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Measuring the success of Jamaica's football
Saturday, January 30, 2010
JAMAICA'S qualification to any senior World Cup Football finals, we have repeatedly contended in this space, cannot be the sole determination of success of the football administration of the day.
Clearly, for success to be put in context, there must be other attendant factors regarding the overall development of the sport in the island.
Having said that, we are quite cognisant and appreciative of the significance -- financial and otherwise -- of Jamaica competing against the best at the highest level on the global stage.
But based on what has transpired since Captain Horace Burrell's visionary intervention at the back end of 1994, we are not surprised that the country has failed to qualify another team to any FIFA global event at any level, male or female.
From our vantage point, we argue that successive administrations have been entrapped by the fast-paced, get-results-now mentality of local supporters, thus forgetting how success was achieved in the first place.
For those who might have missed it, Captain Burrell appointed Brazilian Mr Rene Simoes as technical director in late 1994, and despite some embarrassing results along the way, including losses to club teams, the nation rallied behind the little Brazilian.
But at the end of the day, success flourished with qualifications to three FIFA World Cups -- France 1998, the Under-17 tournament in New Zealand and the Under-20 championship of 2001 in Argentina.
Building successful programmes, we believe, takes time. With our well-documented limited resources, our football leaders need not necessarily exhibit knee-jerk reactions to every failure of national teams.
And so, we are particularly pleased that tomorrow's friendly international game against Canada at the National Stadium will launch the 2014 Brazil World Cup campaign.
We have used this particular space for a number of years to urge the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) to align to the same year its Voting Congress with the FIFA World Cup Finals. Doing so gives the incoming administration enough time to adequately chart its own path in preparing programmes that are aimed at ultimately getting teams qualified for World Cup Finals, as well as fulfilling its other core responsibilities.
Thankfully, with the JFF Voting Congress slated for year-end, the coming together of the two has been achieved, but now we hope that the JFF will throw its full support behind the programme and not chop and change after every bad result.
Think what could have been achieved with coaches of undoubted quality such as Messrs Sebastiao Lazaroni and Bora Milutinovic, who were never given the time to fully develop their programmes.
It was also refreshing to see ground broken, albeit the third time, for the JFF Football Academy at the UWI, Mona.
Captain Burrell, in the presence of FIFA president Mr Sepp Blatter, first broke ground in November 2003 in Portmore, only for the site to be switched to Malvern in St Elizabeth during Mr Crenston Boxhill's regime.
With Captain Burrell's return in 2007, a decision was taken to shift the site yet again, this time to UWI, Mona. The facility, the first phase of which is slated for completion by September, offers so much potential for further development of football in the country.
We take heart from this latest unfolding and wish those charged with the task of seeing it through all the best.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/edito...--2010_7372390
Saturday, January 30, 2010
JAMAICA'S qualification to any senior World Cup Football finals, we have repeatedly contended in this space, cannot be the sole determination of success of the football administration of the day.
Clearly, for success to be put in context, there must be other attendant factors regarding the overall development of the sport in the island.
Having said that, we are quite cognisant and appreciative of the significance -- financial and otherwise -- of Jamaica competing against the best at the highest level on the global stage.
But based on what has transpired since Captain Horace Burrell's visionary intervention at the back end of 1994, we are not surprised that the country has failed to qualify another team to any FIFA global event at any level, male or female.
From our vantage point, we argue that successive administrations have been entrapped by the fast-paced, get-results-now mentality of local supporters, thus forgetting how success was achieved in the first place.
For those who might have missed it, Captain Burrell appointed Brazilian Mr Rene Simoes as technical director in late 1994, and despite some embarrassing results along the way, including losses to club teams, the nation rallied behind the little Brazilian.
But at the end of the day, success flourished with qualifications to three FIFA World Cups -- France 1998, the Under-17 tournament in New Zealand and the Under-20 championship of 2001 in Argentina.
Building successful programmes, we believe, takes time. With our well-documented limited resources, our football leaders need not necessarily exhibit knee-jerk reactions to every failure of national teams.
And so, we are particularly pleased that tomorrow's friendly international game against Canada at the National Stadium will launch the 2014 Brazil World Cup campaign.
We have used this particular space for a number of years to urge the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) to align to the same year its Voting Congress with the FIFA World Cup Finals. Doing so gives the incoming administration enough time to adequately chart its own path in preparing programmes that are aimed at ultimately getting teams qualified for World Cup Finals, as well as fulfilling its other core responsibilities.
Thankfully, with the JFF Voting Congress slated for year-end, the coming together of the two has been achieved, but now we hope that the JFF will throw its full support behind the programme and not chop and change after every bad result.
Think what could have been achieved with coaches of undoubted quality such as Messrs Sebastiao Lazaroni and Bora Milutinovic, who were never given the time to fully develop their programmes.
It was also refreshing to see ground broken, albeit the third time, for the JFF Football Academy at the UWI, Mona.
Captain Burrell, in the presence of FIFA president Mr Sepp Blatter, first broke ground in November 2003 in Portmore, only for the site to be switched to Malvern in St Elizabeth during Mr Crenston Boxhill's regime.
With Captain Burrell's return in 2007, a decision was taken to shift the site yet again, this time to UWI, Mona. The facility, the first phase of which is slated for completion by September, offers so much potential for further development of football in the country.
We take heart from this latest unfolding and wish those charged with the task of seeing it through all the best.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/edito...--2010_7372390