PANAMA CITY, Panama — Lincoln ‘Happy’ Sutherland has been serving football for far longer than a lot of us have been alive.

That’s more than 50 years.

His unbroken and selfless service to the development of Jamaica’s football, with little or no financial rewards to show for it, has not gone unnoticed.

Sutherland, 74, was on Thursday night inducted into the CONCACAF Hall of Fame at a glitzy ceremony here during a three-day period where the confederation, including the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), held congresses.

The former president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) and three fellow inductees — Ariel Alvarado (Panama), Jesus Martinez (Mexico) and Joseph Ursulet (Martinique) — were given their instruments of induction by FIFA president, Joseph ‘Sepp’ Blatter.

“It means a lot to me and never in my wildest dreams I expected to be honoured in this way and this is something I will cherish as long as I live,” said Sutherland after the function.

“Except for my OD (Order of Distinction), my national honour, this (Hall of Fame) ranks very highly, as probably thousands of workers for the sport have never met the FIFA president, and I have been able to do that and receive honours from him on more than one occasion,” beamed the former president of the St Catherine FA.

Sutherland, who has served Jamaica’s football in various other capacities and at the regional level as well, said his introduction to the sport was driven by a single vision that can be put in a single word: Service.

“When you serve as long as I have, the vision is just service and doing the football work has become the main focus of your existence… very often you look to rewards for service, and for me it has been a long and satisfying process,” said the easy-going retired insurance executive.

On the local front, Sutherland ranks his tenure as JFF president during the 1970s highly on his experiences of administering the sport.

“In Jamaica it would have to be when I served as JFF president, but in those days we were not yet in the modern era of football as we were not able to do much… finances were so tight, and there were things that we were just not able to do,” he told the Sunday Observer.

Serving St Catherine as president for over 40 years, Sutherland says that tenure was a defining moment for him because it brought him “a lot of satisfaction”.

But without a strong and understanding family base, Sutherland perhaps would have long been out of the game.

“One of the things that’s most satisfying on this journey of service is the fact that I have had great support from my family, especially my wife (Pam), who is always there.

“Oftentimes things like family get brushed aside at the expense of the football, so I know people in sport, and football in particular, make a lot of sacrifice in the service of this passion,” said the current Lifetime member of the JFF, and chairman of its Protocol Committee.

Having been involved with the nation’s football since it was a hatchling by existing external standards at the time, Sutherland believes the growth is nothing short of amazing with the country qualifying for every category of the men’s World Cup.

“The growth of Jamaica’s football has been phenomenal, but there are those who feel that football in the old days was better. I disagree with that view totally, as the football has evolved beyond the wildest imagination.

“The JFF has embarked on programmes over the past 10 years or so to improve referees and coaches and players, therefore football is better for it. But I will say that back then there were outstanding individual players, but we have better teams now at club and national levels,” Sutherland notes.

Sutherland, who is the third Jamaican to be inducted into the CONCACAF Hall of Fame, started serving football in 1963, when at the age of 25, he was elected president of the St Catherine Football Association, a post he held for 42 years.

He also served as JFF president from 1979 to 1981, and as vice-president on multiple occasions.

He was also a founding director of the GC Foster College of Physical Education and Sport, the only college of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean that trains coaches in all areas of sport.

Sutherland was also integral in the formation of the Caribbean Football Union, and in 2011, he received the JFF President’s Award, which was presented to him by Blatter.

Sutherland is a current member of the CONCACAF Disciplinary Committee and has been an active FIFA and CONCACAF Match Commissioner since the early 1990s.

The CONCACAF Hall of Fame honours those who have played significant roles in developing and advancing the sport in the confederation.