Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

FIFA vice-president Austin 'Jack' Warner walks towards a broken door while on tour of the site where construction is taking place for the JFF academy at Munro Villas in St. Elizabeth, yesterday.- Photo by Kwesi Mugisa

Following a tour of the site earmarked by the previous Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) administration for the development of the FIFA Goal Project - national football academy - vice-president of the FIFA, Austin 'Jack' Warner, called it a tragedy.

"I haven't seen anything here to impress me," Warner said after a tour of the partially rundown, partially complete facility.

"We came here in 2003, Sepp Blater and I, to tour the site in Portmore, and five years later, coming back to look at the Goal Project, this is what I see.

"This is a tragedy. You guys have achieved too much in local football to turn the clock backwards, and this is what I see," Warner said.

Following a meeting of the JFF board of directors on Thursday night, an agreement to abandon the project was reached.

Issues included a stop order being put on building at the location, due to a lack of adequate documentation provided to the St Elizabeth Parish Council, no formal agreement existing with the JFF and Munro and Dickenson Trust for use of football fields, and a concern regarding water being provided in the remote area.

The JFF will now put the property up for sale and with the official approval of FIFA seek to relocate the project. According to president of the association, Captain Horace Burrell, this is a top priority.

official approval

"We will have to get official approval from FIFA to dispose of this place. It is not suitable by all accounts," Burrell said.

"We will have to quickly put this in writing to FIFA and begin to look in another direction. I still say the location should be close to one of our stadiums or one of our national facilities which has access to all the basic infrastructure," he said.

In March 2006, the then Crenston Boxhill-led JFF administration received J$26.3m (US$400,000) from FIFA towards the project at Munro Villas. The project was expected to have been completed late last year. While pointing out that the ball was in the JFF's court, Warner, also president of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Associations of Football (CONCACAF) and Caribbean Football Union (CFU) explained that it would be possible to get support from FIFA for another grant.

"It's up to the JFF to present the case, and if and when they do, they will have my support," he said.

"I will be able to describe to FIFA some of what I've seen and to my colleague Mohammed Bin Hammam, chairman of the Goal Project Committee, some of the errors that were made here. And with that I'm sure they'll seriously look into it.

"The national country of a team belongs to the people. There is no need to hide them out here. I am just amazed at the idea. I was told even the nearest hospital from here is miles away," added Warner.