MONTEGO BAY, St James — MONTEGO Bay businessman and president of the Montego Bay United club, Orville Powell launched an ambitious campaign to unseat Jamaica Football Federation president Captain Horace Burrell in the December voting congress of the JFF to be held in Kingston.

Citing what he described as the poor management of football by the present administration, the former St James Football Association’s president and Western Confederation chairman said at a press launch held at Blue Beat on Tuesday last it was time for a “change from the path that our current leader is taking now. The facts are Jamaica has gone from being a powerhouse in this region; we were leaders at the CFU level, at the CONCACAF level were senior vice-president and at FIFA we were confident of the president, but all of those positions are now in serious problems.”

Powell lambasted the JFF for not doing enough for the parish associations and said, “With the right structure, I think the JFF can sponsor the parish football, not a person from the JFF,” and said to the best of his knowledge, each parish got only $400,000 from the JFF each year.

“Parish associations are now independent, like there is no real directive from the JFF, hence our parishes are left to suffer,” he said, “Parishes are weak, the foundation of our football is weak and this is part of our struggles.”

He suggested that some of the monies earned from the many friendly internationals should be channelled to the parishes.

Nominations for positions will close next Thursday, November 5th and Powell will need nominations from at least four parish associations to be able to contest the elections to be held in December at the JFF headquarters.

While he said he had preliminary discussions with “several FA presidents” and has received consensus that the time is ripe for a change in the leadership of the JFF, Powell, who appeared to be keeping his cards close to his chest, said he had not secured any nominations as yet.

“I have spoken to a few (FA presidents),” he said at the press conference, “but I am not just going for the nominations of four FAs but to make a resounding statement to Jamaica. It is now in the hands of the (FA) presidents to effect change and we have to do it.”

Powell, who has been in football administration for some 15 years since he took over the Seba United team, then moved to Village United before forming Montego Bay United.