JAMAICA Football Federation (JFF) General Secretary Dennis Chung says he expects Concacaf to approve the resumption of night matches at the National Stadium following improvements to the lights.

The Reggae Boyz’s opening World Cup Qualifier on June 6 was shifted from a 6:30 pm kick-off to 3:30 pm after the region’s football governing body said the existing lights at the stadium didn’t meet the minimum requirement of 1000 lumens for international matches. The low lighting also saw reigning Jamaica Premier League champions Cavalier FC fined during their regional club championship campaign.

However, ahead of Jamaica’s Concacaf Nations League match against Cuba in September as well as the Concacaf Caribbean Cup next month featuring Cavalier FC and Mount Pleasant Academy, the sport ministry spent close to $20 million to install the new lights, with a test done by media production company Phase 3 last Wednesday. Chung, Sport Minister Olivia Grange and Independence Park Limited General Manager Major Desmon Brown were all in attendance.

Grange says she is happy with the outcome of the test.

“The result of the lighting test conducted by Phase 3 has been transmitted to Concacaf through the JFF,” she said. “The general secretary, Mr Dennis Chung, told me that the initial feedback from Concacaf is that Jamaica is to be commended for the significant improvement in the lighting level since the last test.”

Chung says the report was issued on Thursday, as the test was done on Wednesday night.

“It was sent to Concacaf for review [and] we actually received feedback from one person at Concacaf who deals with the club championship, because the clubs will be playing there,” he said. “He congratulated us on the improvement and asked that we focus the lights [so] that it’s more evenly spread.

“We see no reason why it won’t be approved, though, because it’s definitely above the 1000 lumens — and in some places, significantly above — so once we refocus we might have an average lumen of 1200. So, we’re waiting on that final report to come but certainly we would have fixed that problem. We’re just waiting on Concacaf but the initial response was good.”

As of today the Reggae Boyz are set to host Cuba on September 6 at 7 pm. Cavalier’s and Mount Pleasant’s home games in the Caribbean Cup, which begin on August 20, are scheduled for Sabina Park but could be moved to the National Stadium once approval is given by Concacaf.