Ambassador Stewart Stephenson says he aims to put in place a technical structure that will establish a style template for Jamaica’s football teams, if he becomes the next president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF).

Stephenson, the former president of the Kingston and St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA), and Clarendon FA chief Michael Ricketts are the two candidates vying for the JFF top spot.

The 13 parishes are set to elect a new JFF head on September 16 to complete the two years left on the late Captain Horace Burrell’s four-year mandate. St James FA executive Bruce Gaynor is serving as interim JFF boss until the election.

“Jamaica doesn’t have a philosophy. What is the brand, what is the style we play?” asked Stephenson, a lawyer by profession.

“Because for every national team, from under-15 right up to senior, the team plays in a way that reflects the style of the coach. That has led to a very disjointed and unattractive style,” he argued.

He said that development of youth team players for the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup is another priority.

“Everybody knows that a lot of the times we assemble our squads at a moment’s notice. I want us to prepare an under-17 squad and under-20 squad and keep the unit together directly for Qatar. There are too many instances of outstanding schoolboy footballers who are not able to transition smoothly or effectively into our senior team,” Stephenson noted.

Stephenson, who has served as KSAFA president in three different stints, says he has 42 years of contribution to Jamaica’s football. A woeful shortage of proper playing surfaces has been a recurring sticking point.

“Field development is a long- term project. I don’t want anyone to get the impression that you are going to wave a magic wand and all of a sudden you’re going to get stadia with seating for 25,000 people.

“But each parish should have at least one international- size football field with appropriate facilities so that if you have a tournament in Jamaica we could host it comfortably,” the aspiring JFF president explained.

He said administrative adjustments could also lead to more efficient operations at the federation.

“I’ve done a comprehensive review of the football. The federation meets for quarterly board meetings and meets for several hours and I think that’s counterproductive. I would prefer to meet monthly like any corporate board. So you don’t have issues languishing out there.

“There are things that are working. I never want to change those, but there are other areas we have to look at. There are decisions made by the board which must be undertaken and enforced in a timely manner. I want to see more policy directives going down to the parishes from the JFF. And the directives of FIFA and CONCACAF must be complied with,” insisted the veteran football administrator.

Stephenson, Jamaica’s ambassador to Cuba between 2002 and 2004, also promised greater transparency and accountability, better handling of the federation’s finances and increased funding to parishes and associations.

“What I bring to football always is clear accountability and transparency; that’s critical. I have been all over the world representing Jamaica — signed treaties for the government of Jamaica and all of that — so the international side of football is something that would be very familiar territory to me in dealing with the international fora,” he stressed.

“There’s the legacy of Burrell and I am going to move that forward. I think the style that I bring is, everybody knows, I’m a strong democrat and I believe in participation. I set clear goals and objectives of what I want to achieve administratively and technically.

“Finances are the fuel for every organisation. I have never seen an annual budget for the JFF and this is where I think we need some fiscal discipline. There has to be funding to parish associations, specifically to offset the cost of undertaking youth development tournaments.

“Elected board members are given monthly allowances that are inadequate. Effectively they are subsidising the activities of the federation because of the distances they sometimes travel in doing the federation’s work,” he added.

Stephenson said he will be looking at deeper partnerships with state agencies and the private sector. He also said that his focus will centre on brokering deals to reduce the JFF’s high debt, which is reported to be in the region of $300 million.