We will be able to pay Hallgrimmson - Chung

New senior men’s national head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson’s motivations for taking the job may not have been about money, but Jamaica Football Federation finance chairperson Dennis Chung is adamant that a compensation package is available to pay the man tasked with leading the Reggae Boyz back to the World Cup finals.

Hallgrimsson comes on a four-year deal, bringing with him an assistant coach and a goalkeeping coach. He succeeds Paul Hall, who held the position on an interim basis since last December.

With concerns regarding the financial capabilities of the JFF in their new hire, Chung, while not outlining specifics, said that the federation will be capable of paying Hallgrimmson during his stint as manager.

“We have identified the funds, and we think that we will be able to deal with it. We have made the projections that we need to make. We have made some internal changes in terms of controls, and we think we will be able to do it,” Chung told The Gleaner.

Those internal changes were alluded to by JFF president Michael Ricketts with the assurance that it will be “best practices”.

While not shying away from the difficulties that the JFF has experienced, Chung said that they have been honouring their respective obligations, including to the players, and he is projecting no issues in being able to fulfil their obligations to Hallgrimsson.

“Some of it is a gamble. We know that we had a financial issue. We have been clearing a lot of debts, for example, the tax liability we dealt with. We have paid up on 11 of the last 14 matches that is due to the players, and we think that we will be able to do it (pay the coach),” Chung said.

More than $100 million was spent during the unsuccessful 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign. On the back of the federation’s recent kit sponsorship deal with Adidas, Chung says that the introduction of Hallgrimmson represents the opportunity to embark on what he described as the most ambitious sponsorship undertaking for the federation.

“Business doesn’t know where future income is coming from all the time, but you have some calculated risk. For the past two years, we have not been able to raise money from locally played matches because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are in normal times again now. As we bring matches, I’m sure we will be able to raise funds,” Chung declared. “We are going to go all out, and we are doing our budgets per game. We know what we need. We are putting a comprehensive plan together.”

Hallgrimmson will be thrown into action immediately as Jamaica will face Argentina in an international friendly on September 27 in New Jersey.

daniel.wheeler@gleanerjm.com