Will JFF president resign?
St Ann’s Beckford has burning question to pose at AGM
PRESIDENT OF the St Ann Football Association, Danny Beckford, is concerned whether Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), Michael Ricketts, will resign, or continue for another year or two.
That will be the no-nonsense football administrator’s burning question when the JFF hosts its non-voting annual general meeting (AGM) today at the Junction Guest House in St Elizabeth, starting at 11 a.m.
Beckford pointed that he is curious to know if Ricketts, who goes before the courts next month to receive judgment on an uncontested defamation case against Ainsley Lowe, will walk away from football because of possible implications from FIFA.
“The biggest thing I have queried about is, will the president stay on or resign,” Beckford stated. “He has breached FIFA (discrimination) protocols and that is my main concern,” Beckford said.
“There are a lot of other issues, such as concerns with restructuring, commercial rights, marketing contracts. But my main thing is will the president stay on for a next year or two years. He has a court date soon, where they will hand down the judgment,” Beckford pointed out.
“FIFA knows (of case), but will they do anything after the declaration? I believe that if they were doing anything, they would have done it long time,” he reasoned.
Kingston and St Andrew Association (KSAFA) President, Wayne Shaw, will be enquiring on the progress of the restructuring governance plan, which was mandated by FIFA in 2020, to improve the financial management and administrative governance of the federation.
UPDATES ON HOLD
Shaw noted that updates have been on hold for over a year now and he is eager to hear some answers.
“The only thing we will ask about is the restructuring that FIFA wanted them to do. We have been waiting for over a year and we want to know what is the progress with this restructuring,” Shaw said.
However, Beckford insisted the AGM is a waste of time, as members are asked to send in their questions months before, but are not allowed to respond on the floor when the JFF presents their answers.
“These AGMs are a waste of time. You send in questions weeks before and if they answer something and you do not agree with it, you cannot question them. So on the floor when you get the answer, there is no further debate on the issue.
“It is just their interpretation of the FIFA rules, there is no debate and this basically makes no sense,” he said.
JFF General Secretary, Dalton Wint, explained that this method was constitutionally imposed and that it was done to limit the time of the meetings.
However, he hopes that some positive will come out of today’s gathering.
“Unless we change t he Constitution that is how it is.
It is how AGMs are run, as you don’t want a meeting to last the whole day, with everybody coming up on the floor to ask questions,” said Wint.
“We want to modernise and mimic our parent body. It (questions from floor) doesn’t happen at Concacaf and FIFA. So we are not going to sway away from what our parent bodies practise,” he said.
Nevertheless, he is hoping for a very progressive meeting.
“Absolutely, looking for positives,” he said. “There is always opportunity to improve because we are not living in a perfect world, but each time we get an opportunity to improve we always try to.”