Captain Horace Burrell |
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Burrell at a Press Conference in 2012
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President of Jamaica Football Federation | |
Preceded by | Crenston nicole Boxhill |
Personal details | |
Born |
Horace Garfield Burrell February 8, 1950 Clarendon |
Nationality | Jamaican |
Spouse(s) | Lourea Simpson (Divorced) |
Relations | Orville Richard Burrell (cousin), Portia Simpson-Miller (cousin) |
Children | Tiffany Burrell Romario Burrell Tahj Burrell (deceased) |
Residence | Kingston, Jamaica |
Alma mater |
Clarendon College St Elizabeth Technical High School |
Occupation | Businessman, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist. |
Horace G. Burrell JP OM (born 8 February 1950), also known as Captain Burrell, is the president of the Jamaica Football Federation, and a Vice-President of CONCACAF. He is also the founder of the Jamaican restaurant chain The Captain's Bakery and Grill and Captain's Aviation Services which he founded in 1995 and 2008 respectively.
The son of a tobacco grower in Clarendon Parish, he later became a Captain with the Jamaica Defence Force. He undertook basic officer training with the Canadian Armed Forces at Chilliwack, British Columbia and later New Brunswick. He would later be supervised by Colonel Ken Barnes, the father of English international footballer John Barnes. Burrell described Barnes as "a great military leader". It was Barnes who charged Burrell with looking after the JDF football team after Burrell shown Barnes a local newspaper headline "Boy's Town drill soldiers". Burrell took the JDF team to Trinidad where he first met Jack Warner, who was impressed with Burrell and kept in touch, offering him an executive position at the Caribbean Football Union.
Following a spell at the Kingston and St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA), he put forward his name to become President of the Jamaica Football Federation in 1994.
After being elected to office in 1994, Burrell was instrumental in leading the Reggae Boyz to the 1998 World Cup in France, making Jamaica the first English-speaking Caribbean country to qualify for the FIFA World Cup.
Burrell has three children, one of whom is deceased. On 14 October 2011, the FIFA Ethics Committee, provisionally suspended Horace Burrell for a period of six months because of suspicion of involvement in the Caribbean Football Union corruption scandal, but was deemed to be not involved upon further investigation.