Burrell

Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president Captain Horace Burrell has once again sounded his call for the construction of a new stadium in Jamaica following the damage sustained to the National Stadium surface after the staging of the Independence Grand Gala in early August.

The managers of the National Stadium Complex announced earlier this week that it has been faced with a challenge to get the surface ready in time for Jamaica's September 7, FIFA World Cup qualifier against the USA. Burrell charged the 'powers that be' to take the necessary steps to ensure that situations like these are not repeated.

seek funding

"In the same way that we would seek loans to build roads, we should seek funding because it's a part of our development to construct a stadium, which can comfortably seat at least 50,000 people," Burrell charged.

"I believe the sportsmen and women of this country have done enough to be deserving of a modern facility."

"Truth be told, I really think it is time that the powers that be look at constructing a new stadium in our country," Burrell added.

Built in 1962 for the Central American and Caribbean Games, the National Stadium remains the island's premier sporting facility with its 30,000 seating capacity.

new facility

The facility also has an IAAF regulation 400m running track and a 500m concrete velodrome, but Burrell believes it's time for a new facility, which will limit the sharing of venues between sporting events and other activities.

"We have one stadium which is being used for all major national events besides track and field and football, and that ought not to be so at this stage of our development," Burrell argued.

"I think that this is vitally necessary and it is on occasions like these that the point is driven home even more forcefully. It is not so much blaming the organisers of the gala, because there is really nowhere else, but I do think that the sporting disciplines have done enough to warrant a new stadium," Burrell added.