Barbadians are not particularly impressed with the remuneration package the Barbados Football Association is offering for the post of general secretary and that organization has been forced once more to look overseas for someone to fill the post.
That’s the word from BFA president, Randy Harris, who told Barbados TODAY in an interview that the association would be recruiting someone from overseas to fill what was essentially a job of chief executive officer of the Barbados Football Association.
BFA president Randy Harris
“The vacancy came up from November last year and we had a fair amount of applications from Barbados, and while we had at least two great candidates that would have been suitable for the post, I think the basic salary was not what they were expecting,” Harris explained.
The top post in the local football fraternity became vacant when former general secretary, Chris Graham, resigned on September 6. Since that resignation the BFA has been unable to fill the vacancy which Harris said was advertised in the media since late last year.
Harris said: “Many of the persons who have applied believed it was a secretary recording minutes and keeping appointments. But this is the CEO of the BFA and we had two great candidates but sadly we were not in a position to pay them the kind of salary they are looking for.”
Harris explained that apart from keeping records the general secretary had to have a knowledge of financing, had basically to be a quasi-diplomat where he or she would be liaising with government and international bodies like FIFA and the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF). He explained that in essence a general secretary was an individual who would run the BFA on a day-to-day basis.
“So obviously we have now advertised to get somebody outside of the country that is versed in football matters, who is in a position to assist the players and the BFA and who basically has experience managing football associations,” Harris said.
The BFA president noted that FIFA was responsible for the salaries paid to the general secretary and the post needed to be filled by the end of April as far as the world governing body for football was concerned.
“FIFA has given us certain criteria for the appointment of the general secretary and they are paying the wages and we would have to get one as soon as possible so our mutual projects can start. If the post isn’t filled by that time, then we have to go again so more or less we would be on our own,” he said.
Harris said the BFA already had an overseas applicant who was vying for the post but at this stage the association would not be saying who that person might be until the association had taken care of certain legal matters where immigration was concerned.
“I don’t want to say anything about it at the moment because we have to deal with immigration after these notices have been posted so I don’t think it makes sense to say who we have in mind for the post but the person has applied to the BFA,” Harris said.
The BFA ran into administrative trouble with its last general secretary, Canadian Joyce Stewart. She took up the position last October but was stopped from fulfilling her duties in January this year after it came to light that she was working in the island without a work permit in keeping with Barbados’ Immigration Act.