FIFA was unhappy with JFF structure – Ricketts

PRESIDENT MICHAEL Ricketts believes the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) would have fallen out of favour with international governing body FIFA, had the structural changes to the organisation not been ratified by the JFF executives on Tuesday at Belair High School in Mandeville, Manchester.

Gleaner sources, who want to remain anonymous, indicated that the JFF would have possibly faced sanctions by FIFA, which included being barred from competitions and not being provided with regular funding from the international body had the structural changes not been effected.

Ricketts did not state the consequences the JFF would have faced from FIFA without the ratification, but outlined that FIFA, the regional body Concacaf, and the JFF have been in constant dialogue to enact the changes to allow more voting rights to members.

On Tuesday, the JFF voted to move the number of voting members from 13 to 56.

“FIFA would be unhappy because we have been working on this for a very long time and they would have to-and-fro with draft documents. We would have made suggestions, they would have made corrections and this has been going on for a little while until this final draft was sent out, with the expectation that it would have been ratified.

“The JFF has been vindicated and a number of proposals and a number of things that we would have tried to get sorted out were fully ventilated at the board level, and certainly with Concacaf and FIFA, and today [Tuesday] was some finalisation because we voted on them and everything has been smooth up to now,” Ricketts said.

The new structure will include the votes of clubs and interest groups, instead of only the presidents of the parish associations.

The structure of the JFF was changed in 2007 by late president Captain Horace Burrell, which reduced the number of voting members to 13 from more than 100. It was enacted after Burrell returned to office after a 2003 defeat to Crenston Boxhill.

Meanwhile, Ricketts said the congress went well, despite individuals having some concerns, which he claims to be minor.