BY SEAN A WILLIAMS Assistant Sports Editor
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The Reggae Boyz who participated in lifting the regional Digicel Caribbean Championships in December of last year in
President of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), Captain Horace Burrell, and general secretary, Horace Reid, confirmed yesterday that the bulk of 20 players have collected their monies "with only a few" remaining since the payments started last Thursday.
"All of the players who have got their funds so far are very excited and we in turn are happy for them because this is money that they have worked hard for," Burrell said.
The delay of the prize money of US$120,000 by the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) was said to have resulted from years of unpaid cess by the JFF to the regional body.
President of the CFU,
"What happened is that the CFU imposed a freeze until we were able to make the outstanding payments... that had been done and the funds were released," Burrell explained from his New Kingston office yesterday.
The cess is a mandatory tax all FIFA member nations must pay when they stage international matches if charges are applied to spectators to watch.
"For many years this cess was not being paid over to the regional body, the CFU, and it has piled up," said Burrell, who is also senior vice-president of the CFU.
The unnamed sum owed to the CFU was said to have been deducted from the Digicel prize money, with the remainder to be shared equally among the players and a small portion to be divided among the technical staff.
Neither Burrell nor Reid was prepared to reveal the sum owed to the CFU.
Burrell, who is in his second stint as JFF boss, said the decision to hand over whatever was raked in from the tournament to the players was made because the cash-strapped local football body could not pay the customary match fees.
"Had we not made this arrangement with the players, the sum we had to pay to them in fees would be much more on a match-to-match basis," he noted.
Knowing well ahead of the start of the finals of the regional tournament played in
"I have a very good relationship with the players and they trust my words. I told them the situation that the Federation is in and gave them the undertaking that the prize money would be theirs and they agreed to go along with the deal, knowing very well that they could win the title," said the CONCACAF executive committee member.
"Players are usually very reluctant to accept terms like these, but as I have said, I have an excellent relationship with all my players, overseas and local, so it was not that difficult to get them sold on the idea," Burrell added.
In the true sense, it was a risky proposition for the players, because if they had finished out of the prize-winning frame, they would have received nought.
Team captain Tyrone Marshall, who plays for US MLS rookies Seattle Sounders, went public in expressing his disappointment at the delay in payments, but said he understood the reason.
Jamaica's 20-man squad includes Donovan Ricketts, Shavar Thomas, Dane Richards, Omar Cummings, Eric Vernon, Andrew Williams, Roland Dean, Luton Shelton, Keneil Moodie, Demar Phillips, Tyrone Marshall, Rudolph Austin, Jason Morrison, Oneil Thompson, Demar Stewart, Dwayne Miller, Obrian Woodbine, Rafe Wolfe, Wolry Wolfe and Sean Fraser.
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