THE JFF is closer to finalising a deal with the Government of Jamaica for the purchase of the shelved FIFA Goal Project in Malvern, St Elizabeth.

JFF president Captain Horace Burrell, on Tuesday confirmed that there “is strong interest” from a department of Government to purchase the property, which was slated for a football academy.

“We’re keeping our fingers crossed as a department of Government has demonstrated a keen interest… they (prospective buyer) have already completed the process of due diligence, and we believe that before long we’ll be able to dispose of it (Malvern property),” Burrell said.

In a post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House yesterday, Education Minister Andrew Holness announced that his ministry intends to take the property off the the hands of the cash-strapped JFF, and outlined his ministry’s plan to use it as a time-out facility for problematic students. The special school is expected to be up and running “by January next year”.

“We have indentified a new property owned by the JFF, which they were to develop for training purposes, but will no longer be using, so we have engaged them in a purchase arrangement and Cabinet has approved this,” Holness said.

With the sale looking certain to happen, this would bring great financial relief to the JFF, which is deep in debt and has had to cut back on its technical programmes and operations to stay afloat.

“We would be extremely relieved as a lot of funds are tied up in that project and we’ve not been able to retrieve that money. I guess the additional funds that we will get from this sale will be ploughed back into the JFF to assist in so many other areas of operations,” noted Burrell, who also serves as senior vice-president of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU).

It was unclear up to yesterday what figure the potential purchaser had brought to the table, but speculators think it may be below the original asking price of $45 million.

Back in 2003, ground was first broken for a Football Academy in Portmore, St Catherine, but the location was deemed not conducive to the sport by the new JFF administration led by Crenston Boxhill.

The site was moved to the remote and hilly St Elizabeth community of Malvern, and ground was again broken for a FIFA Goal Project with the standard US$400,000 grant.

That project was not completed and the current JFF placed the property on the open market for sale in 2007.

In its existing form, the Malvern property has three unfinished buildings that were to be used as dorms for the proposed football academy.