‘Not my call’

One of the aspirants seeking to head the country’s football governing body has sought to publicly distance himself from a last-minute legal action that has placed its contentious presidential election on hold.

The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) presidential election between incumbent Michael Ricketts and challenger Raymond Anderson was set to take place during a meeting that was set to take place in Hanover tomorrow.

But in an eleventh-hour move, Beach Soccer Jamaica (BSJ) went to the Supreme Court yesterday and obtained an injunction that puts the election on hold for at least another month.

BSJ is contending that it is an affiliate of the JFF and should be allowed to vote in the presidential contest.

The injunction will remain in place until February 9 when lawyers for BSJ and the JFF return to court for a hearing that will determine whether it is lifted.

“I just want the record to be clear that I have nothing to do with all of that,” Anderson told The Gleaner hours after the injunction was imposed.

“It’s not my call to do anything other than preparing to go to the congress,” he added, making reference to the cancelled meeting,

Anderson is, however, concerned that his campaign will incur additional costs because of the delay caused by the injunction.

“If an election should be on the 14th [of January] and then it’s a month later or two weeks later, it’s gonna add some costs to it,” he reasoned.

In a public statement yesterday, the JFF announced that the voting congress had been “postponed until further notice” and that Ricketts would continue to lead the affairs of the JFF.

Patricia Garel, president of BSJ, had filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking an order to compel the JFF to allow her group a vote in the election of officers as the entity representing beach football in Jamaica.

The application was filed by noted attorney Hugh Wildman, who was instructed by King’s Counsel Valerie Neita Robertson.

Garel contended, in the application which was filed this week, that in 2022 the JFF promulgated a new constitution, which stipulated in Article 12, that BSJ is one of the affiliates under pillar 3 of the new constitution.

By virtue of that promulgation, BSJ “became a member of the JFF and was so treated,” she asserted.

Further, Garel said recognition was given to BSJ when the JFF invited her entity to send three representatives to its congress on September 24 last year “and that is reflected in the minutes of the JFF”.

Since that congress, she claimed, the local football governing body “has always treated the applicant [BSJ] as the recognised entity representing beach football in Jamaica” and said she has always been the BSJ president.

BSJ is also recognised by Beach Soccer Worldwide, an affiliate of FIFA, according to Garel.

However, she claimed that she was subsequently informed that another group, created last October under the name ‘Beach Football Association of Jamaica’, has been recognised by the JFF as the representative body for beach soccer locally and given voting rights for the presidential contest.

That group, she claimed, is co-chaired by Bruce Gaynor, a current JFF vice president, and Patrick Malcolm, an incumbent JFF director.

The JFF is being represented by Kaysian Kennedy-Sherman of the law firm Townsend, Whyte & Porter.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com