WHATEVER may be his faults, it would be difficult to accuse the head of Jamaica’s Football Federation (JFF), Captain Horace Burrell, of lacking courage or creative thinking.

The Captain’s gumption and creativity came much to the fore in the build-up to Jamaica’s qualification for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. We are witnessing it yet again in his plans, as published in yesterday’s Observer, for the JFF to kick-start the Reggae Boyz’s 2014 World Cup campaign with a series of international friendlies in 2010.

Captain Burrell says a friendly against Canada in the National Stadium on January 31 will be the “official launch” of the campaign to qualify Jamaica for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

In addition to that, he says, the Federation will be aiming at having “at least one friendly game a month at home and abroad” ahead of the qualifiers.

This newspaper would be remiss, or perhaps naïve, should we not recognise and point out that in 2010, in the aftermath of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the voting congress of the JFF will become due. Captain Burrell’s job as president of the JFF could well be contested. We are sure that even as the Captain makes plans for the road ahead, his own future as ‘chief conceptualiser’ is at the forefront of his mind.

But make no mistake about it, Captain Burrell is planning to up the ante in terms of the Jamaica national football team’s 2014 qualifying campaign at a time that is among the most difficult in the economic history of this country.

The Jamaican Government, with nowhere else to turn, is about to finalise a borrowing agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that will be accompanied by tough conditionalities. To help clear the way for the agreement, the Government on Thursday served notice of a $21.8-billion tax package — the third of its kind since the start of the fiscal year in April. All indications are that ordinary Jamaicans, who are already unable to make economic ends meet, will find life even harder in the immediate future.

In such circumstances it would have been easy and perfectly understandable for Captain Burrell to go the conservative route and simply batten down in the face of the economic storm. Many others would have chosen that option.

But as a highly successful marketer and businessman, Captain Burrell is well aware that adversity also brings opportunities. For even in the harshest times, people need to relax and be entertained. And what better way is there than through sport, including football. That reality perhaps explains why sport worldwide continues to thrive as a service industry despite the horrific global economic meltdown.

Also, as we all know from myriad sporting successes down the years — including most recently the triumph of our track and field stars in Beijing and Berlin — nothing builds national pride and the national brand as does sport.

We applaud the Captain as he boldly seeks to navigate Jamaica’s football in this most uncertain of times. Others in sport administration should seek to follow his lead.