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Challenging expectations for Jamaica's football
Saturday, March 12, 2011
The majority of Jamaica's top footballers operate professionally in leagues across the globe, more particularly in North America and Europe.
It means therefore that every effort has to be made by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) to take advantage of dates set aside for international games by the game's world governing body, FIFA. In theory, at least, top professionals are more likely to be free during those 'windows in time' when the leading club competitions around the globe are on hold.
However, such dates are so few and far between, that with the best will in the world, national teams — be they 'minnows' like Jamaica or the powerhouses of South America and Europe — get a chance to field their best players together, only infrequently.
However, such dates are so few and far between, that with the best will in the world, national teams — be they 'minnows' like Jamaica or the powerhouses of South America and Europe — get a chance to field their best players together, only infrequently.
Football watchers will recognise that since claiming their second consecutive and fifth Digicel Caribbean Cup in December last year the Reggae Boyz have been idle as a national unit. In the process, they missed the FIFA-sanctioned date for Internationals on February 9.
JFF President Captain Horace Burrell explains that "... We were busy in organising the CONCACAF Under-17 Championship in Montego Bay and much of our energy and resources were concentrated there... also, our primary venue... the National Stadium, was unavailable due to renovation work..."
Also, as Captain Burrell pointed out, it is difficult for small football nations like Jamaica to get the best quality opposition even at the best of times. That in itself has strong and obvious commercial implications.
That's why the JFF president is pleased that the Reggae Boyz FIFA ranking has been moving upwards in recent times -- up to 48th currently, the highest in the Caribbean.
Thankfully, we are now hearing that the JFF has been able to fill the two FIFA dates in March -- on the 25th against emerging South American nation Venezuela at the Montego Bay Sports Complex and on the 27th against Central American team El Salvador in San Salvador.
A key element to both those games is that they should provide strong preparation for the CONCACAF Gold Cup and World Cup qualifiers later this year.
The available evidence suggests that Jamaica has the quality to, at the very least, reach the final four at the Gold Cup and to cap the World Cup qualification campaign with a place in the FIFA World Cup finals in Brazil in 2014.
The truth is that 12-and-a-half years since the 1998 World Cup Finals in France, Jamaicans are hungering for more tangible success.
It's not enough anymore to simply qualify. There is bound to be disappointment, for example, if the Under-17s, having recently qualified for their age-group FIFA World Cup in Mexico later this year, do not give a good account of themselves when that time comes around.
It's not enough anymore to simply qualify. There is bound to be disappointment, for example, if the Under-17s, having recently qualified for their age-group FIFA World Cup in Mexico later this year, do not give a good account of themselves when that time comes around.
The Captain Burrell-led JFF administration must seek to satisfy these expectations, even as they struggle with serious resource constraints. We wish them all the best.
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