‘It’s now up to the Girlz’
Ricketts extends olive branch to senior women’s team after securing control of JFF
BLOODY BAY, Hanover — Having fulfilled the organisation’s financial obligations to members of the Jamaica senior women’s team who participated in last year’s Fifa Women’s World Cup in Australia, freshly re-elected president of Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Michael Ricketts says it is now up to the players if they will accept invitations for the next set of games.
After being returned at Sunday’s annual general meeting held at Royalton Negril, Ricketts, who outpolled former Vice-president Raymond Anderson 39-17 to start another four-year term, said there was a lot of “repair work” to be done to the game in Jamaica and said the women’s game, including the local league, would get additional attention.
While saying the JFF has received several offers for friendly games from countries such as Australia, Venezuela and possibly Japan, Ricketts pointed out, “Everybody ought to know that that matter has been laid to rest. The girls have admitted that, yes, they have been paid in full so we must now select those who will make themselves available, and we move on.”
Ricketts said they would be looking into the “feasibility” of the practice games “and then the rest will be left up to the coach”, adding further that invitations would be sent out to all the players for these games and that it would be up to the players to accept the invitations.
JFF has put a “women’s desk in place” he announced. “And we will be working very closely to fix whatever issues there are; we are intent on having them corrected.”
The start of the Women’s Premier League has been fraught with issues, a number of teams either withdrawing, as they were not able to field teams, and at least one more — Vere United — being kicked out after they failed to show up for games.