JAMAICA'S FINANCIALLY MUDDLED football programme faces its day of decision tomorrow at an executive committee sitting of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) at its New Kingston headquarters.
"The decisions will be decided by the executive. We've an emergency committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 4 p.m. We're going to reassess the national programmes," said Captain Horace Burrell, president of the sport in an interview yesterday evening.
Only last Thursday the JFF, through a press release, indicated that they would immediately suspend the national programme indefinitely due to lack of finances.
That position they claim is due mainly to a 65 percent cutback on the subvention the got from government.
"If we've experienced a cut in our subvention of 65 percent then it stands to reason that the cut would put us in a precarious position and thus, it therefore necessitates a rethinking of the national programme," said Burrell.
Four national teams - including the senior women's unit which has sights set on qualifying for the women's World Cup and Gold Cup to be staged in Canada and the US in October - were in training on an on-going basis up to last week.
Others include the Reggae Boyz, preparing for the CONCACAF Gold Cup eliminations to be staged in Trinidad and Tobago in November; men's under 20, gearing towards an August qualification tournament for the U20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates next year; and men's under 17, who were preparing for October qualifiers to the World Championships in Finland next year.
Critically, the women's World Cup qualifying schedule is set to begin at month-end with a home tie against Puerto Rico, and the away tie a week later.
