Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president Michael Ricketts has broken his silence about recent developments and allegations laid against his administration by vice-president and challenger Raymond Anderson and his Real Solid Action (RSA) team.

 

With the January 14 elections now less than a month away, Ricketts, who has been at the helm since 2017, expressed concern about the mudslinging involved in the elections campaign, chief among them, the allegations of fraud against his administration where the handling of stakeholders in Pillar three is concerned, and more recently, an uproar during the JFF Congress in Montego Bay.

 

"I have up until now refrained from offering any public comments regarding the election, as we are guided by a constitution, and I have always emphasised the need for both sides to maintain respect for each other, as we all need to live together after the election. There have been several comments made in the public, which are disturbing, to say the least," Ricketts said in a release on Tuesday.

 

The comments to which Ricketts refer involves the situation in which Anderson and some delegates were Anderson, along with 11 delegates, who were travelling in a bus, were asked to provide their names before entering the schoolyard. They were held outside the college gates for approximately 15 minutes.

Anderson characterised the situation as employing intimidatory tactics, but Ricketts rubbished the allegations.

"At a recent extraordinary congress, the matter escalated with some delgates arriving at the gate and refusing to provide their names to the security, which was done by everyone else, a standard practice within the FIFA organisations. As president, I not only waited on their team for almost an hour after the meeting was scheduled to start, but allowed them to enter even with their refusal to provide their names," the president explained.

 

"Also, at a recent board meeting, a member from each side was involved in a regular verbal exchange. This was surprisingly reported to the police by the other side as a threat.

The latest episode was an attempt to publicly embarrass my candidate, with a public effort to arrest without even a warning. If it is the incident that I know of, it does not warrant this type of action," he added.

 

Finally, in expressing his disappointment, Ricketts is hopeful that good sense will prevail for the remainder of the respective campaigns.

 

"I am extremely disappointed that some elements have allowed the election process to play out in this manner, which is aimed at embarrassing persons. Once again, I ask all involved to let good sense prevail in the interest of football," the release ended.

Anderson’s RSA slate includes Keith Wellington, Jacqueline Cummings-Martin, Donald Beckford and Orville Powell, as vice-presidents, while Carole Beckford and Whycliffe “Dave” Cameron would serve as ordinary directors.

Meanwhile, Ricketts’s slate has Gregory Daley, Elaine Walker-Brown, Raymond Grant and Baron Watson as vice-presidents, with Rudolph Speid and Bruce Gaynor as ordinary directors.