POLLSTER Don Anderson is to replace former Jamaica Prime Minister Edward Seaga as chairman of the Professional Footballers Association of Jamaica (PFAJ), effective today. Seaga, the head the PFAJ for six years, made the announcement to step down during yesterday’s 2015-16 Premier League football season launch, held at the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) offices.

The 85-year-old explained he initially told JFF president Captain Horace Burrell he intended to lead the PFAJ for three years. After doubling that stint, during which time he previously gave hints of wanting to relieve himself of the position, he has decided to call it quits.

“I had promised him (Burrell) that I would stay until the end of the third year. Now we have come to the end of the sixth year and I’ve told him that it is my intention to resign as of tomorrow from the PFAJ chairmanship. I’m sure that they will continue to operate at the high level that they have over the past years,” he said in his address to those in attendance.

Seaga will remain chairman of the Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA). Anderson, who has been a member of the PFAJ board for less than a year, expressed privilege at being given an “awesome responsibility” to be the successor to “somebody so great”.

“It’s a huge set of shoes to fill… but I will approach it in the way that I have approached all my involvement in sport all my life, and that is in a very professional way,” he added.

Anderson is a former first vicepresident of the Jamaica Olympic Association. Burrell thanked Seaga for “a tremendous job over the past six years” and said it would have been “extremely difficult” to have a “well structured” organisation without the former prime minister.

The PLCA is largely responsible for raising funds for the nation’s top-tier football league, while the PFAJ acts as oversight for the local club structure.

— Sanjay Myers