Although willing to bring more premier regional competitions to Jamaica, Concacaf President Victor Montagliani says the National Stadium’s upgrade is necessary before those decisions are made.

Canadian Montagliani, a FIFA vice-president, visited the island on Wednesday and met with the leadership of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) as well as the presidents of the Bermuda and St Lucia football associations. He attended a press conference at the Jamaica Pegasus and was part of a tour of the Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence at The University of the West Indies (The UWI), Mona Campus.

He also held discussions with Sports Minister Olivia Grange, who on Monday announced that the redevelopment work of the stadium would begin next year.

Jamaica became the first Caribbean country to host a Concacaf Gold Cup match in 2019 at the National Stadium but haven’t done so since and aren’t scheduled to for the 2025 staging. The stadium has been under Concacaf’s microscope after several issues regarding the lighting this year which has affected World Cup qualifiers, Caribbean Cup and Women’s Club Championships.

When asked by the Jamaica Observer, Montagliani says the organisation is open to bringing back the Gold Cup and potentially the finals of the Nations League, but not in the near future due to the stadium’s current state.

“First and foremost, the National Stadium needs to be at the level that it sounds like it wants to be at after having those discussions [with the minister] today. From what they tell me, it’s a three- to four-year window so once that happens, we can have those conversations,” he said.

Grange revealed the project will be overseen by UK-based entities Ryder Architecture and CAA Icon which have done work on international stadiums such as Wembley (England national team), Emirates (Arsenal FC) and the San Siro (AC Milan). However, Montagliani, who has been in office since 2016, says Concacaf is willing to offer its own assistance during the stadium’s upgrade.

“What I’ve heard is there’s major renovation to bring the National Stadium to an international level, which bodes well for the future of what the JFF and what Jamaica itself as a country [want] to bring events here, whether regional or the international level, and we look forward to it,” he said.

“We told the ministry we’re here to help them in any technical way we can when they’re going through the processes of design because that’s part of our job to make sure, if they’re going to do it, they build it the right way, and so I’m very excited about that news.”

After discussions with Montagliani and Grange, JFF President Michael Ricketts told the
Observer that he’s optimistic about top-level events coming to the island.

“The timing is perfect because when I told [Montagliani] that on Monday evening the Government made the formal announcement, he was excited. This will certainly lead to more games coming here. I’m pretty sure once we have a facility that Concacaf and FIFA are comfortable with, we’ll have far more competitions and games being played here,” said Ricketts.

While excited about the future plans, Montagliani says he wants to see Jamaica continue on a path of developing football the right way.

“We’ve had a lot of activity in Jamaica in terms of bringing competitions here. We’ll continue to do that. We’ve had a lot of activity off the pitch in terms of our education programmes which I know it’s not a sexy thing because people want to talk about results in games but it’s important we put in the hard work off the pitch in terms of good governance, good practices, how to run federations, competitions and development programmes.”

Montagliani is scheduled to leave Jamaica on Thursday when he’s expected to visit another regional nation: Guyana.