The FA have agreed to defer the £135,431.94 owed by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) until after the 2010 FIFA World Cup Finals in South Africa.

 

England could now even travel to Kingston to take on Jamaica's Reggae Boyz in a friendly after they were invited.

 

The compromise appears to have ended a potentially hugely damaging role that could have cost England vital votes in its bid to bring the 2018 World Cup back to the country for the back first time since 1966.

 

The fear was that if a compromise had not been reached then it could have led to FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, the president of the Concacaf region, who has been England's most vocal and powerful 2018 World Cup supporter, turning against the FA and using his influence to get voters to back other countries bids.

The four-hour meeting between Lord Treisman, the chairman of the FA,  head of international relations, Jane Bateman; JFF president Captain Horace Burrell; his general secretary Horace Reid, and the JFF's European advisor, Peter Hargitay, at the FA's headquarters at Soho Square, also agreed to look more closely at a proposal put forward by the Jamaican governing body to convert the debt into equity for a youth development facility.

The bill relates to 9,000 match tickets the FA supplied at cost to visiting supporters for the England versus Jamaica match at Old Trafford in June 2006 on the eve of the World Cup

Triesman said: "Having heard about all the circumstances, the FA agreed to defer consideration of the debt until after the 2010 World Cup."

He also agreed that he would be prepared to look at the youth development proposal.

Triesman said: "This proposal is intended to be aligned with the FA's International Development Programme and longstanding relationship with the Caribbean region.

"I am going to view it in due course, and on the basis of seeing it I think we should be able to continue work which has started and I will get the chance to make my contribution to that work and if it's at all possible, I would do what we always do in these circumstances, which would be to put our case to the FA Board for their consideration".

"I think that from everything that I've heard from my colleagues, the proposal should fit into the International Development Programme that we have been running for nine years now, so hopefully it will fit well into that."

Burrell, whose one-year administration inherited the debt from the previous JFF administration, admitted that it was a relief that he had been able to work out a compromise, which threatened to prevent Jamaica from being unable to fulfil its qualifiying fixtures for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

He said: "It has allowed me to breathe a sigh of relief, because if we were forced to pay this debt at this time, it would have been a disaster to our football programmes, so I want to record my gratitude to Sir Treisman and the FA for their understanding.

"With all factors considered I am satisfied with the approach taken by the FA.

"It was very important for us to have direct dialogue with the new administration because Jamaica would have found itself in a more embarrassing situation in light of the fact that with a new administration we would have been called on to pay this debt."

England played a match against Trinidad & Tobago in Port-of-Spain in June as part of a goodwill gesture to try to gain Warner's support and another friendly in the Caribbean would help maintain that.

Burrell claimed that Triesman was seriously considering the invitation to play against a side now managed by former England star John Barnes, who along with Beckham is an official ambassador for the 2018 World Cup.

Burrell said: "It would be a tremendous honour for Jamaica to host this prestigious game and also a game of this nature would possibly be the richest game played on home soil relating to revenue and we are eagerly awaiting this game becoming a reality, and in addition to the revenue-earning capability, it would also be an ideal opportunity to showcase our tremendous football talent."