Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) General Secretary Dennis Chung has disputed claims by presidential candidate Raymond Anderson concerning their dialogue about the upcoming voting congress.

Anderson and his campaign team, Real Solid Action (RSA), held a press conference on Thursday afternoon and shared concerns about grouses they have and alleged discrepancies they have noticed so far in the lead-up to the voting congress to be held on March 17.

One of RSA’s key issues regards approved delegates for the election. Some sporting bodies, including Beach Soccer Jamaica (BSJ), have not been officially ratified by the JFF, while associations, such as Beach Football Association Jamaica, which RSA described previously as a paper association, were registered with the Companies Office of Jamaica to be ratified to vote. RSA then raised an appeal about this and several other items, which was then ruled on by the Appeals Committee.

Anderson, the JFF’s first vice-president, said on Thursday that he was told by Chung that the Electoral Committee said it does not believe in the ruling of the Appeals Committee on who should be allowed membership.

But Chung denies this.

“What the [Electoral] committee said was that they did not entirely agree with the ruling of the Appeals Committee,” Chung told the
Jamaica Observer on Friday. “They said that they were the ones to determine the membership because the constitution clearly states that it is the board and the congress that determines a member. But, since they also accept that the constitution says that the Appeals Committee’s ruling is final and binding, they will accept the responsibility but will first refer it to the board to make a recommendation, which they always do, as to who should be a member. It will go on to Congress also.”

Chung also refuted Anderson’s claims that information shared with and among JFF executives was being deliberately kept from him.

“This issue that information is being withheld is not the case,” Chung said. “What the [Electoral] committee has said is that they are not going to commit anything in writing or communicate by providing any written thing that they get from FIFA because one of the concerns that they have is that information that is sent in writing gets out to the public and to people who are not supposed to get it.

“One particular instance was when a board meeting notice, including the attachments, was sent to the directors and forwarded by one director to an external party. That is a breach of confidentiality and therefore, the committee took the decision that they’re not communicating anything in writing. That decision was communicated to everyone at the board meeting. So, no one has an unfair advantage. No one is given information that no one else is given.”

Chung says that the decision not to communicate in writing does not create issues of inaccuracies because of word-of-mouth communication.

“The committee clearly stated, through me, that they had a conversation with FIFA and it was discussed about how we’re going to proceed with the election,” he said. “FIFA was fine with it and that was clearly communicated.”

Another issue raised by RSA on Thursday was that it has not yet received a list of approved delegates, but Chung says this is all due process.

“No one is given a list of the approved delegates,” he said. “What will happen is that the Electoral Committee has communicated, once again, through me, to the board meeting, that they will publish the voters’ list three days before the election. Anyone who reads the constitution will understand why that is so. They have given that and said that they will do that, but I don’t understand what the need is for a list of approved delegates. That is something for the secretariat, the Electoral Committee, and the Electoral Office of Jamaica, who is going to run the elections.

“The constitution says that the associations have up until 14 days before the congress to send in their delegates. We don’t even know who the delegates are yet. You have until March 3 to send it in.”

RSA also raised concerns that there was no 60-day period between the announcement of the new election date and the election itself, as the decision to host the election on March 17 was taken at a JFF board meeting held on February 24.

Chung says that, based on the JFF’s constitution, the 60-day period continues from the announcement in November of the previous election date (January 14), which was postponed because of a Supreme Court injunction that BSJ sought.

“In our discussion with FIFA, they did say, and our position, as well as the Electoral Committee, is that the postponement that has happened was just a disruption of a process that was already in place,” he said. “The notice was already given from November for the election. This is just a continuation of it. Our constitution speaks to it. What was needed was an interpretation as to what was to be done in terms of notice. The discussion we had with legal persons is that it was a continuation of it.

“In fact, to have an election, given that the notice has been given, it can actually be done in another forum, which requires 14 days’ notice. The interpretation is that it is a continuation of the process that was already started. It is not a new process that is being started.”

The JFF Voting Congress on March 17 will take place in Hanover but a venue is yet to be announced.