It is a view held by many that Proven’s CEO Christopher Williams should be the undisputed czar of Jamaican football, in other words, he is the right person to head the Jamaican Football Federation (JFF).

This readily is made apparent with the ineptitude, internecine infighting, and poor management that has plagued the JFF in recent times.

Charming, a ‘proven’ CEO with an enviable track record in the financial sector, a passionate lover of the game, an irrepressible character who sponsors would find it hard to turn down, a man who can galvanise an organisation –  there’s a lot there to make the case for Chris Williams.

He has already made a significant impression in turning around the fortunes of the game at the local level as Chairman of the Professional Football Jamaica Limited (PFJL) which runs the Jamaica Premier League (JPL). He has overseen more sponsorship, an emphasis on the commercialisation of all professional football, better television rights, tighter administration and structure and purposeful branding. There can one little doubt that strides have been made and the future augurs well.

Last week saw huge crowds turn up at Sabina Park for the quarter-finals of the Jamaica Premier League playoff, so much so that the demand caught the PFJL off guard. That in of itself underscores the progress that has been made and the dynamism enthused into local football.

Tomorrow’s semi-final between Portmore United and Arnett Gardens FC (5:00 pm kick-off time) and then Tivoli Gardens FC and Waterhouse FC (8:00 pm) at Sabina Park in Kingston, promises to be another blockbuster with the PFJL better prepared to accommodate huge crowds getting behind their teams.

The English Premier League (EPL) is recognised as the most exciting in the world with global appeal. However, it was born at the local level with the working class getting behind their teams and the respective teams placing themselves at the heart of the community. People would work all week in factories and offices and on Saturday would go to see their local teams. It was something to take pride in, it gave many men a sense of belonging, and it was a form of two tribes going to war. Wives and girlfriends would ensure their men gave them their wages for the week, ensuring the rent, utilities and groceries were covered them benevolently giving them money for the football and a few beers. Pub culture and football became inextricably linked.

Most of the jobs were dreary, monotonous, and joyless but on Saturday, one could get away from all that, bond with their team, get behind heroes, and participate in glory. That was then taken and marketed to the world, and decades later it has become a global phenomenon. Many English football clubs were owned by moneyed English men who believed that English football was about community and entertainment.  Men like Simon Jordan (Crystal Palace) Doug Ellis ( Aston Villa) Jack Walker (Blackburn Rovers) David Sullivan (West Ham) Alan Sugar (Spurs) and Elton John( Watford) gave their clubs a distinct English flavouring.

Twenty or thirty years later the top clubs are owned by mega-rich foreigners, investment groups, oil and steel magnates, Arabs, Russians, and Indians all keen to get into English football and cash in.

All this will not be lost on Chris Williams and his business acumen and financial savvy can be employed to Jamaica’s good. He will be looking firstly to make a local impact, particularly on the community level and then turn that into a global cash pot by making Jamaica into one of the most vibrant leagues in this hemisphere.

Already homegrown talent is making its mark on the EPL. Leon Bailey is blossoming at Aston Villa and Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw has proven to be a star for Manchester City. Some of us claim Raheem Sterling as one of our own and then there is Dujuan ‘Whisper’ Richards who has recently signed to Chelsea.

Very soon from now, the Jamaican national team will be made up of predominantly local talent, with imports featuring less and less. These are good signs of what Chris Williams is looking to achieve.

He may want to convince some of Jamaica’s leading business personalities to invest in the local teams, thus burnishing their respective brands into the communities and then looking outwards. Some of Jamaica’s leading enterprises are family -owned and they can play a role here. The Mahfoods, the Bicknells, the Duncans, the Stewarts, the Harts, the Issas, the Hendricksons should be encouraged to buy into the JPL teams. If someone can persuade them to do so, it’s Chris Williams.

Compare and contrast what is happening with cricket. Cricket, once at the centre of national sport, is dying and increasingly becoming unviable. It could do with an injection of the energy and vision that Chris Williams is bringing to local football because it is certainly withering on the vine. 

If the triumvirate of Chris Williams, Dennis Chung and Craig Butler can come together and utilise their talents, Jamaican football could become a force on the world stage.

