Reid confident venues will be ready on time

Adrian Frater, News Editor

Western Bureau:

Despite the trampling that took place when it rained on the final night of last weekend's Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival, Jamaica Football Federation General Secretary Horace Reid remains optimistic that the venue will be ready for the upcoming CONCACAF Under-17 Championship finals.

"We had some concerns and we looked at the playing surface on the Sunday morning following the jazz festival," said Reid. "However, we were again given an assurance by stakeholders that the field will be ready for the tournament."

Yesterday, Reid said he was making arrangements to visit the venue to have a first-hand look at what was going on, and to remind the management of the stadium of the timeline to turn over the venue to CONCACAF for final preparations for the tournament.

"They have given me their word that the venue will be ready, and since these are experienced people, I see no reason why I should not accept what they have said," said Reid. "We will keep monitoring the situation ahead of the final CONCACAF inspection."

Monitoring situation

With regard to the Catherine Hall Stadium in Montego Bay, which is slated to host the 34th renewal of the Milo Western Relays two days before the start of the Under-17 Championship - which will be staged between February 14-27 - Reid said that situation is also being monitored closely.

"That is a concern that we have raised, but we have been given an assurance that the field will not be touched during the staging of the relays," said Reid. "We will again be raising our concerns at the next meeting of the Local Organising Committee and hoping arrangements will be put in place to protect the playing surface."

When contacted about what provisions are being made to ensure that the playing surface is not damaged during the Western Relays, meet organiser Ray Harvey said the playing area would not be used for any event, so there is really no reason to worry

About the possibility of damage.

"We will not be using the playing area for any field events so there is really no chance of damaging the playing surface," said Harvey. "The most that can happen is that one of the elite athletes might use it to warm up or warm down, but there will be absolutely no wholesale use by the athletes."

The CONCACAF championship, which will yield four qualifiers for this summer's FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Mexico, will feature games at both the Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium and the Catherine Hall facility.

The Trelawny stadium will host the opening double-header between Haiti and Costa Rica and Cuba and the United States, on February 14, while Catherine Hall will be used the following day for the Barbados versus Honduras and Jamaica versus Trinidad & Tobago double-header.