Editorial | Dissolve the JFF

The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) made a grave error a year ago when it failed to follow this newspaper’s advice to dissolve itself, paving the way for the creation of a new, competently run and transparent organisation to oversee the sport.

Had our suggestion been heeded, the new JFF, by whatever name called, would be up and running, and hopefully on its way to rebuilding confidence in the management of Jamaica’s football. That confidence continues to plummet and is unlikely to recover any time soon.

Unfortunately, our idea won’t be readily welcomed by either of the men – the incumbent, Michael Ricketts, and one of his deputies, Raymond Anderson – who are now campaigning for the presidency of the JFF. The choice will be made by 56 delegates on January 14.

We, nonetheless, still commend the suggestion to Messrs Ricketts and Anderson, hoping that both will soon come to appreciate its logic and pursue its implementation, whichever of them wins the election.

The point is, neither, despite Mr Anderson’s campaign claims to the contrary, has shown any evidence of having either the capacity, or inclination, to be the transformative leader that Jamaican football requires. In the event, the JFF will continue to drift.

The JFF’s missteps and bungling in recent years are well documented – from the fiasco with the players being temporarily stranded at a CONCACAF tournament in Suriname, to its persistent quarrels with its female team over pay, communication and the treatment of their coaches. Technically, too, the JFF is insolvent.

Any, and all, of these things would be disqualifying for any self-respecting and decent organisation, notwithstanding recent hints of improvement since Dennis Chung’s appointment of the federation’s general secretary. Mr Chung, however, is an administrator, not the JFF’s policymaker, the chief of whom, over the past six years, has been Mr Ricketts, the president.

EGREGIOUS FAILURE

Logistical and corporate/management bunglings apart, the JFF’s most egregious failure is its incompetence in conceiving and building a sustainable structure for domestic football and its seeming assumption that the way to sustain competitive international teams is through whim, luck and Houdini-like actions. There is always a trick to be pulled out of the hat.

This approach to football development has seemingly become hardwired into Jamaica’s national football management over the past three decades, starting with the late Captain Horace Burrell’s ultimately successful campaign to take the national team to the 1998 World Cup in France.

With charisma, will and the ability to spin ephemeral visions of the state of Jamaican football, Captain Burrell was able to get government and corporate Jamaica to put huge amounts of money behind the campaign. And he got Jamaica to believe.

In small, poor countries, success of that kind is difficult to sustain. It is doubly hard when great achievements are built on weak foundations, with rickety superstructures. Especially if there is no Captain Burrell to promote the vision.

Michael Ricketts is no Captain Burrell. He is a mild-mannered, inoffensive man of seemingly questionable competence. He stirs no strong emotions.

So, if he loses to Mr Anderson in a few weeks, it is unlikely to be because the delegates dislike him, or believe that he operates like a machine politician, who manipulates the system to disenfranchise his opponents, as the Anderson camp implies he is doing.

REBUILD TRUST

On the other hand, Mr Anderson’s assertion of his ability for transformative leadership and to rebuild trust in the JFF will, for many people, ring hollow. He has operated in the high echelons of the federation for over three decades. As a vice president he has been part of what he now assails.

Mr Anderson’s counter is that while he knew what was to be done, he wasn’t in a position to do anything about it. Yet, until his decision to challenge, Mr Ricketts he never publicly spoke out against the federation’s failings. Further, nothing in his campaign implies that he will bring any greater skills to the federation’s management.

“I need to be in a position to make the decisions to make the difference required,” he said at the formal launch of his campaign.

The bottomline, it is possible that they could prove us wrong, but neither Mr Ricketts nor Mr Anderson has demonstrated the skills required to breathe new, transformative life in the JFF. And it is difficult to see the JFF as being amenable to transformation.

Therefore, whoever wins should quickly inform FIFA of his plan to dissolve the JFF, persuade the delegates to agree to the move, and put in place an interim body to manage football until the new organisation is launched.

Further, none of the current elected board members of the JFF should be eligible to serve in the new organisation for at least a decade.