THE age-old argument of making the Jamaican Premier League more representative of the entire island has been raised once more.

The conversation comes up every so often, and with nine of the 11 teams playing in the Red Stripe Premier League being from the metropolitan Kingston region, inclusive of Spanish Town, there are renewed calls for the organisers of the island’s top club football competition to revamp the qualifying process.

Outside of the Kingston area, Clarendon’s two representatives — Sporting Central Academy and Humble Lion — and St James’ Montego Bay United, are the only other clubs taking part.

That means 10 of the island’s 14 parishes don’t have a Premier

League club.

I have no problems with the present format as it rewards the best teams in the country, given the qualification process allow for the best teams to make it to the Premier League.

A close look at the successful clubs will show solid management and proper structures, while at the same times those clubs that continually fail will show the opposite, the one man band approach.

Presently each parish winner advances to the Confederation level and the four winners then play off for two promotion spots in the Premier League. It is a simple and seamless process and every team worthy of being in the Premier League has the opportunity to do so.

Of course there will always be a slip up here and there, but if the team is good enough, the chances that they will play in the Premier League sooner than later is very high.

Making it to the Premier League and staying there are two different things however, as we have seen a procession of teams qualify for the league and are out after just one season, Savannah SC of the Western Confederation being the most

recent example.

Maybe no other top club league anywhere in the world has seen as many changes as ours and almost every two or three years, the organisers, be it the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) in the past and now the Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA), have tried several different formats, some more effective than

others.

Mercifully they have discontinued to inane ‘fourth round’ format they had up to last season where the top six teams at the end of three rounds would play amongst each other, while the bottom six did the same.

It would be criminal to reward a team from say St Mary or Manchester with a place in the Premier League at the expense of a better team from say KSAFA, or St James, just to fill

a quota.

The format of the Confederation Super Leagues mandate that at least one club from each parish in the Confederation participate each year as the promotion and demotion process rewards the better teams coming up, while purging the Super Leagues of the weaker and oftentimes less organised clubs.

Presently, there are five clubs from St James in the Western Confederation Super League- almost half of the 12 teams taking part- there each are three from Westmoreland and Trelawny, while Hanover has one, Lucea United who won the Hanover Major League last season and were rewarded with a place.

Of the four teams that were automatically relegated from the Western Confederation at the end of last season, two were the Hanover teams and one each from Westmoreland and Trelawny. A fifth club, Catherine Hall of St James, was also sent down only because Savannah SC had being relegated from the Premier League.

To a large extent, the spread of the teams in the Western Confederation accurately reflects the strength of the respective parish associations and this is also true for most of the country, as well.

Instead of seeking handouts, the respective Confederations and to an even greater extent the respective parish associations must seek to improve the level of the game in the respective areas.

Not just on the field, but especially at the administrative level; too often we hear FA presidents begging corporate entities to partner with them when they have nothing to attract the level of sponsorship they would require.

It is a vicious cycle, but poor football will never be able to attract or sustain substantial sponsorship. It does take serious cash investments to develop the sport the way it is supposed to be developed, from the ground up.