SUCCESS should not always be measured by winning the top prize, but equally, too, by the valuable lessons that can be learnt in defeat.

Clearly, winning isn’t everything, as Jamaica’s Under-17 Reggae Girlz would have come to know.

Once again, our female footballers have come so close, yet so far from a historic qualification to a global event.

Their exploits leading up to their unprecedented semi-final finish at the CONCACAF level is worthy of the highest praise.

In the process, our young ladies warmed the hearts of Jamaican supporters over the course of the 10-day championship held in Montego Bay.

Even as they were being outclassed by powerhouse Canada 5-0 in the semi-finals and 8-0 by the USA in the third-place play-off, the cheers went up for the girls.

For the fans who poured into the Montego Bay Sports Complex knew the Jamaican young ladies were out of their class against mighty opposition.

But for bravery, team camaraderie, pride and spirit of competition, the Young Girlz scored a big victory.

Crucially, they came away from the World Cup qualification tournament knowing that they did their best. That they did their country proud. That they made a telling statement that they can stand up to the big guns without fear.

What more could we ask?

In going forward, we are certain that their historic 1-1 draw in the preliminaries with eventual champions Mexico will remain a source of pride, motivation and self-belief that anything is possible.

We pause to congratulate the Mexicans for their 4-2 penalty win over the highly favoured Canadians in the final — their first trophy in the women’s game at this level.

We, too, congratulate Canada as they will join their Central American conquerors in the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica next March.

From a purely Jamaican standpoint, we believe women’s football got a big boost by the hosting of this tournament. Importantly, more awareness was created, corporate Jamaica would have been wooed by the sheer display of talent and the turnout for the games.

As we see it, tourism and brand Jamaica would appear big winners as well. With the games being streamed live by Fox Sport to target markets, Jamaica would have no doubt been on show in a positive way.

The mayor of Montego Bay, Mr Glendon Harris, summed it up nicely.

“When you look at what we would have earned from live TV, you can’t put a dollar value to that.”

But with all the good news that flowed from the organisers about the direct benefits to the tourism product, which includes a reported US$1 million (J$105 million) spend by CONCACAF alone, women’s football in Jamaica and the world continues to be starved of sufficient corporate support.

“We are not getting enough corporate support… we have not been able to get a commercial partner,” FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke was quoted in this newspaper.

At the same time, Mr Valcke boasted that women’s football is one of the “great success stories” of the world game, yet it suffers the Cinderella treatment.

That’s an ugly irony.

We in Jamaica have the opportunity now to give women’s football the respect it deserves. Let’s seize it.