WITH less than two weeks before the highly anticipated Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) elections, President Michael Ricketts says his tenure is incomparable to his predecessors and he deserves another four years in charge.

Ricketts has led local football’s governing body for the past seven years, after beating the challenge of former Kingston and St Andrew Association President Ambassador Stewart Stephenson in 2017, following the death of Captain Horace Burrell, before returning unopposed in 2019.

During his tenure Ricketts has come under heavy criticism from various stakeholders — including former administrators as well as members of the public — for his stewardship of the sport in the face of several high-profile controversies and issues with senior players.

However, speaking with the Jamaica Observer, Ricketts feels that the criticisms levelled against him have been unwarranted.

“I always say that Jesus was crucified and he never did anything wrong but, for whatever reasons, these persons seem to unfairly make these comments. I can assure you this JFF is the most successful JFF – over the period I’ve been at the helm,” he said.

Ricketts says his achievements as president have made a significant impact on football across the island.

“When you think of the impact that we would have had on refereeing, coaching, and [the] major sponsorship with Adidas that is certainly going to change the whole landscape of football. When you think of qualifying consecutively to two global women’s tournaments; and when you think of infrastructure that we would have had at the [UWI-JFF] Captain [Horace] Burrell Centre [of Excellence]. When you think that football is the only sport that runs a fully professional league — it’s the only sport that has an office of its own, it’s the only sport that has a hostel with two playing facilities — so football is in competent hands,” Ricketts said.

Following its postponement on January 14 due to a Supreme Court injunction granted to Pat Garel’s Beach Soccer Jamaica, the voting congress is now set for Sunday, March 17 in Hanover.

Due to several well-documented issues with national teams and other key programmes there have been calls for a change in leadership, with Ricketts facing the challenge of current JFF Vice-President Raymond Anderson. However, Ricketts says he remains the right man for the job.

“Some people, just because of the greed for power, just do things that are extremely untoward and are very unfair. What is happening now in this JFF election period, it’s very, very unfair to those of us who would have given so much to the sport and have achieved significantly during our tenure,” he said.

“For three years we were under the pandemic which would have strangled us, to say the least. But, I’m pretty happy; we have done very well. When you think of some persons who would have been in the position of president, you can’t say what their achievements were but now [they] seem to have the answer for everything. But, we want to just stay humble and focused,” Ricketts added.

Ricketts’s slate comprises St Catherine FA President Elaine Walker-Brown, St James FA President Gregory Daley, Portland FA President Raymond Grant, and Manchester FA President Barry Watson. JFF Vice-President Bruce Gaynor and JFF Technical Committee Chairman Rudolph Speid are also part of Ricketts’s slate as ordinary directors.