Ricketts promises women’s football reconstruct
Published:Thursday | January 11, 2024 | 12:08 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
IF INCUMBENT Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president Michael Ricketts is successful in Sunday’s presidential election, women’s football will undergo a major reconstruct.
Ricketts unveiled his manifesto and slate for the upcoming elections at the Wembley Centre of Excellence in Clarendon yesterday, and women’s football is high on the agenda.
One of the main objectives will be to establish a professional women’s league comparable to the men’s Premier League.
“Women must get pay,” said Rudolph Speid, who presented the manifesto.
He also revealed that they would look to create individual budgets and a department for women’s football within the JFF and establish separate training and boarding facilities.
“Create a women’s department with minimum staff under a general manager. That person (Magareth Sutherland) is in place already,” Speid noted
“We are going to have our own photographer, videographer, and producer; a competitions’ supervisor; three team managers; a women’s scout, and a dedicated facility to all female national teams,” he added.
Ricketts’ manifesto also pointed to improving the men’s team programme and ranking, grass-roots and youth development, parish facilities, coaching education, and appointing qualified coaches for national teams.
The manifesto also included improvements to the general administration of the federation, mainly through travel arrangements, especially with the return of former general secretary Raymond Grant, who will be appointed to oversee administration, with a focus on travel.
PLANS
“We are going to have tighter administration of touring parties. Things that used to happen will be considerably reduced. We will separate men’s and women’s travel. We will have a general manager for men and one for women, and they will be held responsible for any mishaps on these tours,” Speid explained.
The plan also includes sourcing additional funding, establishing a strategic business unit, and qualifying the various youth and senior teams for global and regional tournaments.
Ricketts believes that the strategies they outlined will take the nation’s football to the next level and said their financial arrangement with kit sponsor Adidas puts them in an excellent position, financially, to execute those plans.
“We will be a lot better off from a financial standpoint because of our agreement with Adidas,” Ricketts told The Gleaner.
“We looked at how we were going to implement a number of things. We will put committees in place and persons who have really done some good work, and these persons will take charge as soon the elections are over.
“The technical, marketing, competitions committees will also have new people at the head if Ricketts wins.
“We have really competent people waiting to get into the mix, and I am pretty confident we will get some positive results from here on,” he said.
Ricketts’ slate includes St James FA president Gregory Daley; Elaine Walker-Brown, the St Catherine FA president; and Portland and Manchester presidents, Baron Watson and Raymond Grant, respectively, as vice-presidents. Rudolph Speid and Bruce Gaynor will run as directors.
There will also be a number of other adjustments from this administration, but he deemed them necessary in order to revitalise the federation.
“We are very serious about what we are doing going forward. There are some people who are very dedicated and loyal to the process, and we just want to hone their skills as we believe they will get things done.
“So from a skills standpoint, we have brought on a number of young, bright persons who could make major contributions.
“These changes will be announced shortly. It is a pity that we will have to make these changes, but we are strong, we are tough, and we are weathering the storm. So we are looking forward to the new term,” a confident Ricketts commented.
The manifesto also highlighted plans to rekindle beach football and the futsal games locally and have national youth tournaments at the under-13, -15, and -17 levels, running for six months annually.
They also hope to establish a national academy to identify and develop the nation’s best talent.
“We have signed off on a contract with FIFA to pay the person who is assigned to us for the next three years, and he (Dan Crooks) will be head of this academy,” Speid noted.
The administration also aims to strengthen parish football by investing in the improvement of facilities once an FA can prove ownership.
Meanwhile, Ricketts once again expressed total confidence going into Sunday’s polls.
“Sunday, we will see what will happen, but we are pretty confident. We have done the work. We have the numbers and we are just hopeful that things will unfold in our favour,” said Ricketts.