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Burrell vs Simoes
KEN CHAPLIN
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
The issue that caused the separation of service of the technical director of Jamaica's national team, Rene Simoes, and the Jamaica Football Federation has to do with the insistence of Simoes playing a young and inexperienced team.The more experienced overseas players were either benched or were not invited at all.
When Jamaica made history as the first English-speaking Caribbean country to qualify for the 1998 World Cup finals in France under the leadership of Simoes, an achievement which made the Brazilian a hero, it was the overseas players who carried the ball. But for some reason, Simoes benched many of the overseas players in the current campaign for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. On the other hand, the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) wanted the island to field the best possible team at a given time - the World Cup preliminary rounds. Simoes felt that it was best to build a team mostly around local players to avoid not only the problem of getting overseas players, but also a team of players that plays together frequently and who would get accustomed to one another's movements on the field. Nothing is wrong with Simoes' plan except that it has to be a long-term development. It ought not to be experimented with nor tried out when the team is fighting for a place in the World Cup finals.
Another factor that bore heavily on Jamaica's mediocre performance in the current World Cup campaign was the limited time the players played together as a team. The JFF has to conform to rules set by FIFA, the world body that controls football, as regards the release of overseas players from their clubs and availability to the Jamaica team. No one could expect players who have not been playing together for a long time to go on the field and move with precision. Football is a game of movements, and good positional play is crucial to success. In 1998 it was a different ball game as most overseas players were based in England, and even if some were scattered among the clubs, they had seen each other play in the English League.
Bringing overseas players and local players together a month or so before a match (or matches) is inviting poor performance. The present team played a total of 11 matches, winning three, losing three and drawing 5. I remember some years ago when Haiti qualified for the World Cup finals in Germany, the team lived in a hotel for six months and played many matches before proceeding to Germany. Jamaica has three more World Cup matches to play. The team will have to win all three to be one of the six teams in the finals of the CONCACAF competition from which two teams will be selected to go to the World Cup finals. With a new coaching team of Jamaican-born former England international, John Barnes (whose father, Colonel Ken Barnes captained Jamaica), and Theodore Whitmore, once a great attacking player, there is a possibility that Jamaica could still go forward.
It is debatable whether Simoes should have been fired at this crucial stage when Jamaica has three more matches to play in the CONCACAF preliminary round. What is not debatable is the clumsy, unprofessional manner in which he was dismissed by Captain Horace Burrell, president of the Jamaica Football Federation. After the World Cup match against Honduras in which Jamaica lost, 0-2, Burrell called a meeting at 12:30 am in the hotel where the team was staying, to discuss the matter and by l:00 am the technical director was fired. Although Horace Reid, secretary of the JFF denied that Burrell used strident language to Simoes, I gathered that the parting was far from amicable. Simoes had two airline reservations - one from Honduras to Jamaica and the other from Honduras to Brazil. He took the one to Brazil because, as he said, he needed comfort from his family.
Nevertheless, in the end Burrell thanked Simoes for his service to Jamaica. Simoes was rather gracious. He refused to accept the balance of his US$600,000 pay and influenced his Brazilian assistants to accept less pay on the termination of contract. Some people who are experienced in business management have expressed the view that Simoes should not have been fired on foreign soil, especially in the land of the host country. All parties should have returned to Jamaica and the matter settled one way or the other. The matter should have been settled by the same committee which hired Simoes. It was also disingenuous of Burrell to blame the past administration of the JFF for the debacle when everything was at the door of the current administration.
Editor's note: Ken Chaplin is a former national and international referee, FIFA referee inspector and chairman of the JFF Referees Commission.
KEN CHAPLIN
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
The issue that caused the separation of service of the technical director of Jamaica's national team, Rene Simoes, and the Jamaica Football Federation has to do with the insistence of Simoes playing a young and inexperienced team.The more experienced overseas players were either benched or were not invited at all.
When Jamaica made history as the first English-speaking Caribbean country to qualify for the 1998 World Cup finals in France under the leadership of Simoes, an achievement which made the Brazilian a hero, it was the overseas players who carried the ball. But for some reason, Simoes benched many of the overseas players in the current campaign for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. On the other hand, the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) wanted the island to field the best possible team at a given time - the World Cup preliminary rounds. Simoes felt that it was best to build a team mostly around local players to avoid not only the problem of getting overseas players, but also a team of players that plays together frequently and who would get accustomed to one another's movements on the field. Nothing is wrong with Simoes' plan except that it has to be a long-term development. It ought not to be experimented with nor tried out when the team is fighting for a place in the World Cup finals.
Another factor that bore heavily on Jamaica's mediocre performance in the current World Cup campaign was the limited time the players played together as a team. The JFF has to conform to rules set by FIFA, the world body that controls football, as regards the release of overseas players from their clubs and availability to the Jamaica team. No one could expect players who have not been playing together for a long time to go on the field and move with precision. Football is a game of movements, and good positional play is crucial to success. In 1998 it was a different ball game as most overseas players were based in England, and even if some were scattered among the clubs, they had seen each other play in the English League.
Bringing overseas players and local players together a month or so before a match (or matches) is inviting poor performance. The present team played a total of 11 matches, winning three, losing three and drawing 5. I remember some years ago when Haiti qualified for the World Cup finals in Germany, the team lived in a hotel for six months and played many matches before proceeding to Germany. Jamaica has three more World Cup matches to play. The team will have to win all three to be one of the six teams in the finals of the CONCACAF competition from which two teams will be selected to go to the World Cup finals. With a new coaching team of Jamaican-born former England international, John Barnes (whose father, Colonel Ken Barnes captained Jamaica), and Theodore Whitmore, once a great attacking player, there is a possibility that Jamaica could still go forward.
It is debatable whether Simoes should have been fired at this crucial stage when Jamaica has three more matches to play in the CONCACAF preliminary round. What is not debatable is the clumsy, unprofessional manner in which he was dismissed by Captain Horace Burrell, president of the Jamaica Football Federation. After the World Cup match against Honduras in which Jamaica lost, 0-2, Burrell called a meeting at 12:30 am in the hotel where the team was staying, to discuss the matter and by l:00 am the technical director was fired. Although Horace Reid, secretary of the JFF denied that Burrell used strident language to Simoes, I gathered that the parting was far from amicable. Simoes had two airline reservations - one from Honduras to Jamaica and the other from Honduras to Brazil. He took the one to Brazil because, as he said, he needed comfort from his family.
Nevertheless, in the end Burrell thanked Simoes for his service to Jamaica. Simoes was rather gracious. He refused to accept the balance of his US$600,000 pay and influenced his Brazilian assistants to accept less pay on the termination of contract. Some people who are experienced in business management have expressed the view that Simoes should not have been fired on foreign soil, especially in the land of the host country. All parties should have returned to Jamaica and the matter settled one way or the other. The matter should have been settled by the same committee which hired Simoes. It was also disingenuous of Burrell to blame the past administration of the JFF for the debacle when everything was at the door of the current administration.
Editor's note: Ken Chaplin is a former national and international referee, FIFA referee inspector and chairman of the JFF Referees Commission.
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