Team Real Solid Action (RSA), the campaign team of Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) presidential candidate Raymond Anderson, says it is upset by what it considers bad conduct from the federation.

RSA’s disgruntlement comes from a decision by the JFF to host its congress on Saturday, four days before a deadline given to have all voter organisations registered ahead of the election on January 14.

Organisations looking to be registered would have needed to be present at the congress for ratification but this, Anderson says, would have posed a challenge to anybody seeking to register in the final days and hours of the deadline. Congress also requires a 14-day notice of any organisation’s incorporation as a fully registered company to meet for ratification.

Based on JFF’s constitution, 56 delegates are allowed to vote in the upcoming election. These delegates are placed in three “pillars”. The first pillar consists of the 13 parish associations, who have two votes each. The second pillar consists of the top four clubs from the men’s and women’s premier leagues, as well as the top four clubs from the men’s and women’s tier-two leagues.

The third pillar is made up of other football stakeholders such as Professional Football Jamaica (organisers of the Jamaica Premier League), Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association, the Jamaica Intercollegiate Sports Association, the Jamaica Football Referees Association (JRA), the Jamaica Football Coaches Association (JFCA), Beach Soccer Jamaica (BSJ), and the Past Players Association.

The Jamaica Observer understands that the JRA had one item outstanding in its declaration that was not submitted until the last JFF board meeting, which took place at the end of November. Reports are that this board has met at least twice to admit members.

But JFCA and BSJ were two bodies still seeking to be registered and ratified for the election and representatives were allegedly prevented from attending the congress as their names were not on the list of delegates.

“We are compelled to express our deep shock and utter outrage at the conduct of the Michael Ricketts-led Jamaica Football Federation (JFF),” RSA said in a press release. “In a blatant contradiction of democratic principles, Team RSA has been informed of a mandate requiring all organisations to register according to the JFF Constitution by December 20 this year.

“The congress held last Saturday proved illogical based on the dates already set. We believe this is a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise legitimate voter organisations within Pillar 3.”

Anderson, who is also a JFF vice-president (VP), says he wrote to the JFF General Secretary Dennis Chung, and President Ricketts about the issue but received no response.

But a source at the JFF, who asked not to be named, refutes any wrongdoing on its part.

This source says that an e-mail was sent out a week before the congress advising that only delegates listed by name would be allowed attendance. This, the source says, is standard practice at FIFA congresses and across federations within Concacaf, the regional governing body.

“In fact, I was at a meeting with member associations and they all agreed,” the source said. “Also, our congress is a private meeting and we have to have strict monitoring, especially when there are votes.”

But RSA is also upset at what it describes as “unexpected and unjustified police hostility” when trying to attend the congress at the Montego Bay Community College.

“Officers stated that entry was conditional on being named on a specific list,” RSA’s press release said. “This intervention by law enforcement, which Vice-President Bruce Gaynor ridiculously claims is customary, is unprecedented in JFF Congress history and suggests a premeditated plan to exclude Team RSA, a claim supported by video evidence in our possession.”

The meeting was set to start at 11:00 am, but the source says Ricketts allowed a delay for members of the other electoral slate to arrive “in the interest of equity”.

“At around 11:50 am we received a call from the police at the gate to say there was a bus with people who refused to give their names,” the source said. “The instructions were to receive all names before entry as everyone else has done. The police did receive the name from VP Anderson, who was compliant, but no one else wanted to give their names, to which we said the names must be given.

“They still refused to give the names and everyone behind was not allowed to enter. So the person in charge at the college called us to say that the behaviour at the gate was unacceptable and if it wasn’t rectified he would be cancelling the entire event and we would have to leave.

“At that point the president told the policeman to let them in because he did not want to create any further reputational issue with the college.”

RSA says it is doing its own investigation into the matter.