Captain's vote of confidence

Ever since Captain Horace Burrell returned from suspension, there has been veranda talk and barroom banter that he should've resigned as JFF president. The prevailing theory is that he has somehow tainted the JFF leadership following that ill-fated May 2011 meeting with Mohamed bin Hammam and, therefore, should do 'the proper thing'. But 'the proper thing' as defined by whom? To please whom?

The way I see it, Captain Burrell is answerable to three football entities: the JFF, CFU and FIFA. Any suggestion that he should resign should be coming from at least one of these football organisations. To determine if the Captain should go, we must, therefore, look at how these entities see him.

Captain Burrell said he would have called it a day if the delegates in the JFF wanted him to go. That, to my mind, is a fair position. So far, not one member of the local football fraternity has said publicly that the Captain should walk the plank, which is a tacit vote of confidence in him staying.

Captain Burrell's detractors will tell you that the show of support by local delegates is nothing more than blind loyalty to the man who has sponsored so many parish competitions. That is a reasonable, though much-flogged argument.

Backing from CFU, FIFA

However, at the CFU level, Burrell's backing is apparently as strong as ever. Whatever the official reasons given, we all remember how the CFU delegates were prepared to string a web of tactical contortions, distortions and distractions to delay last year's extraordinary congress so that Captain Burrell would be eligible at the end of his effectively three-month suspension.

People like Tony James and Harold Taylor had sought to use Captain Burrell's absence to pursue their own leadership ambitions before they had to abort that plan because it was painfully obvious that support for the Captain was still too strong.

At the FIFA level, it is clear that Captain Burrell still enjoys good traction. He was endorsed by the sport's governing body as part of a normalising committee to oversee the smooth running of the CFU until the official elections can be held later this year. This was so even before his suspension had run its course.

It's clear, then, that the people with the power to muscle out Captain Burrell - the football delegates at the national, regional and international levels - still hold him in high esteem.

You and I may still have some questions about his conduct at the May 2011 meeting, but you and I don't have the votes that matter. I can't see any compelling rationale to walk away from a leadership post when the power brokers within the sport are apparently prepared to bend over backwards to have you.

Pressure for him to resign has only come from the outside, and a lot of it from people who have never been in his corner.

No alternative leader on horizon

That aside, the question must be asked: Would Jamaica's football be better or worse off without him at the helm? Those who want him to go need to answer that. Any objective look at Captain Burrell's reign would show that he is undoubtedly the most successful JFF president ever. Within days of his suspension expiring, Captain Burrell could arrange for three international assignments, with decent opposition, plus sign a US$2-million kit deal with Kappa.

We can't ask a man with the proven track record of a Burrell to just up and go, whatever our moral position is on what he did or didn't do at that May meeting. The fact is that no proof of wrongdoing has emerged.

Captain Burrell, not unexpectedly, has tiptoed around the basis of his suspension. Whether he should fess up is a moot point. But that would have been political suicide, so he expediently dodged the bullet.

Those who are saying he should go have been unable to say who should take his place. Apparently, it doesn't matter for those detractors, but it is a fundamental matter. Nobody is brave enough yet to mount a challenge or to put together a manifesto to the delegates and the public that shows a superior plan for Jamaican football than the incumbent regime. Until that day, and until such a person arrives, we must allow the Captain to steer the ship.

Orville Higgins, a sportscaster, is the 2010-11 winner of the Hugh Crosskill/Raymond Sharpe Award for Sports Reporting. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.