BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - AFTER five years at the helm of the St. Kitts-Nevis Football Association, Anthony Johnson is seeking a second term as the Association’s President and he is confident of victory.
Speaking with SKNVibes, Johnson admitted that although his team is confident of victory he would not take anything for granted.
“The reaction that we have gotten so far is very positive. We are not taking anything for granted and we are reaching out to as many clubs as possible. But I believe that based on the work that we have done we are likely to be re-elected to office.
“I don’t take anything for granted and we do our groundwork. We reached out to the clubs and we explained what our plans and programmes are, and based on the reactions and the commitments we have been given in various forms, we believe very strongly we will succeed.”
He further emphasised his confidence.
“Though I am confident I am not taking anything for granted because the elections are not won until we have the election, so until we will work right to the end to ensure we do.”
Johnson claimed that his team is the only one with a full slate of candidates.
“Our campaign for re-election has been going very well. We have for the last few months, in fact, been having a number of meetings with various clubs throughout the Federation. We are the only team of candidates that has an entire slate vying for election and each of those persons represent various clubs throughout the Federation. We are the only team that has a member from the island of Nevis.
“We have Alistair Edwards who is the current Second Vice President but who is vying on this occasion for First Vice President and Mr. Don Grant who is vying for the Second Vice President position. We have also seven other candidates who are vying to become members SKNFA Executive and they include Mr. Corneal Williams of the Newton Ground Football Club and Keith Pemberton of the Village Supertars Football Club. We have Vern Maynard who is a member of the St. Peters Football Club, Dominic Stevens who is a current member, Raymond Smith from Nevis who is the Vice President of Bath United and Mr. Carlton Pinney of Molineux as well as Mr. John Burgeon of the Police All Stars.
“As you can see we have a wide range of individuals contesting the elections and we believe that each of those persons brings to the table their experience and their passion for the development of the sport.”
Johnson also highlighted the plans he would like to implement during his second term.
“We have a number of plans which we believe will ensure that the member clubs are allowed to develop further and to do with the cost for participation in the various leagues.
“We want to ensure the cost associated with transportation is reduced, and one of the definitive proposals will be the sourcing of a 25-seater coaster which will be used on a shared arrangement.”
He said that he wants to implement a medical insurance scheme for players, because one does not know where and when one would be injured, adding that over the years there were many situations where players were injured and had to be out of the sport for prolonged periods.
Johnson added that that was one on his initial targets in the first term and he had received assistance from the National Caribbean Insurance, which meant that each club would have had to pay about $25 per person and the Association offered to pay $15.
“The difficulty however was that we did not get enough numbers registering for the scheme to allow it to be up and running
“We also indented to increase prize money for the First Division and appoint a committee to deal with First Division in addition to appointing a director of competitions, who will overall be responsible for leagues and competitions.”
The General Elections for the SKNFA’s Ordinary Congress are scheduled for Sunday, June 30, 2013.
