President of the St. Lucia Football Association, Lyndon Cooper, says the remainder of the year will be a hectic one for his organization.
Cooper made the pronouncement at SLFA’s headquarters recently.
Cooper said; “Our youth emphasis remains our mantra and we will continue to see positive results from this prioritized programme. The Women’s Football Programme is picking up nicely despite the fact that we have completely revamped it”.
The SLFA boss noted the national under – 15 girls have weathered the storm and are progressing nicely. They are presently participating in the CONCACAF Girls under – 15 Championship in Orlando, Miami, USA and will be there until August 20.
St. Lucia lost their opening game against Puerto Rico 4 -1, but came back strong in their second outing to defeat St. Vincent and the Grenadines 5 – 1 with goals from Britiana St. Prix in the 11th and 37th minutes, Tessa Jones in the 23rd minute, Geena Henry in the 64th minute and Tanika Bernard in the 69th minute, respectively.
Cooper said; the SLFA’s 2016 programme is on track and he is very happy with the response from its members. adding that they will continue their training programmes and continue to provide technical and limited financial support.
Copper said: “We will roll out a number of championships that will take us up to December 2016. Some of these are the Blackheart Championship, the Girls Under – 21 Championship, the Boys Under – 21 Championship, the President’s Cup Club Championship (with 36 club teams) and the 1st Division Championship (with eight Club teams) and, possibly, the 2016 Super League Under – 20 Championship. We will continue to provide training programmes for our match officials at the district level and at the national level.”
The SLFA president said he was pleased that the collaboration during the first half of the year between the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports remained cordial and productive. He hoped that the private sector support will realize a significant increase and even better relationships.
He said most importantly for the SLFA is the tremendous support received from members of the public for the championships held in the past six months as playing venues were filled with fans and well-satisfied sponsors.
Cooper said: “The Club Licensing System is based on a five key criteria: sporting, personnel and administrative, financial, infrastructure and legal. These criteria aim to safeguard the credibility and integrity of club competitions while improving the level of professionalism within the football family and promoting transparency in the finances, ownership and control of clubs.”
According to Cooper his organization his now inviting all clubs at the 1st division level and league level to apply for the national Club Licence. He sent a strong message to clubs by saying that, clubs will not be able to participate in organized football without first obtaining a national Club LicenCe.
Meanwhile, the SLFA has already initiated the First Instance Action Body which reviews the applications of clubs wishing to gain a National Club Licence. The Body is responsible for ascertaining whether or not a club meets the criteri by way of investigation into the information the clubs submit.