So why doesn’t Chris Williams run for president of the JFF? He would have plenty of support and backing.

The chairman of the PFJL sat down for an interview with Our Today and shared, “ Myself, my Proven partners, my family we all analysed that prospect and gave it considerable thought. We concluded even if I went into the JFF, the first place to start would be to build the foundation and that’s what I am doing right now. So you see, I don’t need to shift from where I am right now. This is where the work needs to be done, at the club level, starting with the elite clubs and getting them on a firm financial footing. We need to get their infrastructure and developmental programmes in place.

“It is important that we build confidence with corporate Jamaica and Jamaicans as a whole then build the football framework from there up. So I’m saying I am in the right place. I’m not even sure that I would win that election for President of the JFF. I think I would be of good use building a solid developmental platform.”

Chris Williams has put in place two co-CEOs running  PFJL, thus sorting out the executive leadership. He is effusive with his praise for Jamaica National boss Earl Jarrett who seconded Owen Hill to JPL two years ago. He commends Owen Hill for delivering. Kemoi Burke has also been driving commercialisation in a very structured manner.

Should there not be one football overlord, who presides over all facets of the game in Jamaica? Chris Williams does not believe so. He sees football in Jamaica as being very strong and does not attribute that to just one person. He points to Keith Wellington, president of ISSA, who he says is doing a fantastic job with schoolboy football, INSPORTS, who has done well with primary school football.

“Twenty years ago, we did need Horace Burrell  as that football overload, but now in the 21st century we have replaced Burrell with five or six people. We don’t need this one behemoth person who is holier than thou, that is transforming and  building Jamaican football. Today we can count on different people with specific skill sets and they are doing a good job. The JFF is not the driver of football, it is way bigger than one entity. JFF does the national teams so we should let go of this thinking that there must be one person in charge of the eco-system. We are all working together, many of us volunteers. We have to appreciate how big this industry is in Jamaica. It has evolved way past any one person.

“ Now if the JFF has a misstep, don’t crucify prep-school football or ISSA or PFJL and then say football is in turmoil. Lorne Donaldson was not rehired as the coach of the Reggae Girls and then there was this big uproar, football is in crisis! What! There’s still crowds at Arnett Gardens on Sunday’s at 5 pm when they are playing a match. There is still training taking place and the grounds and fields being maintained. We need to be given more respect.  We are working and we need the support, the attention and the appreciation for what each of us are doing.’

What Chris Williams is driving at is that it is a bit like equating the FA with the EPL.

He continued: “ My job is to excite Tina Clayton when she is in Class Three and getting Tina Clayton to sit down with her mother and say, ‘Mummy, I want to be a professional sprinter like Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.’ That’s what we have in track and field because of the success of our professional track stars and their ability to achieve financial independence by doing what they love. Now the kids are saying,’ Mummy, I want to be a sprinter’. Track and field now has a professional framework that has proven successful.. Today,Shelly has her own house, her cars, is investing in her businesses. Now Tina’s Mummy is saying ‘yes, I will support that’ because Mummy and Daddy saw Shelly-Ann, Bolt and all of them living a comfortable life based on the success at what they love. That’s my job.

“Now I must build a professional framework that allows a young footballer at Mona Prep to be able to say,’ Mummy, I want to be a professional footballer, and I can come through the ranks, leave Manning Cup, play for Arnett Gardens, leave Arnett Gardens and play for Chelsea.’  See what I’m saying? So they can see themselves achieving a path right here at home in Jamaica just like the track athletes, because the coaches are here, the equipment is here the physios are here, the agents are here, the marketing is here.

They can be in good hands, doing their sport, right here in Jamaica. As long as they do well, they can become a ‘Whisper’ Richards.”

“My job is to also ensure that our clubs become as good as or better than Craig Butler’s. We need every club in Jamaica to become a beast at developing and selling talent, just like Stephen Francis, Just like Glen Mills, just like Maurice Wilson at SprinTec. We need our clubs to be the best clubs in the world, just like our track clubs. Our track clubs are the best track clubs in the world. MVP, Racers, SprinTec… all of them. They are nurseries for greatness. If I can build the nurseries for greatness for football, we good, I don’t need to be the president of the JFF for that.

