Last season the Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA) announced a new initiative to register all players on a world renowned global website database named SoccerAssociation, regarded as the popular reference site for FIFA agents, clubs, coaches and managers in all the leading football leagues worldwide.
Having successfully completed season one of this long-term initiative, the database now guarantees every single NPL player global visibility. In previous years, players who were not heavily involved with the national programme, the Reggae Boyz, had absolutely no international online database identity, and thus limited realistic chances of earning overseas opportunities.
Today, young players such as Romeo Parkes, Tremaine Stewart, Dino Williams, Mauricio Gordon, Cordel Simpson and Jeremy Lynch, just to name a few, benefitted from having outstanding profiles on the database. Some of them have been contacted and have gone on trials throughout the season initiated by international agents, primarily due to the exposure on SoccerAssociation.
Jamaican clubs now have an improved global profile, where international clubs can now correlate the success of individual Jamaican players abroad, with that of their local clubs.
“The global profile of the Premier League has no doubt been raised; as a Euro-based company we (Pro-Goals Sports, PGS) can attest to that, based on our interactions with club officials and agents. There is a distinct association factor; as it is generally believed that if the Premier League is covered by SoccerAssociation, then it will have more credibility,” said Romel Wallen, managing director.
This is why a handful of small national football associations have paid good money just to get their respective league data onto SoccerAssociation, in the hope of some kind of global credibility. Malta, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are examples of countries who have adopted this approach.
Naturally, it is impossible to quantify how much this new exposure will ultimately lead to profits, transfers, etc. However, it is certain local Premier League clubs and players can now creatively use this new exposure to source more international professional opportunities.
“For this it is helpful to see profile for the Jamaican players on the data-base, because this makes life much easier for speaking with clubs for these players. It is great that you now have this feature,” remarked Czech Republic/Poland/Germany-based agent Tomas Bahnik, who is now interested in the Jamaica football market.
“The site has been a tremendous assistance in the PLCA office as we are able to get a more accurate look at individual and collective data, therefore giving us more comfort in the preparation of our reports. It provides just the right support we need in office to correspond internationally,” noted the PLCA.