SOUNDING the consummate patriot, Captain Horace Burrell revealed on Saturday that he has sidelined his ambitions to run for the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) top job to focus wholly on Jamaica’s 2014 World Cup campaign and his growing business.

The principal of the Captain’s Bakery and Grill chain said he regretted having to make the decision, but stated that “Jamaica’s football needs me at this time”.

“The 2014 FIFA World Cup campaign is such a very important endeavour for Jamaica’s football at this time that I have taken the decision to forego any regional positions for the time being and to give this campaign my undivided focus and attention,” said Burrell, who was expected to be a top contender in the race for the CFU presidency.

“We missed out in the last three World Cup campaigns — 2002, 2006 and 2010 — and everything should be done to ensure we give this our very best efforts. As leader of Jamaica’s football programme I’m taking this position with clarity of thought. I will continue to give service at the CONCACAF Executive Committee and FIFA Olympic Committee,” Burrell said in a Jamaica Observer exclusive.

While he remains committed to service to regional and international football, Burrell said the timing for a more direct role at the CFU level was not ideal, but believes his stepping aside will allow for others to come to the fore “with their thinking and ideas” for an organisation in transition.

“It would be too much at this time to take on any leadership role at the CFU beyond this period of reorganising and restructuring. I’m, however, confident that stability has returned and the Union is poised to achieve growth with the administrative talent at its disposal,” he said.

President-elect of CONCACAF, Caymanian Jeff Webb, said Burrell’s position is understandable, but expressed confidence that the former CFU senior vice-president will continue to lend his vast experience and knowledge.

“I am also certain that the CFU would welcome and appreciate any service offered by him (Burrell),” said Webb, who was nominated by Jamaica and who will run unopposed for the CONCACAF presidency.

Acting general secretary of the CFU, Damien E Hughes, said Burrell’s about-turn is “a bitter-sweet pill to swallow”.

“The sweetness rests in the fact that the JFF and the Reggae Boyz will undoubtedly have a fully focused and committed president who will leave no stones unturned to ensure that Jamaica qualify (for World Cup) for the second time and fly the flag not only of Jamaica, but also of the CFU,” he said in reacting to the news of the union’s most senior member’s decision not to offer himself for election.

“The bitterness rests in the fact that the experience of one the region’s longest-serving football administrators will (be missed),” Hughes said.

Burrell vowed Jamaica’s football stands ready “to assist in the continued rebuilding” of regional football, whose image took a battering from the fall-out from the cash-for-votes scandal.

Burrell said he has requested JFF general secretary, Horace Reid, “to make himself available for service to the CFU Executive Committee should the membership so agree.”

He added that he has taken heart in the fact that other Jamaicans have been given important roles in the continued development of the regional game.

“The appointment of Howard McIntosh as one of the FIFA Development Officers for the Caribbean and Peter Prendergast as FIFA’s Referees Development Officer for the region give me some comfort and satisfaction that the Jamaican flag will continue to fly high in critical areas of the thrust to improve infrastructure and human resources,” Burrell ended.

The CFU elections are expected to take place at the FIFA Congress slated for Hungary at the end of May, and with the exception of Trinidad’s Harold Taylor, it is not sure who the other candidates will be.

Nominations are expected to close next week. According to new CFU statutes, only candidates nominated by their local federations are eligible to run and only one person from a territory can serve on the executive committee at a time.

The CFU elections, which were due to be held in Montego Bay in Jamaica last November, to fill positions made vacant by the reeling effects of the bribery scandal, were postponed indefinitely as the CFU sought to normalise its operations.

Back then the front-runners for the top job were Burrell, another Jamaican Tony James, Antigua and Barbuda’s Gordon Derrick and Trinidad’s Taylor.

The position for CFU president became vacant by the departure of long-serving Trinidadian Austin ‘Jack’ Warner in the height of last year’s corruption scandal that cast a dark shadow on regional football.