When the 2012/2013 Digicel T&T Pro League season kicks off next month, four-time winner San Juan Jabloteh will not be among the teams hoping to dethrone W Connection. This was disclosed by the club’s chairman Jerry Hospedales after the board of directors of San Juan Jabloteh Sports Ltd, the franchise holder of the club took a decision on Saturday to suspend immediately all its operations relating to senior football after having closed earlier, its women’s football and youth clinic activities. The meeting was held at the club’s headquarters Akal Trace & Saddle Road, Upper Santa Cruz. By withdrawing from the Pro League, Jaloteh which had participated in all previous ten seasons now leaves W Connection, Defence Force, Caledonia AIA and St Ann’s Rangers as the clubs that were part of the first season, in 2002. In the three page press release signed by the club’s chairman Jerry Hospedales.
Hospedales noted while the club remains under acute financial stress, it will continue its youth football activities during a transitional period and in the context of its current financing arrangements. The club also decided to continue its netball programme as it has been doing under its own fund-raising initiatives. In explaining the tough decision to ends its senior football team programme Hospedales said the club has arrived at this critical juncture in its 38-year history in light of the increasing volatility of the diminishing flow of resources from the public and private sectors. Since becoming a professional entity in 1995, the club has been discharging a mandate focused of providing avenues through which the young people in the high risk and under privileged communities of the east-west corridor, could earn incomes while utilising their natural talents. Reflecting on the club’s recent financial problems, Hospedales said, “Since the understandable decision of Clico to disengage from the sponsorship in 2009, efforts to put together a group of sponsors to identify with the objective of the club and to seek to find solutions to the grave problems facing these communities have not been entirely successful. “Moreover, the only stable source of finance, that from the Ministry of Sport and the Sports Company of T&T, has turned out to be less than stable.
“Initially put at $17,000 per month in May 2010, that amount was suspended in January 2011, re-instituted in October 2011 with arrears only back-dated to May 2011, increased to $50,000 per month in October 2011 and was once again terminated in January 2012 and that without notice and rationale. “The club is convinced that this state-funding represents an important and stable source of financial flows to the community clubs participating in the T&T Pro League and allows them to discharge their social mandates.” Many of them augment the state resources through their own fund-raising efforts but the source of difficulty for San Juan Jabloteh is that not only has the club received over a long period, a different and lesser level of funding from that of the other clubs but since January 2012 it is the only community club which is not accessing state funding, despite exceptional efforts undertaken by the club to restore that funding. In making a plea for financial support Hospedales said the club would appreciate that corporate T&T should now review their social corporate responsibility with a view to addressing and finding solutions to the grave problems facing our society and they should do so by establishing sustained engagements with community organisations which are central to nation-building and community enhancement, but the role of Government cannot be overemphasised as a source of stable finance and catalyst for empowering social organisations in high-risk communities. On behalf of the club, Hospedales commended Clico for its stable financial support over 15 years of sponsorship while also saluting First Citizens Bank, IBWILL Insurance Brokers, Express Drugs and more recently Adams Project Management and Construction Ltd for its support over the years.
Source: www.guardian.co.tt