PFJL cautions clubs to be financially prudent

New Professional Football Jamaica Limited (PFJL) finance committee chairman Peter Higgins cautioned that although the organisation has budgeted for the monthly subventions to Jamaica Premier League (JPL) clubs for the upcoming season, clubs should not find themselves completely reliant on them.

Higgins, also a director at Molynes Football Club, pointed out that his club does not rely exclusively on the subventions to maintain their operations, and encouraged clubs to seek alternative ways of maintaining operations over the course of the season.

Last season there were rumblings of discontent among clubs across the league, regarding late payments from those subventions and how the PFJL’s tardiness had severely affected their operations.

However, Higgins revealed that the PFJL has already reeled in a number of sponsorships for the upcoming season, and anticipates that they will be in good stead to meet their financial obligations to the clubs.

“I am confident we are going to do much better (paying the clubs) this season. The league has gotten more sponsorship already, and that alone shows that financially we should be in a better place.

“It’s not going to be a situation where we make a lot of profit, but we will make a profit. Nevertheless, it is a tricky thing. If we are profitable, the clubs will get funding,” he stated.

However, he insists clubs should not wait, and must be proactive in sourcing funds for their clubs over the season.

“We at Molyhes do not wait on the PFJL for funding. We budget and try to find money for the club with contributions from directors and shareholders and gate receipts.

“We look at all different angles. YouTube channel, sponsorship dollar, and try to think creatively about funding, because if you are waiting on funding from the PFJL you might find yourself in a bit of bother sometimes,” he reasoned.

“It is something we (PFJL) have budgeted for, to make contributions to each club, but there has been a shrinkage in terms of sponsorship dollar over the last two years, and that is one of the reasons payments to clubs have not been as good as the 22-23 year.

“We are budgeting to make the payments, but I will say to clubs that it cannot be your sole source of funding.”

Higgins believes that the league’s viewership audience will be crucial in generating funding for the league this term, and believes things will get better as the season progresses.

“If we get more people to watch, both in terms of television and physical games, we will not have a problem. We really won’t.

“It’s going to be a matter of funding and how. For example, in the early part of the season it might not be as robust, but in the middle it will heat up, and in the playoffs we will make more than any other time. So sometimes it’s a timing issue.

“However, good competitive football has to be played. It has to be seen all over the place in terms of television and Internet.

“If we have more people watching, we will make more money, and as we go into the playoffs, we expect the numbers to be better than last year.

“We will see better numbers because when people are seeing the games week in, week out, there is a lot more buzz when it comes on to the playoffs period. So we are definitely expecting to see more people wherever we go, whether at the stadium or Sabina Park,” he said.

He added that they have also been brainstorming some innovative ways to help increase funding and that some of these initiatives will be announced very soon.

“We are definitely going to cut some costs. We actually are taking some more people on board, in terms of more employees, to make our operations even smoother.

“There will be innovations, but I can’t say now. The board has to make the announcement. There have been some recommendations, and we suspect those will go through, but there will be some innovations,” he stated.

livingston.scott@gleanerjm.com