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Wake up call from Warner
Wake up call from Warner
Western Bureau
While some people might want to accuse CONCACAF boss Jack Warner of meddling in the affairs of Jamaica's football, in declaring that we are not getting value for money from coach Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic, I totally agree with the sentiments he expressed.
While I could accept Bora's going to Hong Kong with the national team for the 'friendly' Lunar Cup instead of making the important trip to Mexico with the Under-20 team for their World Cup qualifiers, his low-keyed role in the recent Under-17 World Cup qualifier, which was staged right here in Jamaica, is much cause for concern.
Although I have never had the good fortune of hearing the details of his job description, which the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) is treating like a state secret, unless the federation is extremely daft, I could not see them paying Bora so much money without a carefully crafted plan to ensure that he earns every cent.
bora too expensive
As I wrote in a previous column, I believe that Bora's four-year $263 million price tag is far too much money for a poor country like Jamaica to be spending on a football coach, when we are here struggling to offer our taxpayers a proper health service, good roads and a decent education system.
However, in view of the fact that coach Bora is already here and is obviously being paid, I believe we should be milking out every bit of the considerable expertise, which he has reportedly used to guide teams such as Mexico, Costa Rica, the United States and China to the World Cup.
As I also stated in a previous column, I cannot understand why we have coach Bora here in Jamaica looking at players who are unlikely to figure in the upcoming 2010 World Cup qualifiers, instead of having him setting up regular training camps in the United Kingdom and the United States, where the real candidates for consideration are playing in the various pro leagues.
Unless Bora is capable of transforming our ordinary crop of local players into stars overnight, I believe the nucleus of Jam-aica's team for the 'Back to Africa' campaign should come from the likes of Donovan Rick-ettes, Tyrone Marshall, Claude Davis, Jermaine Johnson, Luton Shelton, Ricardo Fuller, Ricardo Gardener, Jason Euell, Jamal Campbell-Ryce, Shane Crawford and Fabian Dawkins, who are all based overseas.
With Bora here in Jamaica twiddling his thumbs and our various national teams - women's, Under-17 and Under-20 - all falling by the wayside in the various tournaments, it would appear that our football is in a free fall, especially if one should add the fiasco with the academy in St. Elizabeth to the mix.
While one could argue that there is some amount of truth to the current administration's claim that their detractors have been constantly giving them a hard time, their current lame-duck posture is certainly not helping their cause.
Regardless of what direction the tide is turning ahead of the upcoming JFF voting in Nov-ember Congress, this admin-istration was elected to serve our football and they have an obligation to do so, regardless of whether they are getting phe-nomenal or marginal results. That is why I support Mr. Warner's sentiments that we need to get coach Bora to start doing some real work. If he is going to stay here in Jamaica, instead of going on the road as he should be doing, then his presence should be felt in all our football endeavours.
Western Bureau
While some people might want to accuse CONCACAF boss Jack Warner of meddling in the affairs of Jamaica's football, in declaring that we are not getting value for money from coach Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic, I totally agree with the sentiments he expressed.
While I could accept Bora's going to Hong Kong with the national team for the 'friendly' Lunar Cup instead of making the important trip to Mexico with the Under-20 team for their World Cup qualifiers, his low-keyed role in the recent Under-17 World Cup qualifier, which was staged right here in Jamaica, is much cause for concern.
Although I have never had the good fortune of hearing the details of his job description, which the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) is treating like a state secret, unless the federation is extremely daft, I could not see them paying Bora so much money without a carefully crafted plan to ensure that he earns every cent.
bora too expensive
As I wrote in a previous column, I believe that Bora's four-year $263 million price tag is far too much money for a poor country like Jamaica to be spending on a football coach, when we are here struggling to offer our taxpayers a proper health service, good roads and a decent education system.
However, in view of the fact that coach Bora is already here and is obviously being paid, I believe we should be milking out every bit of the considerable expertise, which he has reportedly used to guide teams such as Mexico, Costa Rica, the United States and China to the World Cup.
As I also stated in a previous column, I cannot understand why we have coach Bora here in Jamaica looking at players who are unlikely to figure in the upcoming 2010 World Cup qualifiers, instead of having him setting up regular training camps in the United Kingdom and the United States, where the real candidates for consideration are playing in the various pro leagues.
Unless Bora is capable of transforming our ordinary crop of local players into stars overnight, I believe the nucleus of Jam-aica's team for the 'Back to Africa' campaign should come from the likes of Donovan Rick-ettes, Tyrone Marshall, Claude Davis, Jermaine Johnson, Luton Shelton, Ricardo Fuller, Ricardo Gardener, Jason Euell, Jamal Campbell-Ryce, Shane Crawford and Fabian Dawkins, who are all based overseas.
With Bora here in Jamaica twiddling his thumbs and our various national teams - women's, Under-17 and Under-20 - all falling by the wayside in the various tournaments, it would appear that our football is in a free fall, especially if one should add the fiasco with the academy in St. Elizabeth to the mix.
While one could argue that there is some amount of truth to the current administration's claim that their detractors have been constantly giving them a hard time, their current lame-duck posture is certainly not helping their cause.
Regardless of what direction the tide is turning ahead of the upcoming JFF voting in Nov-ember Congress, this admin-istration was elected to serve our football and they have an obligation to do so, regardless of whether they are getting phe-nomenal or marginal results. That is why I support Mr. Warner's sentiments that we need to get coach Bora to start doing some real work. If he is going to stay here in Jamaica, instead of going on the road as he should be doing, then his presence should be felt in all our football endeavours.
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