By Donald Duff in Nassau, Bahamas
They might be presidents of different organisations in the administration of football worldwide but when it comes to the development of the sport in the Caribbean, FIFA president Sepp Blatter and president of CONCACAF and CFU Jack Warner are on the same page.
The message from Blatter to Caribbean countries seeking assistance from FIFA to aid the development of the game in order to qualify for the World Cup is “help yourselves.”
Warner’s message is similar:“We won’t give you a fish but we will teach you how to.“
Both Blatter and Warner were responding to questions from Stabroek Sport pertaining to the respective roles of FIFA and CONCACAF in bringing Caribbean football up to competitive levels and their roles in strengthening intra-regional cooperation to aid the development of the game.
“Our goal must be to assist them through courses and programmes especially of course, courses in referee development; courses in sports medicine; courses in football administration and also coaching so as to bring them up to acceptable levels,” said Warner who is also a vice president of FIFA.
“We can’t actually give them a fish but we will teach them how to fish and that eventually they will be able to raise their football by their own bootstraps and we have given them the platform, so to speak, to do this.”
Warner said additionally they have ensured assistance from FIFA and the IOC in the form of funding and courses for Caribbean countries.
Blatter, asked how Caribbean countries could emulate Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad and qualify for the World Cup finals said, “…help yourselves and the heavens will help you.
“The objective to go to the World Cup is on the agenda of practically all the national associations. The way to go there is long and is hard because everybody wants to go and there is a big struggle in all the continents.
“And when I come to your region the CONCACAF you have three slots allocated to you and one you can play out with South America. Last time you had four because you won against Bahrain in the playoffs.”
Blatter said in planning for the future, Caribbean countries need to look towards the younger players and to implement professional or semi-professional leagues.
“So the problem with the small islands is that they are small, and though they have the quality players the number of the quality players is smaller than in others.
“We have 208 national associations and when you look backwards and you see powerhouses like China and India… China was once in the World Cup in the past so who are the powerhouses?
“India, they would also like to go to the World Cup finals, one billion people and more. It‘s not only the number of people but it’s also the programmes you put together,” he added.
Warner, however, pointed to the increased financial assistance for clubs participating in major CONCACAF tournaments.
He said that for the first time clubs taking part in tournaments such as the CONCACAF Champions League are given US$30,000 assistance for each match they play at home and they are also allowed to keep their gate receipts.
General Secretary of CONCACAF Chuck Blazer said that the key was the evolution from what the situation was years ago to the present scenario. Back then, Blazer said, there was “no assistance, no courses, no programmes, no competitions… [the situation now is that] there are more competitions at all levels, …there is financial assistance being provided by FIFA, …there is a catalogue that allows each association to pick and choose the courses and programmes that it wants to run.”
Blazer said while the changes and the evolution have been significant, FIFA was also looking at other techniques and he disclosed that two new programmes of training and education have been introduced, which will be conducted on the internet.
