‘He has to go’
KSAFA heaps more pressure on JFF boss, calls on other FAs to follow suit
Published:Tuesday | February 22, 2022 | 12:09 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
PRESIDENT OF Central Kingston Football Club, Hancel Lee, who passed a resolution at the Kingston and St Andrew Football Association’s (KSAFA) annual general meeting (AGM) on Saturday, for Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president Michael Ricketts to resign, has called on other parish FAs to follow suit.
Lee noted that many parish administrators have a lot to say in private but are not making their voices heard in the right forum.
He also pointed out that the consistent errors of the Ricketts administration throughout the term is reason enough for parish administrators to move for a change in the leadership of the national federation.
“They (parish FAs) should come on board. They need to carry the motion too and try to get this corrected and rectified because he [Ricketts] has to go. Even if he does not go willingly, he has to go,” Lee insisted
“Football cannot benefit or continue like this. Some people say it will cause problem with the other parishes but I do not think so.
“I have served football most of my life and it is the first I am seeing anything like this. But he has to smell the coffee and step aside. He will not get any sponsorship for football,” said Lee.
He noted that the parish presidents who make up the JFF board of directors need to act as soon as possible in order to save the JFF and local football from the incompetence of the current administrative heads.
“There is nobody saying anything to Mr Ricketts. It is awful that none of the directors or nobody in the football fraternity has spoken out publicly,” Lee told The Gleaner.
“He [Ricketts] is on record referring to someone and using homophobic language. That has gone through the courts and the ruling has gone against him and he has to pay $9 million.
“So that is not good for the reputation of the sport and it is not good for his reputation either,” Lee continued.
“I do not know how he will lead the programme because corporate Jamaica is not supporting him and if they are not supporting him, they will not support football and if they are not supporting football, then we will have a serious problem because corporate Jamaica is going to pull away,” he reasoned.
If what Lee calls “this level of inept management” continues, he foresees the world governing body, FIFA, being forced to take action against the JFF.
“It will not be nice if FIFA takes action. It is going to look very bad on us as a federation. So I am making sure that even if it looks bad on the federation, they will single out this association (KSAFA) as the one that stood up. They will not say, not even one person or confed [confederation] spoke out,” he stated.
Meanwhile, KSAFA president, Wayne Shaw, said Lee’s motion, which was a surprise to most delegates, received support from all 27 member clubs in attendance. Four member clubs were absent.
He added that general secretary, Dwayne Dillon, was expected to submit the KSAFA letter, demanding Ricketts’ resignation, to the federation yesterday.
“Hancel Lee from Central Kingston read a motion asking for the president of the JFF to step aside because of the incident (court case) with him and Ainsley Lowe and the dismal performance in the World Cup qualifiers, and the members voted unanimously for it,” said Shaw.
“Twenty-seven out of 31 clubs that attended were all in support of the motion. Only four clubs were missing but the 27 clubs present back the resolution.”