New elected president of the Kingston and St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA) Mark Bennett says his first order of business will be to pay off the $5-million debt that the organisation currently owes to their clubs and referees.

Bennett was elected president of the KSAFA unopposed at Saturday’s special annual general meeting, which was held at the Jamaica Football Federation’s office in New Kingston.

He replaced Wayne Shaw, who resigned from the post on November 1 after serving in the position since 2017.

Bennett, who has been the second vice-president of the organisation since 2017, told the Jamaica Observer that he will be working assiduously to ensure that this money that is owed to their stakeholders is paid over by his association in short order.

“We are pursuing several avenues to deal with this matter, and so I am confident that the matter will be cleared shortly,” said Bennett. “We have identified a revenue source and we are going after that and I believe that we will be able to close that gap,” he said.

“This is one of my first priorities and to get sponsorship for competitions, especially our senior competitions which are around the corner, which are the KSAFA championship, the Major League and Jackie Bell,” Bennett said.

“I do believe that KSAFA has a record of performance because we have some successful youth programmes and I believe that companies around would want to be part of that process,” he added.

Bennett, who is a former president of Brown’s Town FC, pointed out that Shaw has done a lot of work during his tenure in helping to build the organisation, but he added that there is still a lot more to be done.

“We have assembled a team that will be working and getting out there and knocking on doors and I believe that we will come up with something that we will be comfortable with because we want to ensure that all our competitions are sponsored,” he said.

“There is a lot of work to do now because the buck stops with me because this is a very hard job,” Bennett said. “KSAFA is the toughest confederation to run in Jamaica because the stakeholders are very passionate and no one can muzzle them and so we just have to sit and work together for the betterment of the football,” he said.

Meanwhile, KSAFA is scheduled to meet in seven days to elect a new second vice-president.