Montego Bay to host CFU congress

Adrian Frater, News Editor

Western Bureau:

The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) on Monday night announced that the city of Montego Bay in St James has been selected to host next year's annual congress of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), slated for February 23-24.

"I am pleased to announce that CFU President Jack Warner has advised me that the next CFU congress will be held here in Montego Bay and will feature all 34 member states," JFF boss Captain Horace Burrell said, while addressing the St James Football Association (StJFA) end-of-season presentation ceremony.

"It will be held to coincide with the 12-team CONCACAF Under-17 football tournament, which will be held here in the west," he added.

While speaking about the Under-17 tournament for which Jamaica was selected after out-bidding fellow CONCACAF nations Honduras, Costa Rica, Canada and the United States, Captain Burrell said that, following a meeting with Montego Bay's mayor, Councillor Charles Sinclair, the mayor had consented to chair the local planning committee for the tournament.

Consented to be chairman

"I had a meeting with the mayor earlier today and he is not only supportive of the tournament, but he has kindly consented to be chairman of the local planning committee," Captain Burrell said. "I expect everything to fall in place so that we can have a very good tournament."

Despite his general optimism, Captain Burrell pointed out that should the venues for the tournament - Jarrett Park, the new Catherine Hall Stadium and the Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium - be found not to be up to the requisite standard when CONCACAF stages its pre-tournament inspection (at a date to be announced), Jamaica could lose the right to host the tournament.

"If the facilities are not up to the required standard by a particular time, CONCACAF will take the tournament away from Jamaica," stated Captain Burrell. "That is why we need to start with our preparatory work right away."

Financial benefit

In addition to the honour of hosting such a prestigious tournament, Captain Burrell expects Montego Bay's economy to derive some amount of financial benefit from the tournament, which will feature countries such as the United States, Canada, Trinidad & Tobago and Honduras.

"We expect this tournament to bring revenue to Jamaica," Captain Burrell noted. "In addition to the teams and officials who will be housed in local hotels, we are expecting that families and friends will travel here for the tournament as well."

In the presentation ceremony, which saw trophies and other awards won during the 2009-10 StJFA Guardian Life and Captain's Bakery & Grill Knock Out competition being handed out, the major awards were as follows: The Captain's Bakery KO champions - Granville FC; Guardian Life Division Two champions - Kempshot FC; Leading Goalscorer - Roshane Reid (Norwood Strikers); Most Valuable Player - Damion Williams (Kempshot FC) - and Most Disciplined Team - Kempshot FC.