JAMAICA Football Federation (JFF) President Captain Horace Burrell lambasted Independence Park Limited (IPL) for putting Jamaica’s rights to host the CONCACAF Under-20 Football Championship in jeopardy.

Burrell, who was speaking during Friday’s Flow Champions Cup Awards Ceremony at the JFF offices, said a team of inspectors from regional football body CONCACAF has been unimpressed with the lighting of the field at the National Stadium ahead of the tournament scheduled to begin January 9.

“We received information only last [Thursday] night that, if by Monday [tomorrow] everything is not put in place as requested, then the tournament would be taken away from Jamaica,” an openly peeved Burrell told the gathering.

The IPL is responsible for the upkeep of the National Stadium.

Even then it is unlikely that the tournament would be switched to another country at such a late stage, considering the commitments and obligations already made.

Nonetheless, the local football chief, who accused IPL employees of “sitting on their butts”, added: “Sometimes I wonder if [in] that IPL organisation there is some amount of incompetence.”

He added that CONCACAF representatives visited the stadium on three occasions and “checked with their meters” and were not satisfied.

However, Burrell, who described the National Stadium as the country’s premier football facility, said he could not provide details since he is not familiar with “the dynamics” of the venue’s lighting system.

Major Desmon Brown, the general manager of IPL, yesterday defended the restoration work being done and expressed optimism that the deadline will be met.

“I think the Captain is not aware of the work that we have been doing to get the place ready. We have been doing a lot of work and we have not been, as he said, sitting on our butts. We are doing our best and I think we are going to meet the deadline for Monday,” Brown told the Sunday Observer.

“We have a lot of challenges with the lights. The last inspection we did not get the feedback from the inspectors until Thursday, so we weren’t able to do any adjustments. But now that we have received it, we are doing the adjustments to meet the requirements.

“Every year we have to go up there [on the light towers] after heavy winds to redirect them [the bulbs], but we have had problems… we have less lights working now than we had before. The reality is that those lamps need to be changed; they are very inefficient, but we understand the constraints the Government has, so we have to do our best with what we have,” Major Brown added.

When asked what it could mean if Jamaica lost the rights to stage the Under-20 tournament, Captain Burrell said: “It would be a disgrace! It would be an embarrassment to the Jamaican people which the Jamaican people don’t deserve. It is [caused] by employees who have been employed to do a job who are not doing their jobs and still remain there.

“This is not against Government; it is against workers who are employed to get on with their jobs who are not doing their jobs effectively. I have always said if somebody has a job to do and you fail to operate in an efficient and effective manner, you should be fired.”

In the meantime, Burrell added that the IPL has given the assurance that the playing surface will be up to the standard required by early January.

“IPL told us the field will be ready by January 2 and … that we accept because it takes time.”

Matches at the Under-20 tournament are set to be held at the National Stadium in Kingston and the Montego Bay Sports Complex in Catherine Hall, St James.

Burrell said the other venue in Catherine Hall has, for the most part, satisfied the requirements of the inspectors.

“The Catherine Hall complex is okay. There are challenges with training facilities which belong to other entities which they are working around the clock,” said the JFF boss.