KINGSTON – The Gov­ern­ment of Ja­maica and the Ja­maica Foot­ball Fed­er­a­tion (JFF) com­plet­ed a sig­nif­i­cant step to­wards co-host­ing the 2031 FI­FA Women’s World Cup when they signed the guar­an­tee agree­ments in Ja­maica on Tues­day.

Min­is­ter of Cul­ture, Gen­der, En­ter­tain­ment and Sport, Olivia Grange, along with JFF Pres­i­dent Michael Rick­etts, both signed the pa­per­work, which will en­sure that both en­ti­ties work close­ly with FI­FA to pre­pare the coun­try to co-host the World Cup along­side the Unit­ed States, Cos­ta Ri­ca and Mex­i­co.

“With the sign­ing, the Gov­ern­ment of Ja­maica and the Ja­maica Foot­ball Fed­er­a­tion will part­ner with FI­FA in ful­fill­ing the re­spon­si­bil­i­ties and de­liv­er­ables as­so­ci­at­ed with Ja­maica’s host­ing oblig­a­tions. These in­clude es­tab­lish­ing le­gal mech­a­nisms for guar­an­tees, bonds, de­c­la­ra­tions,” Grange said at the cer­e­mo­ny held at the of­fices of the min­istry at Trafal­gar Road in St An­drew.

The signed guar­an­tee agree­ments cov­er visas, per­mits, im­mi­gra­tion and check-in pro­ce­dures, safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty, waivers, in­dem­ni­fi­ca­tion, and oth­er le­gal is­sues.

Cab­i­net has al­so ap­proved a lo­cal or­gan­is­ing com­mit­tee to over­see the man­age­ment of Ja­maica’s oblig­a­tions and the bud­getary im­pact.

The com­mit­tee will be made up of the Min­istry of Cul­ture, Gen­der, En­ter­tain­ment and Sport, the Min­istry of Tourism, and de­part­ments and agen­cies which will part­ner with the JFF and the pri­vate sec­tor on the over­sight body.

Grange said Ja­maica’s host­ing of the FI­FA Women’s World Cup presents an op­por­tu­ni­ty for show­cas­ing gen­der main­stream­ing, whilst pro­vid­ing an in­spi­ra­tion for girls’ par­tic­i­pa­tion in sport, in­sti­tu­tion­al­is­ing na­tion­al pride and uni­ty, and job cre­ation in events, se­cu­ri­ty, and the tourism sec­tors.

“In­di­rect eco­nom­ic im­pact will come from a large num­ber of in­ter­na­tion­al vis­i­tors, and spend­ing on food, trans­port, and tours. Me­dia and TV ex­po­sure of Kingston will al­so be of price­less val­ue to our tourism brand. Sig­nif­i­cant eco­nom­ic in­jec­tion is ex­pect­ed,” Grange said.

“It al­so gives us brag­ging rights as the first Caribbean na­tion to host Women’s World Cup match­es. Ja­maica will host three to five group stage match­es and one match in the round of 32.”

CMC