FALMOUTH, Trelawny — The newly elected executive of the Trelawny Football Association (TFA) might be forced to use the winner of its knock-out competition as the qualifier for the Jamaica Football Federation’s (JFF) Tier II league that is set to start early next year.

With time running out on the start of its Major League competition, newly elected interim President Desmond Simpson told the Jamaica Observer West that they might have to use the knock-out champions to participate in the play-off for qualification in the national competition.

Simpson, who replaced the long-serving TFA boss Marlene Brown at an emergency annual general meeting in September, says the executive is still waiting to hear from prospective sponsors before a date is decided on for the start of the Major League.

“Sponsorship is always an issue, we need money to run football and our agenda right now is to see how fast we can get our sponsors on board and to see how fast we can get our competition underway,” Simpson told the Observer West last week.

The Major League competition in each parish must be completed by December, according to the JFF Competitions Committee, before the Tier II competition to start in the new year.

But unless the TFA Major League competition starts soon, it is unlikely for it to be completed before the December deadline.

Simpson said that an alternative could be to play the knock-out competition, which has always been the traditional opener and the winner would represent the parish.

“The Member of Parliament traditionally sponsors the knock-out competition and we could have dialogue with her [Tova Hamilton MP for Trelawny Northern] and get that competition going first,” said Simpson.

He noted that about 10 of the 12 clubs in the parish are ready to play as far as registration is concerned, pointing out that they are all in compliance with the new JFF online registration system.

The other concern, he said, is the condition of the playing surfaces.

“We know that poor surfaces can affect the football and also cause injuries to players. We have a lot of potential here in Trelawny and we want to keep them here, so what we might do is play games on selected fields that are up to a certain standard,” he stated.