Jamaican professional football clubs need attention. It’s the EPL that makes the FA successful on the global stage, creating a pool of talent that allows the FA to shine. Therefore in Jamaica, it is the clubs we need to fix. And that’s what I will be doing. When you look at clubs like Ajax, Santos, Porto you get my point. So let me help Jamaican clubs become great clubs. Chris Williams is in the right place.”

This is Chris Williams’ fourth season and before he began changing things, the PFJL didn’t even have a bank account. Now it has three years of audited financials. The PFJL didn’t have a sponsor, now it has 24 sponsors with a three-year contract with J. Wray & Nephew. Not too long ago, the PFJl couldn’t get a game on television, now 75 per cent of its games are televised. Today, there is a PFJL app, which allows fans to get all the statistics and games in the palm of their hand. 

“Before we couldn’t even market our players, now we are signed up to WYScout which is the top scouting platform globally. WYScout uploads the performances of our players within one minute after scoring. WYScout takes our feed from SportsMax and uploads it directly. We have announced the formation of ‘The School of Football’ so we are going to be offering free courses on managing players, finding an agent, and courses for parents on how to protect their talented kids. We have found a sponsor for this initiative.

Chris Williams is cognisant of not simply developing footballers but young people who can operate in the world. The English football movie  “When Saturday Comes” (1996) readily springs to mind here. It’s no good simply being able to kick a football around. Can you be a professional? Are you articulate? Can you adequately represent your club? How good are you with the media? Can you make sound financial decisions? Do you value your community? How do you look after your body? Are you prepared for life after your football days are over? 

He is predicting that Kaheim Dixon of Arnett Gardens could be one of the great footballing talents to come out of Jamaica. 

Cedella Marley will be re-engaging with Jamaican football, working to improve the quality of pitches and training surfaces.  Chris Williams has assiduously been working on routing out terrible playing pitches and setting abiding standards for what constitutes adequate fields at the level required. The JPL playoffs are now played at Sabina Park which is an excellent surface. 

Over the last fifteen years, there has been a proliferation of EPL football shirts. One can recall under Sir Alex Ferguson’s tenure, Manchester United shirts were everywhere in Jamaica. Chris Williams wants to change all that and get Jamaicans wearing JPL shirts thus getting behind their local teams.  Now you can log on to Admiral.com and purchase JPL shirts. You can buy your Arnett Gardens shirt and have it delivered to your door in Kingston, New York or London. You can even have your number on the back.

“We have a complete strategic map with 18 deliverables and we are ticking them off one by one.  CONCACAF has relaunched the Caribbean Cup and if you win it, a club gets US$500,000. Cavalier was in the finals but unfortunately lost. We are continuously working with CONCACAF to increase the participation fee for clubs that qualify for the Caribbean Cup. We have recently appointed two independent directors to our board, one of which is the chief legal counsel to the Bank of Jamaica and the other is Shaun Myers, who is the CFO for First Rock. We now have 17 directors who meet every month.

” The PFJL will be taking over the Women’s Premier League by the 2025 season. The sponsors are getting the returns and we are hitting the KPI’s. There is a scientific approach to how we drive engagement because we want to be the most effective advertising platform.  We are not begging money, we are selling advertising. The playoffs have been sold out two years in a row.  The Ministry of Sport, under ‘Babsy’ Grange, continues to be an excellent partner. We are closely following what the EPL is doing and will be emulating its best practices. We’re Jamaicans and the talent is there; we have to be globally great. In 2030, we will be jumping in the streets at JPL games. When we do that and everyone sees it, the kids will want to train harder and when they do so we get better players and with better players, we dominate the world. The JPL is the carrot to get the kids excited to be a professional footballer. 

“Many of them must be able to earn a good living in the JPL. We won’t be exporting 500 players a year, we probably will export 10. The majority have to make a living playing football right here in Jamaica. Your local league has got to be attractive and viable. That’s why I’m not taking my eye off the JPL,“ said Chris Williams.