Official Statement on New Coach Appointments

[Mosiah]

Re: NATIONAL FOOTBALL PROGRAMME

The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) at its Extra-Ordinary Board Meeting held today, Tuesday, 16 September, unanimously ratified the decision announced by its President Captain Horace Burrell to sever ties with Technical Director, Rene Simoes and the full contingent of Brazilian staff with immediate effect. It was agreed that based on recent developments, this separation was in the best interest of the Federation.

The JFF Board expressed its profound appreciation for the tremendous contribution to Jamaica’s football by Mr. Simoes and wishes for him and his Brazilian colleagues all the best in their future endeavors. The JFF is of the view that Mr. Simoes’ legacy will forever be enshrined in the annals of Jamaica’s sporting history and his association with the nation’s football has created in a very significant way the international appeal and local enthusiasm in the football product at the levels of players, coaches, administrators, government, corporate and spectator support. This is the level of popularization that the JFF is confident has created the platform for it to build its long term development programme.

The JFF wishes to announce the appointment of former England International and Jamaican born, Mr. John Barnes as the new National Coach for the Senior Football Team. Mr. Barnes will take up official duties on November 1 and will be in charge of the preparation of the national team for the Digicel Caribbean Cup (DCC) between December 1 to 15, the CONCACAF Gold Cup scheduled for June 2009, and the Final Round World Cup Qualifiers in 2009, should Jamaica advance to this stage of the competition. Mr. Barnes’ contract will be reviewed following the afore-mentioned events.

Mr. Barnes played professional football for Watford, Liverpool, Newcastle United and Charlton Athletic in the Premier league and League Championship. He made 409 appearances for Liverpool scoring 108 goals. He was voted Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year 1988 and 1990 and PFA Footballer of the Year 1988. In 1997 he was awarded an MBE by Her Majesty the Queen.

In the summer of 1999 Mr. Barnes joined Scottish giants Celtic as Head Coach, where he laid the foundations for the club’s future success including overseeing the redevelopment of the team with the recruitment of Henrik Larsson among others.


He has since joined Channel 5 (England) and is the channel’s principle football presenter and regularly brings his insightful knowledge and understanding of football to television screens around the world.
Further, the JFF wishes to announce that former national player and current Assistant National Coach, Mr. Theodore Whitmore will take charge of the very important remaining World Cup Qualifying games at home. Mr. Whitmore will continue as Assistant National Coach to Mr. Barnes, following these semi-final round games.

Mr. Barnes will attend the afore-mentioned games to observe proceedings as well as lend moral support to Mr. Whitmore and the national senior team. He is due to arrive in Jamaica on Wednesday, 8 October for the Mexico game scheduled for Saturday, 11 October, and departs Thursday, 16 October following the Honduras game on Wednesday, 15 October, both games to be played at the National Stadium in Kingston.

In the meantime, the JFF has mandated its Technical Committee to finalize work on the National Development Plan commissioned a few months ago, in time for presentation at the Board of Directors Meeting slated for next November. This plan should include the coaching recommendations for all the remaining national teams, namely:
1. U23 Men
2. U20 Men
3. U17 Boys
4. U15 Boys
5. Senior Women
6. U20 Women
7. U17 Girls
8. U15 Girls

Also, it is expected that the national coaching development programme will be tabled at the afore-mentioned meeting.

[Mosiah]

Tappa subbing until Barnes is available!
by Hugo Linton
September 16, 2008Football - News

Theodore ‘Tappa’ Whitmore was today handed the temporary job of coaching Jamaica against Mexico and Honduras (October 11 and 15 respectively) at an extraordinary meeting of the Board of Directors of the Jamaica Football Federation. He will make way for former England star John Barnes on November 1. Barnes will not be available until then.
Sources have told JamaicaWin.com that Whitmore was almost a shoo in for the position. He had secured the trust of the top brass of the JFF, but his confirmation was shot down by the all-powerful sponsors who were more in favour of Barnes. “Whitmore’s was the man chosen,” a source to JamaicaWin.com. “But when they made contact with the sponsors during the meeting to come up with a consensus, they realized that he (Whitmore) did not have their (the sponsors) support.”

http://jamaicawin.com/Local%20News/Local_Sept16-08.htm

[Warlord]

John Barnes

I think another mistake has been made here by the JFF. JB has had a poor record in his only stint as a club manager in the SPL. Whats even worse is he has no experience in international football as a coach yet our federation hires him?

