Reid

Western Bureau:

Despite the trampling that took place when it rained on the final night of last weekend's Jamaica Jazz & Blue Festival, Jamaica Football Federation's (JFF) general secretary Horace Reid remains optimistic that the venue will be ready for the upcoming CONCACAF Under-17 Championship.

"We had some concerns and we look at the playing surface on the Sunday morning following the jazz festival," said Reid.

"However, we were again given an assurance by stakeholders that the field will be ready for the tournament."

timeline

According to Reid, he was making arrangements to visit the venue to have a first-hand look at what was taking place and to remind the management of the expected timeline to turn over the venue to CONCACAF for final preparations.

"They have given me their word that the venue will be ready and since these are experience people, I see no reason why I should not accept what they have said," said Reid. "We will keep monitoring the situation ahead of the final CONCACAF inspection."

In regard to the Catherine Hall Stadium, in Montego Bay, which is slated to host the 34th renewal of the Milo Western Relays two days before the start of the Under-17 Champion-ship, which will be staged between February 14-27, Reid said that situation is also being monitored closely.

assurances

"That is a concern that we have raised but we have been given assurances that the field will not be touched during the staging of the relays," said Reid. "We will again be raising our concerns at the next meeting of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) and hoping arrangements will be put in place to protect the playing surface."

When contacted about what provisions are being made to ensure that the playing surface is not damaged during the western relays, meet organiser Ray Harvey said the playing area would not be used for any events, so there is really no reason to worry about the possibility of damage.

"We will not be using the playing area for any field events, so there is really no chance of damaging the playing surface," said Harvey. "The most that can happen is that one of the elite athletes might use it to warm up or warm down but there will be absolutely no wholesale use by the athletes."

The CONCACAF championship, which will yield four qualifiers for this summer's FIFA Under-17 Worlds Cup in Mexico, will feature games at both the Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium and the Catherine Hall facility.

The Trelawny stadium will host the opening double-header between Haiti and Costa Rica and also Cuba and the United States on February 14. Catherine Hall will be used the following day for the Barbados versus Honduras and the Jamaica versus Trinidad & Tobago double-header.