SANDALS Halcyon St Lucia hosted members of the Reggae Boyz delegation for breakfast during Jamaica’s recent tour of the Caribbean.

Jamaica Football Federation boss Captain Horace Burrell, who spoke glowingly of the quality of the food delivered in buffet style by the resort’s Jamaican chef Rodroy Thomas, thanked the Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart-owned Sandals for the gesture.

“We want to thank the Sandals family for having decided to host us for breakfast. I want to say thanks to just about everybody, and to the Jamaican contingent (at Sandals) you are a great host and we look forward to coming back to St Lucia to Sandals,” Burrell said.

The Boyz, who defeated Barbados 2-0 in that country before moving on to trounce St Lucia 5-0 in Gros Islet, were treated to traditional Jamaican recipes before setting sails for home.

The general manager of Sandals Halcyon, Lennox Dupal, who spent time in Germany, traded pleasantries with Jamaica’s German head coach Winfried Schaefer in the European country’s native tongue before he explained how the invitation was arranged.

“It was a no-brainer. Our head office is in Jamaica and our owner is Jamaican so it’s natural that anything that is happening in St Lucia where Jamaicans are involved, Sandals would be a part of it.

“The request must have come from the St Lucia Football Association and once we realised, we immediately said yes. We’ve done that in the past, but not for football. We have had a very close relationship with the West Indies (cricket team) and every time they play in St Lucia we host them for dinners or some cocktails, so it’s a tradition that we have,” he told the Sunday Observer.

— S Myers