Lincoln “Happy” Sutherland

Veteran football administrator Lincoln “Happy” Sutherland will head off on Monday for Guatemala to do duties as a FIFA Match Commissioner in the CONCACAF Champions League between the host country’s CSD Municipal and Puerto Rico Islanders of Puerto Rico. The game takes place on Wednesday October 2.

In the past two months Sutherland has been quite busy as a match Commissioner, serving in three Champions League matches and two FIFA World Cup qualifiers. He only just returned from duties in Panama where he was the commissioner for the Champions League between Panama’s San Francisco FC and Houston Dynamo of the United States.

Sutherland is one of four FIFA match Commissioner’s in the island with Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) President Captain Horace Burrell, JFF General Secretary Horace Reid and former JFF President Anthony James, the others. That number could grow as JFF Vice-President Dale Spencer and Chairman of the JFF Technical Committee attended a FIFA Match Commissioners Training Course in Trinidad and Tobago in midweek.

Sutherland is himself a former JFF President having served one term from 1981-1982. He was also the president of the St Catherine football Association for 42 years and was elected 40 times before his retirement in 2006.