Horace Burrell

The son of a tobacco grower in Clarendon Parish, as a young man he taught agricultural science at St. Elizabeth Technical High School. He then joined the Jamaica Defence Force, rising to the rank of captain. 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.

He received Jamaica’s fourth highest national honour, the Commander of the Order of Distinction (CD) in 1998. He also received the highest award, Order of Merit, from the world football governing body, FIFA, in 2000 for his outstanding leadership skills in piloting the Jamaica Football team to the World Cup.[2][3][4][5] A number of countries were said to have adopted the Jamaican model of development in their quest for World Cup Final qualification due to their success.[2]

On 14 October 2011, the FIFA Ethics Committee, banned Horace Burrell for a period of six months because he was involved in the Caribbean Football Union corruption scandal. The Ethics Committee suspend three months of the ban, subject to a probationary period of two years.[6][7]

Burrell had four children, one of whom, Tahj, predeceased him.[8][9]

He served as President of the Jamaica Football Federation between 1994 and 2003, and from 2007 until his death.[3] In addition to his presidency of JFF, he was the Senior Vice President of CONCACAF and a former Vice President of the CFU and served as a member of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee and as a Vice President of the Jamaica Olympic Association.[3]

Burrell was the founder of the restaurant chain The Captain's Bakery and Grill, in 1995, as well as Captain's Aviation Services in 2008.[10][3]

Burrell died on June 6, 2017.[10][11] Burrell had been battling cancer since 2016.[1] Prior to his death, Burrell was undergoing treatment at the Johns Hopkins Cancer Treatment Center in Baltimore, Maryland.[3] He is survived by his children: Dr. Tiphani Burrell-Piggott, Romario Burrell and Jaeden Burrell. The Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness, said the nation must pause and reflect on the life and great works of Captain Burrell while extending sincere condolences to his family and friends, the football fraternity and the entire Captain’s Bakery family.[11][12]