Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) President Michael Ricketts is hopeful the danger of missing out on the Concacaf Girls’ Under-15 Championship has been averted as they have successfully secured United States (US) visa appointments for the 17 locally based players expected to make the trip.

With no US Embassy appointment dates available in time, Jamaica’s participation at the July 31 to August 7 tournament in Tampa, Florida, was in doubt as Ricketts and his administration were caught in a race against time to have the players acquire documentation to enter the North American country.

However, with the assistance of government ministers, particularly Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kamina Johnson-Smith, Ricketts said they were able to fast-track appointments for early next week.

“We have secured dates at the US Embassy for all the players, so they will go to the embassy on the 26th and then we have four overseas players that will join them in Florida. So everything seems to be on track as it relates to the visas because the Minister of Foreign Affairs assisted us in securing the dates,” Ricketts told the Jamaica Observer.

Ricketts also admitted that, when faced with the possibility of taking the very tough decision of withdrawing from the tournament, the country’s governing football body sought eligible overseas-based players to fill the gap, but later decided against it.

As such, the team to be coached by former national players Tashana Vincent and Alicia James, will comprise mostly locals to be complemented by four overseas-based players.

The young Reggae Girlz are set to compete in League A, with the seven highest-ranked teams in the region, including Canada, Costa Rica, Haiti, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and United States.

League A will be divided into two groups with the winner and runner-up from each group progressing to the knockout stage.

“We didn’t want an influx of overseas players because its really a development tournament, so we wanted to expose as many of our local players as possible,” Ricketts said.

“But those four overseas players came to a camp and the coaches were impressed, so they will join the locals. But, again, everything is on track and we are hopeful that they will all get their visas,” he added.

When asked about the deja vu effect of their 2019 faux pas, when they were sanctioned for the Under-15 Boys’ withdrawal, Ricketts said the circumstances surrounding this situation was viewed in a different light.

He said, unlike three years ago when that last minute withdrawal was due to obvious administrative bungling in securing US visas for the players, on this occasion, Concacaf is aware of the well-documented backlog of applications for US visas as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Then, the Ricketts-led administration was fined US$30,500 for the foul-up — US$20,000 for specific competition regulation breaches, while US$10,500 was to recover expenses associated with hotel accommodation and other related costs.

“This was kind of different, though, because a number of teams have already withdrawn because of the same visa issue. Concacaf is very aware of the situation because we have been in contact with them and, in fact, they told us of the difficulties other teams are having as well, and they did say that track and field were having the same issues,” Ricketts explained as to why they would have avoided a fine had they withdrawn.

“We are fortunate to have the opportunity to still make the trip and we must say thanks to Minister Kamina Johnson-Smith who was very strident in ensuring that we got these dates.

“So, again, we are very pleased as we seek to continue the development of the country’s female programme once everything is sorted,” he ended.