JAMAICA Football Federation (JFF) presidential candidate Raymond Anderson has promised female vice-presidents if he is successful in the upcoming election.

As reported by the Jamaica Observer on Monday, Anderson, a first vice-president in the current JFF administration, officially announced his candidacy for the position on Sunday, with elections due by November.

He will be challenging Michael Ricketts who has been JFF president since September 2017.

Anderson says this female vice-president will not only allow the JFF to give greater attention to the issues regarding the women’s programme and women’s leagues, clubs and players locally, but also help to restore a healthy relationship between the JFF, its senior national women’s team — the Reggae Girlz — and their benefactor, the Bob Marley Foundation (BMF).

“She will not be a token female just because we want a female,” Anderson told the Observer exclusively on Sunday. “There will be, at a minimum, two.”

Former Cricket West Indies President Dave Cameron, a member of Anderson’s campaign team, says it is important to tap into the creative energy of women in marketing in Jamaica’s corporate sector.

“Let’s be clear, 90 per cent of marketing managers from all the major companies in Jamaica are female,” Cameron said. “Those are the people we are targeting for support.”

Jamaica had what many say is its greatest footballing achievement when the Reggae Girlz played in the round of 16 at the Fifa Women’s World Cup against Colombia last week, but discussions stemming have called for the accomplishment to be used to bring awareness to and improve the local aspect of the women’s programme. This is especially since none of the members of that team play for a local club.

“We are not satisfied with where we are now with the female programme,” Anderson said. “That is why we looked at the vice-president’s role. Instead of just trying to find a female on the board, we want that one of the vice-presidents must be of women’s affairs in its totality. We know where we are at, and we must commend the ladies and commend the technical staff for taking us here, but we have to go from ground zero up. If we do that, then we will actually bridge the gap in the stages right up. That means we will sustain this programme.

“Don’t get us wrong, sustainability doesn’t mean that everybody has to be born in Jamaica or play in Jamaica, but sustainability in a programme that when they are looking for players they can look here, there, and everywhere — not everywhere and not here. We have the quality so our project will be from the grass roots up. We’ll have a female looking at that.”

Anderson has already identified this person but will not say who she is as yet.

“That female said to us, ‘Remember now, as the vice-president for women I’ll be the vice-president for the JFF also so transparency must be everywhere.’

“Everybody that we asked to be a member of the board, the first thing they say to us is, ‘Don’t make me have to be the missing glove.’ They warned me, and I gave everybody the assurance that we will work together as a team and transparency will be the order of the day —, not only for the board but also for the wider football family. Women will be well taken care of.”

Kingston and St Andrew Football Association President Mark Bennett, another member of Anderson’s campaign team, says he is confident the person they have identified will deliver.

“She was a former footballer, would have done well professionally, would’ve led a number of bodies as a manager and administrator,” he said.

Bennett mentioned the strained relationship between the JFF and the BMF and says having a woman in a key role at the JFF would ease tensions.

“We all know the problems which went on between the JFF and the Reggae Girlz, as well as their benefactor,” he said. “This is why it is important in selecting a female to be the vice-president that will lead the charge. It is important for that relationship to be reset. And we would have noted all the contributions and the work of all the persons involved from the JFF side and from the benefactor’s side, but we also believe it was important to have someone from the team to be able to lead that changing relationship and also to integrate, once and for all, female football into the JFF properly.

“Of course, in relationships you will have problems from time to time but we are confident that the person we have in place will be able to negotiate through those problems.

“We are confident that the person we identified will have a changing relationship and truly, once and for all, be a partnership.”

Anderson also promised a specific technical committee for women’s football.

“We know that the women have done so well that we want to ensure all that, whatever we do, they’re not overshadowed,” he said. “We looked at how we can address the whole technical side of football, and right now in-house we have a technical committee chairman for men’s and women’s football. We believe there should be a technical committee chairperson for women’s football. We want to ensure that women get the attention that they should get.

“I’m not saying that person has to be a woman, but that person would be in charge of the technical development of women, specifically. Just as there now exists a women’s desk at the JFF we want to have a technical director for women’s football, hence we will see the development down that side.”

Should Anderson win the election his female vice-presidents will be two of an 11-member slate. Seven members of these will be elected while the other four may be chosen from their regional network.