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Posted - Feb 04 2004 : 02:17:05 AM
Clovis happy to be back in Ja
published: Wednesday | February 4, 2004
By Paul A. Reid, Staff Reporter
Clovis de Oliveira, left, makes a point to Village coach Lloyd Williams yesterday after the Brazilian arrived in the island to take up duties with the Premier League outfit as an advisor. The former JFF technical director will work with the club to help it establish a more professional structure. - Photo By Herbert Mckenis
WESTERN BUREAU:
FORMER JAMAICA Football Federation (JFF) national technical director Clovis de Oliveira arrived in Jamaica yesterday to take up his new role as advisor to Wray and Nephew National Premier League club, Village United.
ZDe Oliveira who was in charge of the national team during the most recent World Cup campaign before he was fired following a loss in Honduras said he has no plans of taking over the day-to-day coaching of the team but his emphasis will be on the structure of the club to help it be a more professional outfit.
The Brazilian was met at the Sangster International Airport by the club's director of finance, Glenn Lawrence, who is also the chief financial officer for the House of Issa, operators of Couples Hotels who will be providing accommodation for him while he is in Jamaica.
De Oliveira, who told The Gleaner at the start of the interview that he would not answer any questions about the November 2003 JFF elections or the national team, was brought back to Jamaica through his close friend, Dane Thomas, a director of the Trelawny club and vice president of finance at SuperClubs.
TURNED DOWN SEVERAL OFFERS
De Oliveira said he turned down several offers from "small and medium clubs in Brazil and also from the Middle East in the United Arab Emirates and Oman" and just missed out on getting a coaching stint in Russia but says he chose to come to Jamaica for a number of reasons.
"I won't be a millionaire here but I am at a point in my life and career where I can choose where I go and that is why I turned those down as I am waiting for a better one (offer)," de Oliveira said.
"I am here not to take over coaching but to advise with the structure of the club and not only the first team but all the teams. I need to see how they (the players) work with the basics and also to work with the club to be more professional," he said.
Village's coach was happy with de Oliveira's arrival.
"He is going to help me a whole lot in my own development as a coach," Williams said.
"Right off the bat he came he started outlining things to me and what I like is that he demands urgency, which is what we lack in our football here in Jamaica. He will bring a lot to the team and I just hope our management can work with him closely and I am sure he will help the entire western Jamaica not just Village."
Williams said that the presence of an overseas coach would add some immediate urgency and purpose to the players as Jamaican players always seemed to respond to the presence of a foreign coach.
De Oliveira had high praise for present JFF president Crenston Boxhill who he said he worked with closely when the Under-20 team went to Brazil to prepare for the qualifying for the World Championships in 2000.
He was also high on former JFF officials Captain Horace Burrell and Horace Reid and former coach Rene Simoes, whom he said must be one of the best coaches in the world for what he did with the national team.
He said Jamaicans should build a statue in the honour of Burrell, Reid and Simoes who were the main people behind the team advancing to the World Cup in 1998.
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