The new date for the highly anticipated Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) presidential elections could be revealed this weekend after President Michael Ricketts confirms that they have been given the green light by FIFA to proceed.

Incumbent Ricketts and current Vice-President Raymond Anderson were set to challenge for the presidency at the voting congress on January 14, but it was postponed after an injuction was granted by the Supreme Court following an appeal made by Beach Soccer Jamaica, led by Pat Garel.

FIFA then informed the JFF that it, along with Concacaf, would be conducting a thorough examination of the JFF’s statutes and regulations and will deliberate on the next steps, which meant no election could be held until this process is completed.

There were even suggestions that FIFA could appoint a normalisation committee to run Jamaica’s football, similar to other member federations including Trinidad and Tobago.

But speaking with the Jamaica Observer, Ricketts says football’s world governing body was satisfied with its findings.

“The first question that FIFA asked of me was ‘Have you done your due diligence? Have you gone through constitutional process?’ and when I responded, ‘Of course’ in the affirmative because we would have done everything that both the articles of our constitution and the statutes of FIFA would have demanded of us,” he said.

“Then the response was ‘Nobody could change that.’ That was what FIFA said. ‘If you have gone through the due process and constitutional process, then nobody can change that.’ and that is what we would have done. Even Beach Soccer, they are not an affiliate of the JFF, so they have no right to be doing what they’re doing,” Ricketts added.

Recently, the Supreme Court dismissed an application for the extension of the injunction, stating that Garel and Beach Soccer Jamaica had not proven themselves as affiliates or members of the JFF.

The JFF confirmed that they received a notice of appeal filed by Garel and Beach Soccer, but said they “remain confident in securing a favourable decision” and were “on course to set a new date for the elective congress”.

While not confirming its certainty, Ricketts says the date for the election will be determined within the next few days.

“Based on the articles, we must give no less than 14 days for an emergency congress. We have a board meeting on Saturday; hopefully it won’t be a long or controversial meeting. We may come up with an idea of what the date will be during the meeting on Saturday,” he said.

Though unhappy with how things have unfolded over the last few months, Anderson has no issues if the new date is set this weekend.

“We have to prepare ourselves, at all times; we are in readiness for the election. We’re ready for the 14 days or whichever time it will be constitutionally. I lead a team [where] our thing is constitutional; if it’s not, we will actually not support it. We have to do everything constitutionally correct,” he told the Observer.

“If you’re really serious about leading the JFF and children starting from seven years old, teaching them rules and regulations, we must at our administration level adhere to rules and regulations. Trust and integrity are first in our line,” Anderson added.

Ricketts, who is looking to extend his seven-year reign as president, is hoping that all will go smoothly in the coming days.

“I just hope that things will play out and I’m saying stop the quarrelling and let’s go to the polls. Stop bringing the sport into disrepute; let’s settle these issues and let’s move on with the plans we have for football,” he said.