In this December 2022 file photo, Renee Scott (left) of Olympic Gardens challenges Destiny Powell of Frazsiers Whip during a local women's football match. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)
IT’S ABOUT TIME!
Business executive vows to elevate local women’s football league
Chairperson for the newly established Professional Women’s Football Jamaica Limited (PWFJL) Christina Hudson believes the rebranded league will help to change the fortunes of players locally.
Following a signed memorandum of understanding with the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), the PWFJL will oversee the marketing, commercialisation and development of the Jamaica Women’s Premier League (JWPL) which is set to kick off in March. It’s a similar situation to 2020, the Professional Football Jamaica Limited (PFJL), led by noted businessman Chris Williams took control of the Jamaica Premier League.
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Hudson has served as an executive at Stewart’s Automotive Group and general manager of Automotive Art Jamaica. Despite having no background in sports administration, she says she wanted to make a difference in women’s football.
“It’s really the moment for women’s football,” Hudson told the Jamaica Observer.
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“It’s one of the fastest-growing sports worldwide and as the largest English-speaking Caribbean country, Jamaica needs to cement itself at the forefront of anything that’s happening. It’s time for women’s football to take that step, I believe in the product. I don’t think it’s really a hard sell, there’s so much we can achieve and there’s so much growth that’s possible, so there’s really no way we can fail,” she added.
Outside of long-term sponsor Sherwin Williams, the 2025 season will have a record number of sponsors coming on board including Supreme Venture, Wisynco through Wata and Powerade, and KFC who presented a cheque of $2.5 million at the league’s launch on Wednesday.
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The league has faced challenges for decades in attracting sponsors and has been a financial burden to several teams which has seen a decline in participation and even some clubs failing to show for games. Hudson, though, is optimistic that the league will be beneficial to the teams going forward.
“The PWFJL is here to support our clubs. Any money that we have at the end of this, which we hope to have, we’ll be pumping that back into the clubs. We did secure an amount from the JFF already that they’ll be contributing to each club and I won’t disclose the amount just yet but financially, we’re trying to support them from the beginnings,” she said.
“We’re trying to lower the costs associated with being part of the league through Hummel coming on board; previously the clubs had to source their own kits and balls and these are things we’ll be providing for them. For hydration, Wata and Powerade have come on board which we’ll distribute to each club so we’re working on getting more partnerships so we can continue to lower costs and bring more value to the clubs participating with us.”
Sports Minister Olivia Grange hailed the newly formed body and says they will increase their financial support through the Sports Development Foundation.
“I’m a strong advocate for gender equality and promoting women in sports. It doesn’t just mean players but at the leadership and management level, coaches and other professions that go along with the performance of the players. I’m very proud when I see our women stepping forward and doing very well in these areas,” she said.
“It will really bring that much professionalism to the competition and the same support we give to the men’s premier league, we will give that support to the women’s league. There are 11 clubs so we’ll support them,” Grange added.
JFF vice-president and chairperson for Women’s Football Elaine Walker-Brown has helped to oversee the league for decades. She says she was overjoyed by major changes taking place.
“It’s a heartwarming feeling. It feels so good that I don’t have words to express. [Speid] was able to reach out to these women in corporate Jamaica because one of the things we said after we did our strategic planning to FIFA in 2022 is that we have to get women in corporate so they can help us to garner the funds and everything we need to move women’s football to the next level. It’s a historic moment, it’s a good feeling,” said Walker-Brown.
The 11 teams set to participate are defending champions Frazsiers Whip, Cavalier, Arnett Gardens, UWI Women, Wifi United, Proven Girls, Mile Gully, Los Perfectos, Federal United Springers United, and Real MoBay.
The league is scheduled to start on March 1 with the fixtures to be released at the end of the week.
