FIFA has lifted financial restrictions imposed on the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) last year.

The decision by football’s world governing body, that takes immediate effect, came after what the JFF described as “thorough review of the financial management and governance of the Federation”.

The review and recommendation procedure took place during several visits from FIFA lasting a period of over one year.

JFF general secretary Dalton Wint explained that the FIFA review process uncovered several issues of concern.

“FIFA had imposed some restrictions based on the fact that we were not doing some of the things that it would have loved to see us do,” he said.

“For FIFA, cash payments should be at a minimum and based on how we used to operate, cash payments for players and things were at a premium and they wanted us to reduce that drastically and we have done so.”

There were also other issues that the JFF had to address, Wint said.

“There is a situation in which funds from our FIFA account were being transferred to another account; that is something they don’t want happening, you should just spend directly from their account. And our accounting system needed upgrading and we did that,” he said.

Now that those matters have been resolved, Wint says the JFF will now be able to receive their full tranches from FIFA in January and July instead of the incremental payments they were getting from FIFA during the period of the review.

Meantime, the FIFA administration thanked the JFF for the steps taken thus far to address the risks identified as part of the central review process and encourages the prioritisation of this ongoing implementation.

FIFA also pledged its support for Jamaica, placing its Finance Governance Team at the JFF’s disposal as it works to modernise its operations. (Sportsmax)