By Nodley Wright, Freelance WriterPRESIDENT OF the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), Captain Horace Burrell, warned on the weekend that Jamaica's football would die under an executive led by Crenston Boxhill, the man who is challenging him for the top local job in the sport.
"Jamaica's football development would be the casualty in the whole thing," said Burrell in reference to the November 23 executive elections, which are scheduled to take place at the Starfish Family resort in Trelawny.
"The only way one can do the best for the country's football is if they are a part of the system, as has always been my ambition in football," said Burrell who holds several powerful positions in the international hierarchy of football.
Boxhill, who currently heads two local football bodies, the Clarendon Football Association (CFA) and the South Central Confederation, is the first man to challenge Burrell who has held the JFF presidency since 1994.
He has expressed confidence of swinging into the job on the majority support of the 106 delegates who will choose the new president for the next four years.
Burrell, an ex-army man, currently presides over the disciplinary committee of CONCACAF, a confederation of 37 countries spanning the Caribbean, North and Central America. He is also a senior member of the disciplinary committee of FIFA, the world's governing body for football.
As vice-president for the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), Burrell is also the second most powerful man in Caribbean football, with Trinidad and Tobago's Jack Warner,
who is a vice-president of FIFA and president of the CFU, being the first.
According to Burrell, his current holdings give him more opportunities to lobby for Jamaica's interests in the football world.
"It has always been my wish to see the best happen for Jamaica's football. As president there is more opportunity to lobby on my country's behalf - but whether or not I am president, my career in football will continue in the only way it can - up. But if I am no longer president then I will have to focus on the development of other countries in the region as well," he said.
Come November 23 when the executive elections take place, Burrell is depending on his track record of achievements to convince the majority of the delegates to vote him back in.
"This is a democratic organisation and I have no ill-feeling whatsoever about Boxhill contesting the post. However, I am extremely confident that the members of the Jamaica football fraternity who have the responsibility of selecting candidates will give me good support," Burrell said.
"My record of performance is there. That no doubt will speak for itself."
That record includes the fact that he has presided over the historic qualifications of the national team for the 1998 World Cup in France, the Under-17s for the 1999 Youth World Cup in New Zealand and the 2001 Under-20 World Cup in Argentina.
"I have no doubt that these delegates will support me. I will go a little further to say that most of the delegates who will decide will be aware of Jamaica's current standing in world football. They are also aware of where the football development stood in 1994 and of where we are now and where we intend to go," he continued.
However, in spite of the wide concessions in this regard, there have been criticisms that Jamaica's football has stagnated under his watch.
Burrell dismissed these criticisms as "irresponsible and unfortunate", although he conceded that there was still a lot of work to be done.
"Since the 1998 World Cup we have seen tremendous changes in all aspects of football within the country. A number of players are now making a livelihood from the sport internationally. When you look at our youth programme we have qualified two teams for Youth World Cups in 1999 and 2001.
"The myth that this administration has not concentrated on the development of a youth programme is unfortunate," he said.
So successful has that programme been, according to Burrell, that just this year the Under-17s "were just a game away from another World Cup spot".
Jamaica lost to Mexico in a CONCACAF qualifier to determine the final country from the region to advance to the World Cup finals.
