Tuesday, February 19, 2019

SECTION B

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2019

PLAYER POWER! RSPL footballers call for new union

www.jamaica-gleaner.com • #GLNRSPORTS S CIAL MEDIA MENTION S CIAL MEDIA MENTION S CIAL MEDIA MENTION SPORTS The Gleaner

Rachid Parchment/ Sports News Coordinator O NE OF the duties of the Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA) is to protect the rights of all 12 Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) clubs, and the welfare of each club’s players. However, some footballers believe that it is not doing enough regarding their collective bargaining for matters concerning their welfare. UWI FC forward Ryan Miller is one such player, who said that players need a better collective voice, especially when negoti- ating for salaries and insurance coverage. “We players locally need a steady background, someone who’s there while we are playing,” he said. “Most of the time, while players here are playing, we find ourselves in situations where we need to negotiate transfers or sal- aries, and we don’t really have an agent to do that for us, so that’s a big problem.” Such an organisation, as sought by players, would be adminis- tered by players and past play- ers alike, to ensure that those entrusted with the responsibility of negotiating, can do so from a position of experience, having played in the RSPL at some point in their careers. This would be in the mould of the Professional Footballers’Association in England, which takes a similar membership structure. Montego Bay United (MBU) player-coach Dwayne Ambusley strongly supports this, especially in light of his team’s past issues with monies owed to it and its players by league organisers. BENEFITS “Most likely, it would be more beneficial [because] if players have basic needs or issues with their clubs, they could put it to that association,” he said. “The associ- ation would deal with their welfare on that basis. Players have always been mistreated in the Premier League, based on what I’ve seen in my time playing here and play- ers that I reason with.” He went on to explain what that mistreatment consists of. “Players being promised things, because sometimes, it may not even be in writing,” he said. “Or a club says, ‘This is what you’ll be getting (in terms of salary),’ but because it’s not in writing, they (players) can’t do much. “Also, in terms of injuries and so forth, certain clubs, you get an

“Wins and losses happen way before we make that walk to the octagon. All the hours of training, injuries, blood, and sacrifice are all for this one moment! “A moment where everything seems to freeze around you and nothing else in the world matters!” - funkmaster_ ufc (Instagram) –JamaicanUltimateFightingChampionship competitor Aljamain ‘Funk Master’ Sterling on his unanimous judges’- decision win over Jimmie Rivera at the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday night.

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himself to play through pain until the end of the season, because MBU lacked attacking options, Ambusley said he could have been in a difficult situation. He said that had Williams worsened the injury and then learnt that he had to end his career after surgery, he would have received no compensation or benefits because there is no one bargaining for his welfare. “He would have been phased out just like that. There’s nothing to represent the players in terms of welfare. In any other work environ- ment, he probably would have had something put in place to protect him.” Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president Michael Ricketts said he is all for the idea of players forming their own union. “Anything that is going to posi- tively impact players’ welfare, the JFF ought to support that,”he said. “We wouldn’t want players to be overbearing and unreasonable, but we would support any initia- tive that would benefit the players as far as their progress and welfare

Boys Town FC’s Shaquille Bradford tries to prevent Dwayne Ambusley (left) gaining possession during a Red Stripe Premier League match at the Barbican Stadium on Sunday, January 28, 2018. SHORN HECTOR

Ambusley believes that his teammate Dino Williams would probably have been better served by a more proactive union last season while playing with a groin injury and having his sur- gery delayed until last summer. While Williams took the decision

injury and it’s drawn out, you been there waiting for some answers on certain things that should be done. Probably, the surgery is delayed and the player doesn’t hear any- thing about it and gets frustrated and probably moves on to another club.”

Promising Jamaican sprinter Briana Williams (left) arrives with her coach, Olympian Ato Boldon, for the 2019 Laureus World Sports Awards yesterday.Williams receivedanomination in the categoryof Breakthrough Athlete of the Year. AP

Commonwealth Games 3000m steeplechase gold medalist Aisha Praught-Leer at The Gleaner Company (Media) Limited in Kingston on Friday, February 15, 2019. GLADSTONE TAYLOR/ MULTIMEDIA PHOTO EDITOR

Praught-Leer ‘complete’ after family connection

Akino Ming/ Staff Reporter

provided me with a beautiful life. I wanted for nothing growing up, but there was always a question, but I couldn’t really go there until I was ready,” she said. “I used to think that maybe if I meet my Jamaican family, maybe they don’t like me. There is a few elements of changing your life and uprooting everything you thought you knew about yourself, to letting more infor- mation in, and you see so many sto- ries of where it just doesn’t go well. But luckily for me, it went well and it provided a fullness to my life, that wasn’t there.” RELOCATION Praught-Leer’s mother, Molly lived with Grant in Jamaica during their rela- tionship, but went back to the United States when she was three months pregnant with the distance runner as the relationship had broken down. She raised Praught-Leer with her husband Jerome Praught, whom the national record holder credits for understanding her wish to want to connect to her roots. “I am so lucky and thankful that the

family who raisedme and the family of my genetics have come together and made it really smooth and positive, and everybody is interested in howwe can get to know each other,” she said. “It was important for me to express to my father, who raisedme, that‘you are still my father, but he (Grant) is alsomy father, and you (Molly) are my mom. I just give my parents credit for being so open-minded. We can have honest conversations and accept each other.” She continued: “When we were in Rio de Janeiro (for the 2016 Olympic Games), it was remarkable because both of my families stayed together. My American parents andmy Jamaican father stayed in the same AirBNB. And that explained howmy American par- ents are.” Whenever she visits Jamaica, Praught-Leer skips the hotels in Kingston and on the north coast for the easy streets and gentle hills of Bog Walk, St Catherine where her father is from. “It is just my way of trying to deepen my relationship withmy father’s family, and so I always stay there,” she said.

THE WINSOME smile Aisha Praught- Leer wears on her face these days is not only because she is inching closer to the top tier in the women’s 3000m steeplechase. The Commonwealth Games cham- pion told The Gleaner that she is also beaming because of the rewards she is reaping now for deciding to unearth the roots of her biological father, Joseph Grant. Praught-Leer, who was born and raised in the American midwest, sought answers to lingering questions in her head about her biological roots in 2013, and, after she reconnected with Grant, she decided to represent Jamaica in athletics. The 29-year-old admits that it was a daunting task, but she is happy she took the risk as she now feels like a complete person. “I always knew I was Jamaican,” she said. “That was always part of my upbringing, but I never had a personal relationship with my father. “My mom and dad, who raised me,