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Return of semi-finals... a backward step
The new St James Football Association's Hart Senior League is set to kick off next Monday with more money than the decades-old competition has ever seen.
Not only is there more money from the sponsors, the Hart Group of Companies and its subsidiary Caribbean Producers Group, but the FA has promised more excitement for patrons and players alike as the season progresses.
In all the backslapping and euphoria however, there is one aspect I am not sure I am in total agreement with, namely the return to the semi-final format of former years.
St James was the first association, even before the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), to switch to the ‘straight league’ format that has been played in all the top leagues in the world and while I understand the idea behind the change, I can’t help but think that maybe returning to the semi-final format is a retrograde step.
Very few, if any, major football competitions anywhere in the world use this system anymore and while we had become accustomed to it, the league system is a much better way of determining a real champion.
Even the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) has not seen the need to go back to the semi-final system after switching some years ago.
Over a long season, lasting some times up to six or seven hard, gruelling months, the most consistent team should be rewarded, not the one who gets lucky late in the season.
For example last season’s fourth-placed team in the Hart Senior League, Mountain Villa, finished 16 points behind the champions and in no way should they be allowed to compete for the title.
In our football, which can best be described as still in the development stage, there will always be a huge divide between the top two teams from the others even in the National Premier League.
The gap between the first and second place teams in last year’s NPL was 10 points and five the previous year and on both occasions the fourth placed teams were 22 and 14 points behind the winners.
From where I stand for one of these fourth-placed teams to get into the semi-finals and win the title would be a miscarriage of justice.
The new St James Football Association's Hart Senior League is set to kick off next Monday with more money than the decades-old competition has ever seen.
Not only is there more money from the sponsors, the Hart Group of Companies and its subsidiary Caribbean Producers Group, but the FA has promised more excitement for patrons and players alike as the season progresses.
In all the backslapping and euphoria however, there is one aspect I am not sure I am in total agreement with, namely the return to the semi-final format of former years.
St James was the first association, even before the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), to switch to the ‘straight league’ format that has been played in all the top leagues in the world and while I understand the idea behind the change, I can’t help but think that maybe returning to the semi-final format is a retrograde step.
Very few, if any, major football competitions anywhere in the world use this system anymore and while we had become accustomed to it, the league system is a much better way of determining a real champion.
Even the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) has not seen the need to go back to the semi-final system after switching some years ago.
Over a long season, lasting some times up to six or seven hard, gruelling months, the most consistent team should be rewarded, not the one who gets lucky late in the season.
For example last season’s fourth-placed team in the Hart Senior League, Mountain Villa, finished 16 points behind the champions and in no way should they be allowed to compete for the title.
In our football, which can best be described as still in the development stage, there will always be a huge divide between the top two teams from the others even in the National Premier League.
The gap between the first and second place teams in last year’s NPL was 10 points and five the previous year and on both occasions the fourth placed teams were 22 and 14 points behind the winners.
From where I stand for one of these fourth-placed teams to get into the semi-finals and win the title would be a miscarriage of justice.