Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president Crenston Boxhill, left, addresses the media during a press conference held to shed light on the financial situation of the JFF yesterday at its St. Lucia, New Kingston Avenue office. Sitting beside him are JFF general-secretary Burchell Gibson, centre, and treasurer Carlton Barclay.
- Paul-Andre Walker photo
Paul-Andre Walker, Staff Reporter
THE JAMAICA Football Federation (JFF) yesterday announced that it failed to profit from Jamaica's recent friendlies against Honduras and Venezuela.
JFF treasurer Carlton Barclay announced details of the financial situation at a press conference at the federation's headquarters in New Kingston, telling the media that: for the Honduras game, while the ticket sales amounted to $10.5 million, the JFF actually saw a loss of $979,000.
Expounding on the reasons for that, Barclay told said $383,000 went into advertising, $1.38 million went into paying for the stadium, ticket sales cost $156,000, ticket purchases cost $493,000, and administrative expenses came up to $211,000.
Then, the expenses for the visiting team came up to $6 million, the officials' expenses accounted for $100,000, and the local team's appearance fees and expenses were counted at $3.1 million. All of which came to $11.896 million.
FANS FAILED TO TURN OUT
While in the Venezuela game where the Jamaican fans failed to turn out in their numbers the situation was worse with the JFF scoring a loss of $4.4 million.
The gate receipts for that game only came up to a paltry $7.6 million which included a $1.1 million boost from the selling of billboards. With Venezuela doing well on the international stage, the expense of bringing them here was similar to the Honduras game. The JFF racked up a $12 million expense line in that game.
However, the loss is something that the JFF executive is claiming to understand and expect.
JFF president Crenston Boxhill, in speaking to The Gleaner, explained that the point of the friendlies wasn't to make money.
"We could have gone overseas and collected match fees and that would have been that, however we thought that the Jamaican public needed to see the Reggae Boyz and get behind them. We wanted to get the same kind of euphoria that existed the first time Jamaica looked to be successful at the qualifiers. We also used these friendlies as dress rehearsals for the World Cup qualifiers and, organisational wise, we have shown improvement in each game that we have played," Boxhill said.
There are more expenses in the wind for the JFF, however, as it tries to prepare the Reggae Boyz for their first World Cup qualifier against Haiti on June 12 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
On May 23, George Evans, first vice-president of the JFF, leaves for the Docklands in England where the Reggae Boyz will hold a 10-day camp. During their stint the Boyz will play two friendly internationals, against Nigeria and the Republic of Ireland on May 31 and June 2. That trip, as explained by Barclay, will cost the JFF US$23,000. The initial cost was US$153,000, however, that has been offset by the $130,000 in match fees that the Boyz will receive for their two games.
Even more immediate, is the FIFA centennial celebrations that the JFF has three representatives slated to attend. Boxhill, general-secretary Burchell Gibson and second vice-president Lynell McKlean will make the trip on Monday at a cost $173,000.
After the Reggae Boyz get back from England they will be in camp in Jamaica before leaving for another camp in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from June 7-13. That camp will cost the JFF US$123,000.
The JFF's pockets won't be rested any time soon as the U-19 Reggae Girls have a trip to Canada looming. The girls, having made it to the penultimate leg of their World Cup qualification campaign, leave for Canada on May 26 at a cost of $868,000.
Coming out of the conference, Boxhill and company were the beneficiaries of 400 tickets for the Florida match against Haiti at US$30 each from Venture Capital Exports courtesy of Virginia I. Chin, the company's director. Chin said that her gift to the Jamaicans was a show of unity within the Caribbean despite the fact that Jamaica and Haiti, which her company represents as marketing agents, were opponents.
