JFF ready to settle all issues with Girlz
Published:Friday | August 11, 2023 | 12:07 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) general secretary Dennis Chung has outlined the timeline for the settling of issues with the national senior women’s team, as they start the reconciliation process after a historic-but-turbulent Women’s World Cup cycle.
Chung was speaking yesterday at the JFF headquarters where he announced new partners Lasco and Sherwin Williams as well as the updates regarding the back half of the calendar year for all national teams.
The Reggae Girlz completed their Women’s World Cup run on Tuesday after a historic tournament which saw them qualify for the knockout round for the first time in the country’s history. The campaign also experienced turbulence, with the players criticising the association about poor preparation for the tournament in June.
In outlining the process to repair the fractured relationship between the parties, Chung said that it is ongoing but with the chief matter being the paying out of outstanding funds that are owed.
“Those things are continuing. They are always happening. Of course, it means we have to sit by the truth and do things we know are right. There have been some monies that have been owed to the girls for a while and we have paid up a lot of it this year in terms of what was outstanding. But there are some legacy issues that we had to address,” Chung told The Gleaner. “Even for per diem for Australia, we paid some of that money already, almost half of that, and some more are going to be paid today (yesterday).”
PAYMENT OF FEES
Among those fees that the team outlined in their social media post in June is the US$60,000 (Ja$9,269,022) that will be paid directly to each player for finishing in the top 16. FIFA is set to deliver the funds within 90 days but Chung said that it will attract taxes from the Australian government. The declaration for those funds, according to Chung, has been done.
“There are a lot of behind-the-scenes moving parts that we have to consider but we are committed and, once we receive the prize money from FIFA, we are going to pay it out immediately, subject to, of course, the withholding taxes which the government of Australia says we have to withhold and pay. We have advised the girls of that, through the manager, that this is an issue,” Chung said. “The withholding tax law says that anything that they receive needs to be declared. We have done the declaration of what we are paying to them. The president has always said that all the match fees and everything that is outstanding to them (will be paid). Once we receive the prize monies, we will pay all of that over and liquidate all the debts to them.”
JFF president Michael Ricketts says that a full debriefing with the management team will be done as soon as possible, with the Jamaica-based delegation expected to arrive today in Montego Bay after being delayed yesterday because of problems at the Sangster International Airport which forced the cancellation of their flights. Ricketts said that he and Chung will travel to Australia next week for the FIFA Congress.
“We have to do some kind of post-mortem. All the parties will be here by tomorrow (today). We will set a date as to when we can sit and have that post-mortem. They were overseas for more than a month, so there would be a number of things to report on. Some people might not be happy and satisfied with things. If we need to make corrections, we certainly will,” Ricketts said.