DENVER, Colorado — Good often comes from bad situations and as far as Bruce Gaynor, interim president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) is concerned, that might just be the case regarding the poor quality of the JFF football facility at the UWI, Mona.

Just over a week ago head coach of the national senior football team, Theodore Whitmore, vented his frustration after he was forced to give up a few training sessions as the rock-hard and uneven surface at the UWI JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence, which affected a number of his players so badly that they had to be excused from training.

Such was the number of players suffering from joint aches and pains in the legs that it made full practice redundant.

And the day before the team left Jamaica for the United States, where they are currently contesting the 2017 edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, Minister of Sport Olivia Grange accommodated players and staff who called on her to discuss the grave issues.

The Jamaica Observer sought a response from Gaynor, who admitted that officials from the local governing body has been aware of the problem for some time, and has started the process to rectify same.

“For some time now the JFF has been contemplating a decision on doing some work (on the fields),” Gaynor said.

“We had a task force which went and inspected the fields, and we even went as far as getting an estimate for an artificial turf to which we are going to complete now,” he added.

Gaynor, who won 12-4 at the polls over Raymond Anderson in a recent meeting of key stakeholders to decide on an interim president for the next two months, following the death of Captain Horace Burrell in early June, figured it was now time to reveal plans for the Centre of Excellence, especially after the Observer brought the matter to public attention.

“And it is ironic that you ( Observer) made that editorial because we were waiting on the right time to make these declarations, but this is a good time also, and I would suggest that come January 2018 we will commence first with the artificial turf.

“We are going to take it to the board and have their approval on it. I don’t think anybody will say no to that,” assured Gaynor of St James. The astro turf is estimated to cost about US$500,000, the new JFF boss suggested, though he hinted that with FIFA’s intervention, the cost could be lowered.

He noted that the second field at the UWI location will be grassed and could cost in the region of US$250,000. Then he revealed his grand plan to invest in high-quality playing fields across the island with support from Government and the private sector.

“What I want to do, especially, is I want the JFF to commit $100 million or just about US$1 million over the next two years — 2018, 2019 — and then ask the Government and private sector to match those funds because it is not only our field at UWI that needs to be repaired or replaced, but we need to at least construct a minimum requirement field in every parish in Jamaica, and the JFF, from the Forward Funds, we will commit that,” he assured.

The Forward Funds is an annual US$1.25-million financial assistance provided by FIFA to all member associations under this new FIFA administration. It replaces the Financial Assistance Programme (FAP) worth US$400,000 annually, which was implemented under the Sepp Blatter-led FIFA administration.

This Forward Funds is done in two tranches — US$500,000 that goes towards administration and investment in the women’s programme, and US$750,000 that goes towards infrastructure and projects.

“We have commenced with projects like retrofitting the UWI JFF Captain Burrell Centre of Excellence at UWI, and we’ve commenced by doing some work there with obtaining furniture,” Gaynor added.

He was quick to point out that the JFF will announce details soon, including the completion of the 52-bed dorm at the said facility.

“But we are committed through the Forward Funds to develop fields within the parish associations and that is why I’m asking Government and the private sector to match whatever funds we put up,” he stressed.

He admitted that he has not yet made any approach to Government or the private sector, but that the late Captain Burrell had been speaking to them and had always said that the country needed fields to better prepare and produce high-quality players.

“I suppose what Captain was looking at were stadia, and I doubt we are going to get those now. So what I think we need to do is that if we can find lands in each parish association, then get them and place quality fields on them and have the parish associations manage those facilities, then we can have fields to play football,” Gaynor noted.

He noted that it was very important that whereever a field is placed, that water is readily available via a well, a river or whatever it takes to properly maintain these fields.

The former executive of Seba United, now Montego Bay United, revealed that the JFF had invested large sums of money on both fields at UWI, Mona, but was not satisfied with the end product. As a consequence, he argued that at least an overseer must be imported for the construction of the parish association facilities if the plans comes to fruition.

“This investment we used two local contractors. I doubt if whatever we spend now on the local fields we can import a contractor, but we must, at least, import someone to oversee the construction of proper fields.

“And also, we must send the signal out to stakeholders and those taking care of the fields that we can’t have everybody training on the fields every single day. We can never ever take care of them that way.”

Quizzed about the reasons for the poor-quality football fields at the UWI JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence, Gaynor did not hesitate.

“I think it is the topsoil that was used… it was poor judgement in using that topsoil, there was no quality at all in it and no matter what we did… over the last two to four years we have been investing in maintenance of the fields with a large sum of money on pop-up sprinklers; we have had some water to which we are trying to tie down with the UWI in giving us their green water to use on the fields, but it was just bad topsoil, and bad grass,” he said.

And Gaynor said that the process for constructing the astro turf is well advanced, though they are awaiting final words from the world’s governing body, who appears to be playing a lead role, especially in the CONCACAF region.