BY DEAN GREENAWAY

Saying he has a clearer vision of where soccer is developing in the BVI, Kenrick Grant who served as general secretary of the BVI Football Association over the last four years, returned as the association’s top brass during elections held last week, after Andy Bickerton quietly tendered his resignation in August. 

Grant first served as president between 1996 and 2000. He beat nephew Gregory by a 16-2 margin in voting for the presidency. Aubrey Liburd is the 1st vice president, while Leslie McMaster occupies the 2nd vice president post. Howard Stephens is the assistant secretary of operations and Virgin Gorda’s Avonel Morton the assistant secretary of administration. Claudine Wheatley is the ordinary members representative.

The general secretary who is a paid employee of the BVIFA, will be appointed soon Grant says. The BVI Football Association has been incorporated as a limited company by guarantee and not having a share capital and registered under the BVI Companies Registry Act, the only sporting association in the territory to do so.

Grant said coming back to the sport at this time is more challenge, but he has a clearer vision of where the sport is going. “Our biggest challenge is still facilities. But we’ll work with what we have,” Grant said. “I’m sure if we had proper facilities, we could encourage more players to participate. Annually we lose players because of the conditions they have to play under. Hopefully that will get better. But, we also have a  challenge in getting more players on our junior programs.”

With the new constitution in place and those elected as directors of the company, Grant says this new constitution ‘engulfs a lot of things.’ “One of our main focus in pursing this game forward is to widen our grassroots programs,” Grant said, noting that the short term goal is to get the national league up and running. “We have to get that going soon and begin preparing our players for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers. All in all, we’ll have a busy agenda ahead of us in the near future.”