After another major issue with the lighting at the National Stadium, Independence Park Chairman Mike Fennell says a comprehensive review of the system will be done to prevent further mishaps.
The Government spent close to $20 million to install new lights in July to ensure it met Concacaf and FIFA requirements. This installation met approval and allowed Jamaica’s Concacaf Nations League match against Cuba to go ahead under lights on September 6.
However, a new incident took place on Tuesday during reigning Jamaica Premier league champions Cavalier FC’s group match against Haiti’s Real Hope in the Concacaf Caribbean Cup. During the half-time break, the light towers by the southern end of the stadium went out, causing a lengthy delay to the start of the second half.
The lights were eventually restored and the match resumed with Cavalier surrendering a lead to lose 2-1, their first defeat of the competition.
Fennell told the Jamaica Observer that an electrical issue was the cause of the outage.
“We’re getting all the data from the consultants and the electrical engineers and we’re not finished with that as yet,” he said.
“We’re in the process of getting it but the lights went as a failure of a breaker. Fortunately, we hand a standby team as we normally do and the standby team rectified the problem to ensure the match continued.
“The electricians have replaced the breaker. Although it was fixed for the completion of the match, they’ve replaced the breaker to ensure everything will be normal.”
Fennell also says an apology was given to Cavalier on Wednesday.
“Yes, we have [apologised],” he said.
“We have been in contact with them and the JFF [Jamaica Football Federation].”
It’s the third major issue with the stadium lights and the second involving Cavalier. Concacaf fined the club in February after it was ruled that the lights were inadequate during their Champions League game against American club FC Cincinnati.
Cavalier Technical Director Rudolph Speid says the outage contributed to his team losing momentum in the game on Tuesday.
“I think we started very well and got the go ahead goal, but I think after the power cut at half-time, we just got thrown off our rhythm and basically, I think, we just backed up too much and conceded two goals in rapid succession. It’s just one of those games,” he said.
With Cavalier potentially at risk of another fine, Speid is hopeful that Concacaf will be merciful.
“Well, in fairness, if you host a game it’s always your fault,” he said. “Let’s hope that they saw this as a force majeure [uncontrollable event] and we don’t get a fine.”
Fennell, though, wasn’t willing to say if Independence Park would be open to helping Cavalier pay a potential fine.
“I can’t speak to that at this stage,” he said. “I could never speak to that at this stage. That would be for another consideration.”
The JFF was forced to move its FIFA World Cup qualifier against the Dominican Republic in June from 6:30 pm to 3:30 pm after an inspection ruled the lights not bright enough for a night game. With several night matches scheduled for the rest of 2024 at the National Stadium, including the Reggae Boyz’s Nations League clash with Honduras next month and ISSA schoolboy football in November and December, Fennell says Independence Park is doing all it can to avoid further issues.
“The consultants have been asked that following this, they will be doing further work to review all the lights to see if there’s anything more we need to do at this stage,” he said.
“We’re not just leaving it at the repair work but we’re looking at it because everybody knows the lights and lighting systems are quite old and we have to do a complete review and give us a report.”
