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Time to Face Reality
Ok, so we lost our game to Honduras. Where do we go from here? I will not waste time trying to analyze the game because I did not see it and also, because of the result, it would be a waste of the few brain cells I have left. I would however, like to examine the root cause of what appears to be our imminent failure to qualify for the 2012 World Cup and how do we move forward.
Let us start with our first problem, TIME. However we as fans choose to spin it, our Boyz just did not have enough time to properly prepare for this round of qualification. Regardless of the fact that our current crop of players are more technically and professionally advanced in comparison to those from the ’98 campaign, they needed to have been playing together for the past two years prior to this campaign. If we look at our opponents who are performing much better than us you will see my point. This we can lay squarely on the shoulders of our administrators, both Burrell and more so Boxhill who has to take the lion share of the blame. Throughout the prior two years of beginning a WCQ stage, the coach needs to be observing, cutting and adding players to his core team whilst imparting his philosophy. I would go even further to state that in Jamaica’s case, that preparation period should have really started right after we returned from France in 1998. We made those finals through the Grace of God, Prayers, Luck and a very benevolent Mexico who sent a young inexperienced team to Jamaica after they secured their WC berth. Prior to 1998 and even to this date, Jamaica does not have a proper football structure in place.
This brings me to our other problem, Football Culture. Jamaica does not have a football culture. We like to watch it….. on TV, but we won’t go out of our way to go to a match. Until we reach the point where a NPL club can consistently attract fans to fill even 70% of their stadium to support the team even if they are at the bottom of the table, we cannot say that we love football and have a football culture. We see that level of support when we watch any South American, Central American or European club league. THEY have a football culture. I just read about the Hamburg FC in Germany allocating a section of their grounds as burial spots for their fans. Boca Juniors in Argentina was also named as another club to do so. How many local fans do you know would be so committed to any Jamaican club?
We have 2.7 million “expert” coaches, but not one (that I know of) internationally accredited coach. Let me clarify my statement before the attacks start. We have a few local coaches who have gone on to do a few FIFA certified courses, but we do not have a single coach who has excelled at the international or local level that sets him apart from his peers. My conception of a successful local coach is one who has spent a number of years as an understudy or as the head coach of an international club in a respectable professional league, or one who has dominated the local scene as head coach of a club in the NPL. The closest local coach that fits those criteria is Carl Brown. However, this is not a call for his return because I am of the opinion that Jamaica does need a foreign coach with the international credentials.
So we move on to Rene Simoes. I can understand why Burrell went back for Simoes, but I’ll touch on that later. Rene Simoes does have the necessary qualifications to be the Head Coach of the national team. However, those qualifications are only on paper as he has a lot of shortcomings as a good coach. He was rehired to get us to the 2012 WC, and from the looks of things, he will be out of a job soon. He has been in the job for nine months and given the fact that he has a more talented pool of players to select from, most fans believe that he has had more than enough time to form a team that could get us to the promise land. His choice of not selecting better and more experienced international players is a matter for debate and may prove to his downfall. Having been in that position during his first stint, he chose not to go down that road again. Basically, having these “better” and more experienced international players who lack the necessary discipline and commitment to the team goes against the man’s grain and beliefs. He chose to implement a structure and footballing concept to the team rather than using his “best” available players that would have given us a better chance to qualify. He has to suffer the consequences for his choices come what may.
In my opinion, it is very unfortunate that we are constantly placed in this situation because of our greed and unrealistic expectations as paying fans. Horace Burrell is in a very precarious predicament. In order to move the program forward, he has to demand immediate and more times than not, unrealistic results in order to get us fickle Jamaican fans to pay money to come out and support our teams. Without the lack of support from the government or a rich benefactor, our progress will race forward at the pace of a snail. Corporate sponsors will not commit to the program if the team is not winning things and cannot qualify for even our regional tournaments.
The way forward as I see it if we fail to qualify (which I think is inevitable) is to follow the following steps:
- Publicly announce the start of the next Gold Cup Qualifiers Campaign so that corporate sponsors can pin their names against it.
- Restructure the current coaching structure by separating the role of the Technical Director and the Head Coach of the senior men’s team. The role of the TD should be one of creating and implementing the football programs and national philosophy into the various age group teams. The JFF should give the parish associations a clear mandate of soliciting sponsors to implement various age group competitions. These competitions should culminate into one national competition at the respective age level.
- Renegotiate Rene Simoes contract and keep him on as the national TD of our football programs. Give him the responsibility of hiring and firing the coaches for these national teams. His job should not include coaching any of our teams. His strength lies in conceptualizing and motivating people. It would be good to keep him on to inspire and convince the sponsors to invest in the program.
- Immediately proceed with the construction of the Academy. This should be up and running by the start of 2009. No more excuses.
- Partner with our higher learning institutions to offer FIFA approved certification courses to our coaches and referees. Invite internationally recognized teachers of the game to come here as lecturers. Actively solicit international clubs in professional leagues to host our local club coaches and administrators to observe their setup. These duties could fall under the responsibility of the TD.
- The JFF should either create a marketing division and hire qualified accomplished marketing professionals as staff or just hire a recognized marketing company, whichever one is more feasible. The image of the ReggaeBoyz product needs to be improved and properly marketed to maximize its earning power. We don’t have to wait on a particular competition or WCQ to be visible.
There are no quick-fix solutions to our football inefficiencies, so the JFF through Burrell needs to come clean to the public so we can as fans can readjust our expectations. This just my two cents. Take it for what it’s worth.
Jangle
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015
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