Former Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) President Tony James and veteran football administrator Carvel Stewart believe current head Michael Ricketts lacks the requisite acumen to continue leading the sport’s local governing body and, as such, should relinquish the post.

In fact, both are of the view that the entire administration should demit office for the chaos that has unfolded in Jamaica’s football over the past few years with players and some coaches consistently expressing discontent at the constant “lack of respect, transparency and communication” from the JFF hierarchy of which General Secretary Dalton Wint is said to be the main protagonist.

While both agree that Wint was in over his head in the position, they echo similar sentiments that the embattled administrator was a mere scapegoat used to cover the JFF’s broader shortcomings.

Wint, who has been at the centre of several controversial issues involving national teams, was again placed in the firing line as senior men’s players demanded his removal after logistical issues relating to travel arrangements following the country’s Concacaf Nations League match away to Suriname on Saturday.

With the players at the time insistent that they would not take the field for Tuesday’s return-leg Group A encounter at the National Stadium in St Andrew if Wint doesn’t resign, he later indicated to the JFF board that he will step aside, possibly ending a tumultuous tenure as general secretary which started back in 2017.

However, he has not indicated an effective date and/or officially submitted his resignation, and, as a result, was told clearly that he will be fired if he refuses to hand in an official resignation letter.

But a letter sent to Wint on June 6, signed by Ricketts, a copy of which was obtained by the Jamaica Observer, stated otherwise. It gave the assurance that once Wint’s resignation letter is received he will be fully compensated as per his employment agreement with the JFF for the period January 2020 to December 2023.

Still, James is adamant that Wint should not have been blamed for the travel foul up and instead pointed the finger in Ricketts’ and Vice-President Bruce Gaynor’s direction.

“Everybody knows that it’s Bruce who handles the tickets, but if the general secretary is the person that says no, then he is going to be unpopular. But it’s not the general secretary who should be saying no; where is the president?

“The general secretary cannot take my blow, I am the president, so I have to step up and take my blow. But Mike [Ricketts] doesn’t listen, he should have gotten rid of Wint long ago, but because of the politics of the situation, because you know that if he leaves Manchester probably leaves with him. Mike is a very weak leader,” James said bluntly.

“If you are not in control of football, you should step down. This administration is not in control of football because what is happening to them at every level is that the people just can’t work with them and it comes back to the incompetence of the administration.

“Why is it that the he [Wint] is the scapegoat? That is pathetic. I’m from Manchester, I know Dalton, I’ve looked at his strengths and weakenesses and I knew he is not competent to run that position. He never was and he never grew in the position because of his attitude,” James told the Observer.

Stewart concurred, stating that the turmoil reflects badly on the president, who should have been more hands-on in overseeing proceedings.

“Clearly the head has to take overall responsibility, the gen sec was in the line and to some extent might have been the scapegoat left to the slaughter for the incompetence. But he couldn’t have been so by himself, I mean he wasn’t able to manage the job and there were time and time again when there were issues.

“So the leadership has the overall responsibility, and quite frankly it’s not just the president alone, there is one particular vice-president who seemed to have always been involved in the travel arrangements for everybody. So, I suspect that he has some responsibility directly in the last episode in Suriname and should be held accountable also. So it’s not just the gen sec alone, to be honest,” Stewart said.

“It really is a very unfortunate situation because the inability to manage the affairs of Jamaica’s football is evident, and so again, it can’t just be the general secretary alone,” he added.

Efforts to get a response from Ricketts proved futile, while Gaynor declined to comment on the issue when reached.

However Ricketts, in an earlier radio interview, affirmed that he would have no qualms stepping down, if asked to do so.

“That’s a normal [that people would be calling for my resignation], but if and when that time comes I won’t hang around. I don’t expect to be president of the JFF for life, but I know that I have done my best. I know that this JFF would have done a lot of things that previous JFF administrations have not done. Each time we have these fallouts, it’s just travel [arrangements] and people would not understand just how challenging it has been,” Ricketts said.

Like Stewart, who has in the past chided the JFF for compromising its authority to the players, James also took jabs at the administration for bowing to those demands, first with Vin Blaine, who resigned after a letter signed by 20 members of the senior Reggae Girlz team was sent to the JFF calling for his removal, and now with Wint.

In Wint’s case, a voice note, in which players called for his resignation was circulated with Ricketts seemingly supporting those calls in the leaked recording.

“That is not a federation, the Girlz can’t be demanding you fire the coach and then the Boyz demand you fire the general secretary. You can’t bow to players,” James argued. He said the JFF failed to properly develop lines of communication with the players, and giving in to the demands was their way of reciprocating.

“One of the things that we haven’t done, we have not created the forum for discussion, but again, to be honest with you, it comes back to money. If you don’t have the finances and you don’t have the structure, every time that you are trying to meet an obligation and you have to give a word, you can’t give a concrete response because you don’t have the funds to fall back on and you don’t have the structures in place.

“So your word is your bond, and every time you give your word, you are breaking your word and after a while people will stop listening to you,” the former JFF boss explained.