WESTERN SPORTS - Seba United seek rebirth; Gully Ambassadors want original club name

Paul Clarke, Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

The once-mighty Seba United, whose genesis was in the 1970s in Montego Bay, is sowing the seeds for a rebirth.

The club - winners of two National Premier League titles, the last of which came in the 1997-98 season - aims to spring back to life by way of a decision by the St James Football Association to grant Gully Ambassadors the right to use the Seba United name.

Three seasons ago, the club ceased to exist as Seba United when its principal, Orville Powell, embarked on an ambitious drive towards national and international success by rebranding the club Montego Bay United Football Club (MBUFC), the name of the city in which it is based.

Powell then told the media that the name change was important as it would give a clearer identity to the club and offer it a wider scope for sponsorship deals among the myriad of businesses operating from the city.

IMPROVEMENTS

Since then, MBUFC has been showing strong signs that the plan is working, currently sitting second in the 12-team Red Stripe Premier League table while increasingly linked to the city and its vast financial resources. Recently, Burger King provided a sponsorship deal for the club.

There has also been a move to recreate the Seba United brand and it has gathered sufficient momentum, culminating in the owners of Gully Ambassadors Football Club - which ply their trade in the St James Senior League - requesting the name change with a letter of intent sent to the parish's football association president Gregory Daley.

The likelihood that the St James FA will authorise the name change is still uncertain, however, as MBUFC only gave up the name in order for rebranding purposes and still reserves the right to the club's rich legacy.

"I still own the company people refer to as Seba," declared Powell. "If this is given the go-ahead by the FA's board, it has to mean that this is a new Seba United and not the one that brought glory to football fans across Montego Bay."

According to Powell, the history of Montego Bay United is that of Seba United, and any name change by the Gully Ambassadors Football Club must reflect that fact.

"They will definitely have to differentiate between this new Seba club they wish to form by their own rebranding efforts and that of the Seba United that produced several of Jamaica's better known football talents," he said.

THE SAME CLUB

"MBUFC in this dispensation is the same Seba United which was formed in 1972 as Beacon, which had a name change to Seba United and which won Premier League titles in 1987 and 1997, and which had yet another name change in 2011 and now operates as MBUFC," said Powell.

"I am not against anyone using the name, but it must not be marketed as the same Seba of yesteryear ... .That Seba is now MBUFC," he declared.

At the heights of its prowess, Seba were constant title challengers and produced many of Jamaica's best footballers, including Alton 'Noah' Sterling, Paul 'Tegat' Davis, Theodore 'Tappa' Whitmore, Hector Wright, the late Stephen 'Shorty' Malcolm, Anthony 'Terminator' Dennis and Jeffery Cunningham.

Gregory Williams, a former Seba United player, is now the assistant public relations officer for the proposed new entity. He said the rich legacy was too much to be denied.

"MBUFC has not gotten the support since the name change; the name Seba was and continues to be a household name in the city. But we hope to recapture the vibe by reclaiming the Seba name and roots," he said.