Prospective SVGFF 1st VP maps way forward for football

If successfully elected to the post of first vice-president of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation (SVGFF), Keith Duncan is prepared to roll up his sleeves and go into the trenches to excavate the sport from its current state.{{more}}

Beginning from the ground up, Duncan proposed, “the establishment of a continuous national grassroots programme for both males and females.”

Accordingly, Duncan projects 10 to 12 designated programmes around the entire island, including North Leeward, Barrouallie, Layou, Campden Park, Kingstown, Calliaqua, Brighton, Stubbs, Georgetown, Sandy Bay, Mesopotamia and Bequia.

Cognisant of the already established programmes in some of these communities, Duncan, however, thinks there is need for some uniformity relating to the standards of training programmes.

He foresees that the newly established programmes will be facilitated by licensed coaches, whilst an accredited coach must be hired to oversee the grassroots programme.

“In my observation, the clubs and leagues that have a proper structure are the clubs and leagues that produce the vast majority of national players.

“Since we have exhausted CONCACAF’s coaching licensing capabilities, we need to seek international assistance (UEFA or FIFA) in order to get more local coaches qualified, as the more qualified our club and league coaches are, the better the players…clubs and ultimately our national team’s will become,” Duncan advanced in relation to coaching.

Duncan further called for a serious push to have C Licence, B Licence and A Licence coaching courses available locally.

He holds the view that every attempt should be made to get every primary and secondary schools’ physical education teacher at a minimum, qualified to a CONCACAF D Licence level.

His reasoning is that for the few schools which do not have a physical education teacher who participates in the courses, attempts would be made to dispatch an equally qualified coach to that school.

Duncan also advocates the promotion and facilitation of more under-15 competitions, which will include primary schools, All Leeward and All Windward, the Breakaway Inter-firms Competition, the National Inter Community League and the National Club Championships.

Elections for a new executive of the SVGFF takes place at the media centre of the Arnos Vale Playing Field on November 21.

Apart from Duncan, the other nominees for the post of first vice-president are Kendale Mercury, Wayne Grant, Osbourne Bowens and Otashie Spring.(RT)