By Charmaine Austin, Staff Reporter
Burell
THE JAMAICA Football Federation has shed its image as a recreational sporting organisation to don the mantle of a limited liability company and so far a number of changes have taken effect arising from an extraordinary congress held in Kingston on Sunday.
The meeting centred on a constitutional amendment and some of the rules and regulations governing the Federation were re-examined and revised.
New voting regulations was one of the changes ratified.
"At the last ordinary congress (1999) congress agreed that changes were to be made to the constitution so this extraordinary congress was called specifically for this reason. There used to be a system, for example, where candidates used to be proposed on the congress floor. That practice has now been abolished and replaced by a new system," JFF Limited president Captain Horace Burrell explained yesterday.
Based on the new constitutional amendment that was approved Sunday, candidates to fill posts in the Federation must be nominated 60 days prior to the holding of a general meeting and by at least three parish associations.
The names of the nominated individuals will then be forwarded to the general secretary of the JFF who will advise the membership of the candidates chosen. A formal announcement follows and candidates are then free to do their campaigning.
According to Captain Burrell, this will be effective for the next congress later this year.
Elections meanwhile will be held every four years as is customary. A general meeting will now be staged annually rather than every two years with the JFF's fiscal year being from January 1 to December 31 instead of from April 1 to March 31.
Deputy presidents will now be known as vice presidents.
We want to be on par with other football organisations in the world. These changes have been implemented and I see it as a positive move for the Federation," Captain Burrell said.
