D-Day for Wadada
St James-based club to learn fate regarding play-off appeal to JFF
Published:Wednesday | October 20, 2021 | 12:08 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
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Wadada will know today if they will be given a reprieve to contest their cancelled play-off game against Montego Bay United for a spot in the Jamaica Premier League (JPL) next season. This follows a meeting with the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF...
Wadada will know today if they will be given a reprieve to contest their cancelled play-off game against Montego Bay United for a spot in the Jamaica Premier League (JPL) next season.
This follows a meeting with the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) hierarchy at its headquarters in St Andrew yesterday.
Wadada’s coach and administrator Daniel Ricketts told The Gleaner on Monday that he would have walked out of the meeting if talks were not going in his intended direction. However, he now says the meeting was very positive and that he left the discussion with some level of optimism.
“We presented our case to the JFF and now they can see what we have put in front of them,” Ricketts told The Gleaner yesterday. “I showed them a lot of things and I believe their response was reasonable. They said they will be meeting and in 24 hours, we will know the outcome. So now we are sitting and waiting and hoping for the best.”
JFF’S REPRESENTATION
The JFF was represented by President Michael Ricketts, Vice President Raymond Anderson, General Secretary Dalton Wint, Technical Committee Chairman Rudolph Speid, and Head of Competitions and Facility Overseer Ian Kemble.
Wadada, the third-place team in the last play-offs for a spot in the JPL in the 2018-19 season, was scheduled to play Montego Bay United (MBU) by virtue of the latter being the 11th-place finisher of the JPL that season. The space was available after the withdrawal of UWI FC just days ahead of the 2020-21 season, which concluded at the start of October.
However, Wadada did not meet the deadline to complete some of the JFF’s administrative requirements, namely the registration of players, and officials and providing a bank account, rendering them ineligible.
As a result, the match was cancelled and MBU was awarded the spot for next season.
However, Wadada complained about the decision, threatening to take their case to court, which led to yesterday’s meeting between the club and the JFF.