Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president Michael Ricketts is still hoping that the country will still be able to host World Cup qualifying matches later this year.
His comments come in response to Concacaf president Victor Montagliani, who, in an Associated Press report on Monday, expressed doubts that matches on the September, October, and November FIFA international days could be moved because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those matches, including the hexagonal round of Concacaf World Cup qualifying, could be pushed back to 2021. FIFA has already cancelled its March and June international dates which include the Concacaf Nations League finals. Jamaica would secure its place in the final round if it maintains its top six position in the region in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings in June.
Ricketts says that the JFF stands to suffer major financial losses should games in Jamaica be pushed back, but also recognises that attracting sponsors in light of the current climate will be challenging at best.
“Certainly, if we do not have our home games, it’s going to have a major impact on us from a commercial standpoint,” he said. “But we are keeping our fingers crossed.
“I know at this time it is going to be very difficult to attract sponsors with everything being scaled down to almost zero, but we are still optimistic. We are hoping that Concacaf and our parent organisation FIFA will give us some assistance.”
Montagliani also hinted in the report that the format for the hexagonal round could be changed as a possible postponement of the qualifiers will shorten the time frame between now and the FIFA World Cup scheduled for November 2022.
“We have other events that we will probably have to look at reformatting, whether it’s some of our youth competitions, or even World Cup qualifying, where we are going to have to look at how that would work in a situation where the calendar there is now less than we expected it to be,” Montagliani said.
Although the status of the final round of qualifying has not yet been decided, Ricketts said he has been in contact with Montagliani and believes that Jamaica will not be at a disadvantage should a format change become necessary.
“We are confident that whatever format will be used, will have positive implications, not on the region, but certainly on us as a member association,” Ricketts said.
As ratings stand, Mexico, USA, Costa Rica and Honduras are the other teams likely to compete in the final round, with either El Salvador or Canada joining them.