
Cooper noted that the SLFA has implemented several “significant changes” in its thrust to “strengthen the governance structure”.
He said the workshop helped to better articulate the guidelines and policies being imparted by FIFA and CONCACAF to be taken in by the SLFA executive council.
“What we have done over the past eight or ten years is that we have taken a look at the regulations of the competition, to ensure that we continue to strengthen it against any abuse of the sport,” added Cooper.
He said the challenge facing the SLFA is to ensure that “all the stakeholders understand what the game is all about. What we have done …is that we have added two clauses to everyone’s contract we have re-employed in 2023.”
Cooper explained that the clauses include, the Conflict of Interest clause and Betting & Match Fixing.
He noted: “This is an indication that we have understood the importance of protecting the integrity of the game at all levels…and to physically place it in our regulations.”