Sport

André Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) is not wasting any time as it looks to secure the additional US$400,000 needed from FIFA's Goal Project to commence work on Phase two its football academy, which is being erected on the campus of the Univer-sity of the West Indies, Mona.

Phase one, which includes the creation of training fields, changing rooms, irrigation system and perimeter fencing, is expected to be completed on schedule before the end of September this year.

The second phase will comprise office space, dormitories, physio-therapy facilities, gyms and parking lots, and will be funded by the second disbursement, which will become available upon the JFF's application on completion of Phase one.

Nothing taken for granted

General secretary of the cash-strapped organisation, Horace Reid, made the disclosure during a recent interview with The Gleaner, outlining that the administration is not taking anything for granted as they look to ensure the continuity of the project, which is now progressing steadily.

Reid pointed out that the JFF is hoping to submit the requisite application documentation long before FIFA's Goal Project approval committee's next meeting in October of this year.

"Our Goal Project committee met and the decision was taken that we will start putting together all the necessary documentation for Goal Project two, so to speak," Reid said. "We need to ensure that we have all the documentation that we need to secure the additional funds that are needed to complete the project on time.

"The approval committee will be meeting in October but we don't want to wait that long, we want to go ahead and start the preparation, so we think that this is the best way to approach it," Reid added.

Meanwhile, the highly respected administrator underlined his confidence in the rate at which work was being carried out on the first phase, hinting that it could be completed slightly ahead of schedule.

"Things are on track ... the members of the Goal Project committee met at their monthly meeting to review the current status of the project and we are all fairly satisfied that things are on target," said Reid. "The first phase was targeted for September but there is a possibility that it may be delivered a few weeks earlier, so we are very happy with how things are going at this point."

Satisfied with project

Interestingly, only recently FIFA's development manager for the Americas region, Gregory Engelbrecht, expressed satisfaction at the state of the project during a recent visit to the island.

The construction of the academy has been a controversial matter for over seven years, after ground was first broken in Portmore, St Catherine, by current JFF president Captain Horace Burrell in 2003.

Burrell was voted out of office shortly afterwards and incoming president Crenston Boxhill abandoned the Portmore site and moved the project to the hills of Malvern, St Elizabeth.

Work on the Malvern site suffered a roadblock even after FIFA had granted the US$400,000 Goal Project funds, and the site was once again relocated in 2007 when Burrell returned to office.

Ground was broken at its present location on the campus of the University of the West Indies, Mona, in January of this year.