Reid aiming to lift level of football in region

CONCACAF director of football, Horace Reid, says the mission of the new office, which was officially opened at the New Kingston Shopping Centre on Wednesday, will help to make Caribbean Football Union (CFU) members and their football stronger, more competitive and respected on the world stage, both on and off the field.

Reid, a former Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) general secretary, says they also want to make the most of benefits available to regional members and establish programmes that will drive the region's football forward.

"The role of the office is to serve our 31 members, to elevate our service level and improve the lot of the Caribbean. It's a wide area of responsibility as we want improve administration, improve grassroots programmes and our capacity-building programmes.

"We want this region to become one that the global football family will respect, not only on the pitch but off it," he said.

He noted that not everyone in the region will qualify for a World Cup, but he believes every association has the right to follow their dreams and aspirations and that the office was established to help everyone maximise their full potential.

ACHIEVING DREAMS

"We are not here to dictate how and what they dream, but to help them once they have that vision and the aspiration, to achieve it. But the reality is that we have a diverse region, we have countries with ten million people and we have countries with 500,000 people so everybody will have different objectives and different goals," he continued.

Reid also wants to make the most of benefits available to regional members and use it to drive the region's football forward.

"We also want to utilise the assistance coming to our region, through the ONE CONCACAF initiative, through the FIFA Forward Programme and ensure that investment coming to the region is efficient in how it is utilised, where we can move Caribbean football in a new direction," he reasoned.

Meanwhile, the former CONACACAF director of competitions, has also employed the services of two of his trusted employees of the JFF in Latoya DaCosta, who will oversee operations involving CONCACAF competitions and Andre Waugh, who has been drafted as development manager. However, other administrative slots remain unfilled and other staff members will be added in the coming days and weeks.