When will Burrell learn not to make hasty decisions based on emotion? We just now finished getting through the failed return of Simoes and now this hiring. Our football administrators will NEVER learn.

[Gamma]

any suggestions on whom the new coach should have been?

[Mac]

Lets hope that this all works out

Whitmore is a good choice for interim since he is familiar with the players and the situations. But being in charge of only two games does not give him much time.

As for J. Barnes, his abilities as a coach is an unknown quantity. Let see how it works out and if he can do it in CONCACAF. He at least has a solid period to show what he can do.

Now my main disappointment is that this is still a temporary and short term fix. What Jamaica really needs is a true technical director for all of the football teams. J. Barnes is not that and has no experience in the development of a national football program. This is most desperately what we need to further develop Jamaican football. Other CONCACAF team are progressing but we are moving but at too slow a pace.

Who now will be responsible for the overall technical direction of Jamaica football. The current 'technical committee'? This will definitely not be enough.

Respect

[Assasin]

The JFF have developed some connection with the English FA and hopefully that means a lot of coaches coming into the lsland doing seminars etc.

I am looking forward to that kind of connection.

[Assasin]

Warlord is GRUMPY OLD MAN.

[Reggae-Fan]

Who would you recommend for the job?

Getting a high profile coach is not neccesarily going to work for us. We've had Lazaroni and Bora in the past. You dont get more high profile than that. Both of them failed (to some degree). We need coaches that understand Jamaica's culture, and its footballers. We dont even have a proper field to play international football on at the moment, dont expect a Jose Peckerman to come here under these conditions.

by the way, what was John Barnes Win/draw/loss record at Celtic?

[Exile]

Soooo...if Barnes can't get a coaching job in England...will any of his players get a contract? Just thinking.....

[Assasin]

him nuh scout fi Sunderland FC?

Remember Burrell say them have big contacts a England who willing to lend a hand.

[DweetSweet]

I guess the JFF statement writer(s) didn't pass O-level English Language at high school. Poor grammar indeed!

[DweetSweet]

Another error:

Barnes didn't recruit or sign Henrik Larsson to Celtic. Larson was already a Celtic star when Barnes was appointed. It was early during Barnes tenure as Celtic manager during a UEFA Cup game against Lyon that Larson got that horrific injury that broke his leg in two places and left him out of football for two seasons. I remember watching that game. Celtic was never the same after the loss of their prolific striker, and started losing league and Cup games after that.

It is often said that it was Larsson's injury and absence that led to Barnes not getting the best out of Celtic. Barnes's replacement, Kenny Dalglish also failed to get the team to play and win without Larsson during the rest of that season. The Great Dalglish (former Liverpool manager and of course player) was also fired at the end of the season and replaced by Martin O'Neil.

All of you who are saying that Barnes is no good because he "failed" at Celtic are just repeating the lines of the British press, uninformed....

[Warlord]

any suggestions on whom the new coach should have been?

I posted in a thread a while back before we hired Simoes that JFF should've gone for Daniel Passarella.

[Warlord]

Warlord is GRUMPY OLD MAN.

I guess when one likes mediocrity you'll settle for anything. Im still awaiting your response on what went wrong wit Simoes.

Remember your thread after the Bahamas tie how Mexico ripe fi a beating.

[Warlord]

[quote=Reggae-Fan;130250]

Who would you recommend for the job

?


I posted my recommendation here numerous times.

Getting a high profile coach is not neccesarily going to work for us. We've had Lazaroni and Bora in the past. You dont get more high profile than that. Both of them failed (to some degree). We need coaches that understand Jamaica's culture, and its footballers. We dont even have a proper field to play international football on at the moment, dont expect a Jose Peckerman to come here under these conditions.

What does Jamaica's culture have to do with anything? Does Ericksson know Mexico's culture? Did Beenhakker know trini culture? What nonsense are you talking about? Bora and Lazaroni are decent coaches but they're not at the highest level in football today. If you're going to bring in a coach when youre trying to qualify for a WC you need one with some international experience or one who has coached at the highest level.

by the way, what was John Barnes Win/draw/loss record at Celtic?[/

More importantly where has a coached after his record at Celtic? Has he even coached anywhere?