Anderson: We have $350m to spend
Published:Tuesday | March 12, 2024 | 12:12 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) presidential candidate Raymond Anderson says he has $350 million in the bag waiting to spend if elected, and wants to use the bulk of that fund to assist women’s football and parish associations.
Anderson, who is set to battle incumbent Michael Ricketts for the JFF presidency on March 17, revealed that he has been getting widespread financial support from a number of interest groups and persons.
He pointed out that they have already declared $200m, and recently another sponsor committed $150m as they want to revive the local women’s game and inject new life in parish associations.
“We already had $200 million, $100 million for women and $100 million to assist with parish federations, to help with all areas of administration which will help develop football from the grassroots up,” he said.
Anderson added that the persons who made the $150m commitment recently want the funds to go mainly towards supporting the parish associations.
“Based on the proposal we put forward, they want to help us even more because parish football is where it should start. They want us to give the parishes $10 million each,” Anderson said.
The JFF presidential candidate said that infrastructure plays a critical part in development and building three mini-stadiums in separate parishes, with a minimum capacity of 10,000, is one of those objectives.
“We have identified three parishes that we are going to put mini-stadiums in. Something a bit bigger than the sports complex at Arnett Gardens which holds 5,000. Somewhere we can host international competitions,” he commented.
He disclosed that they also want to do a massive overhaul of the local women’s football structure.
“We have to pay more attention to women’s football. With the RSA (Real Solid Action) team women’s football will be prioritised. We will be starting with a department, not just an administrator for women’s football, from technical director down to equipment manager. A department to deal strictly with women’s football,” he stated.
He said that the stage where women’s football is at locally, it needs more than just grassroots development programmes.
“There may be grassroots development at times but where women’s football is in this country, it needs direct attention,” Anderson said.
He added that there are also plans to establish a school for officials at all levels of the game.
“We also want to look at referees. We have left them behind. They are actually helping themselves. We made a pledge to have a referee school, an institution similar to the coaching school.
“The school will help us to recruit and train referees, also match commissioners and assessors. This will deal strictly with the officiating of the game.
“Those are some of the things we want to do with the $350m that we have,” he said.