THE Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) yesterday diverted funds from its March wage bill in order to pay over J$850,000 to a bailiff — intent of seizing company assets — as part of the £10,000 settlement ordered by a Central London County Court almost two years ago, for outstanding fees due to the England-based NVA Management Limited.

Bailiff Norman Brown, from the Resident Magistrate’s Court, and acting on behalf of NVA Management’s local legal representative Nunes Scholefield Deleon and Company, visited the JFF secretariat yesterday, with a truck in tow, to seize the company’s assets.

But after a couple of hours identifying a number of small items, including television sets, office desks, chairs, computers, printers, fax machines, filing cabinets, photo copiers, water coolers and an assortment of trophies — including the Digicel Caribbean Cup won by the Reggae Boyz in late 2008 — as well as living room suites, mini stereos and a refrigerator, the management of the cash-strapped JFF was able to deliver to the bailiff the cheque said to be 50 per cent of the total owed to NVA Management, plus the bailiff’s fees, with the understanding that the balance is to be paid by April 15.

Failing that would see Brown returning to complete what he has started, and according to Brown, a daily interest rate of £2.27 is applied from the day of the judgement in 2008, which has resulted in the current debt of £12,000. The bailiff first visited the JFF last November, but was unable to speak with any senior manager.

The Chris Nathaniel-led NVA Management Limited was contracted to, among other things, organise the 2006 Reggae Boyz tour of England, which included two games — against World Cup Final-bound teams Ghana in Leicester City, and England in Manchester City. It was the same tour, which turned out disastrously, as then leading striker Marlon King was axed from the national set-up after a series of breaches, culminating with his altercation with then JFF president Crenston Boxhill.

Shortly after the return of Captain Horace Burrell to the presidency of the JFF in November 2007, Nathaniel won the suit against the JFF, on the heels of an even bigger suit filed by the English FA, which involved the non-payment of monies for sale of match tickets for the game between the two countries at Manchester United’s Old Trafford.

It was a dejected Horace Reid, general secretary of the JFF, who spoke with the Observer yesterday.

“We had to divert funds allocated to paying this month’s salary in order to pay a portion of the debt,” Reid told the Observer, even as he grappled with the fact that nine JFF staff members were being released, while others were forced to take a pay cut. He added: “The staff is very disappointed, though understanding.”

Reid, who hasn’t been paid since last December, noted that the federation has to “pull out all the stops” to keep the football programmes alive.

He advised the Observer that the JFF has tried to negotiate with Nathaniel, who also represents triple Olympic and World Championships gold medallist Usain Bolt, but to no avail.

“We are trying to minimise the crippling effects to the federation,” he said. “It is important that the football programmes are not stopped… it will be very difficult, very hard, especially when you are strapped for cash and funding nine national teams, but the reality is that football is a staple in this country, every community is involved in it. If the federation is closed down it would affect a lot of things and people,” he observed.

Prior to the late agreement between the parties yesterday, Brown had told the Observer that the seized items would be taken to the Sutton Street Court for storage, following which a chief bailiff would determine a date when the items would go on sale.

“Once I have identified these items, the JFF cannot dispose of them until the matter is settled,” he said.

However, it is understood that the bailiff might have been hampered in executing his duties, as a number of the bigger furniture items on the upper floors could not be taken out the building through the small staircase, as they were put in through the roof with the help of a crane.