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Captain Burrell:
This is an important juncture in Jamaican football....an inflection point so to speak. The context to this is not merely another failure to qualify for the latest "next World Cup" although this failure is obviously a significant development.
The failed campaign can be a positive thing...IF the correct lessons are learned and appropriate remedial actions taken swiftly and decisively. I and many football observers fear that this will not occur. Should that prove true...it will be yet another problem to be addressed.
So this may not yet be a time for recriminations or public action...but it's definitely time for blunt talk and real accountability.
Your first stint in office was amazing and inspiring. You led a team that performed brilliantly and achieved the unthinkable. We all felt this was a great platform upon which to build Jamaican football. Due to this superior performance Jamaicans granted you extraordinary leeway and confidence to drive us forward... an over-confidence which has now become a problem over time.
In the 18 years post 1998 you have been in charge of the JFF (and our hopes) for 14. So, much as you owned the successes of 1994-1998...it is you who must largely be accountable for the gross failures since then.
For me and many others it's not really about our 5 consecutive failures at WCQ....4 under your stewardship. Although I love the World Cup as much as any Jamaican football fan...the primary mission of football is not achieving any given World Cup. The primary mission is developing our youths and football organizations to achieve their maximum potential via football.
It is in that primary mission that the JFF has been wantonly neglectful and comprehensively failed since 1998. It appears that in striving for WCQ at all costs the JFF hoped to disguise the continued backwardness of Jamaican football. This hope has become a sick joke.
Our regional rivals have far surpassed Jamaica in quality of play...and primarily with home-grown talent. How do they do this? Do you ever ask yourself this ...in between your flights to England begging reluctant English journeymen to play for us?
Our rivals improve their game by focusing on developing their youth....a novel principle right? They clearly have confidence in themselves...whereas we do not.
So in failing to achieve WCQ 5 times straight and failing to develop our youths the JFF has achieved the worst of all possible outcomes. It is this abominable situation for which you and your team should be held accountable. Holding yourself accountable would mean admitting that your prior course was decidedly wrong...and that you, our Captain, have sailed our football ship upon the rocks.
Somehow I doubt your ego would allow you to change the comprehensively failed course...and by inference, if not explicitly, make that admission of fault. I hope I'm wrong in that assessment.
Unfortunately you have morphed from an inspirational figure of the 1990s to hubris and unwarranted self-importance in the 2000s. In this sad journey you have been aided by an unsophisticated public before which you constantly and successfully dangled qualifying for the "next World Cup". This by using any player available with a trace of Jamaican heritage. We've indulged this nonsense as WCQ is a feat to which you are indelibly associated in our minds.
The failure of this bankrupt policy is now obvious and hopefully the end of our indulgence is nigh.
Since the public's focus is on the World Cup, you may easily be able to shift the blame from yourself to others as being responsible for the failure. Undoubtedly the current coach will be blamed for the failure and some well publicized administrative "fixes" surrounding his ouster will be orchestrated.
As in the past, the hope is the public will be satiated by this phony show of "accountability" while our football continues to rot at the head i.e. where you and your bankrupt JFF team are located. We've seen this movie many times before.
As written before...World Cup play is important but the progress of our young in the game we all love is what's indispensable. Jamaica must be willing to make sacrifices to properly and creatively develop our young even at the expense of realistic 2022 WCQ. We must resist the temptation for the instant WCQ gratification you offer. That should now be easier as your promises are now meaningless and your predictions of glory mere puffery.
You have presided too long over a system (or lack thereof) which by its neglect, penalizes and wastes our very talented youths. We reject the lip service you and your team pay to our youth's welfare and development in football. This waste of human potential cannot continue...it's too perverse and is totally unacceptable.
There will be many opportunities coming up shortly for you and the JFF to commit to a changed course featuring prioritizing the development of our young... at ALL levels of national football.
Absent a bankable, believable commitment to that end, this problem will need to be addressed by some affirmative action in the public domain.
Looking forward to seeing a positive change as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Don1
This is an important juncture in Jamaican football....an inflection point so to speak. The context to this is not merely another failure to qualify for the latest "next World Cup" although this failure is obviously a significant development.
The failed campaign can be a positive thing...IF the correct lessons are learned and appropriate remedial actions taken swiftly and decisively. I and many football observers fear that this will not occur. Should that prove true...it will be yet another problem to be addressed.
So this may not yet be a time for recriminations or public action...but it's definitely time for blunt talk and real accountability.
Your first stint in office was amazing and inspiring. You led a team that performed brilliantly and achieved the unthinkable. We all felt this was a great platform upon which to build Jamaican football. Due to this superior performance Jamaicans granted you extraordinary leeway and confidence to drive us forward... an over-confidence which has now become a problem over time.
In the 18 years post 1998 you have been in charge of the JFF (and our hopes) for 14. So, much as you owned the successes of 1994-1998...it is you who must largely be accountable for the gross failures since then.
For me and many others it's not really about our 5 consecutive failures at WCQ....4 under your stewardship. Although I love the World Cup as much as any Jamaican football fan...the primary mission of football is not achieving any given World Cup. The primary mission is developing our youths and football organizations to achieve their maximum potential via football.
It is in that primary mission that the JFF has been wantonly neglectful and comprehensively failed since 1998. It appears that in striving for WCQ at all costs the JFF hoped to disguise the continued backwardness of Jamaican football. This hope has become a sick joke.
Our regional rivals have far surpassed Jamaica in quality of play...and primarily with home-grown talent. How do they do this? Do you ever ask yourself this ...in between your flights to England begging reluctant English journeymen to play for us?
Our rivals improve their game by focusing on developing their youth....a novel principle right? They clearly have confidence in themselves...whereas we do not.
So in failing to achieve WCQ 5 times straight and failing to develop our youths the JFF has achieved the worst of all possible outcomes. It is this abominable situation for which you and your team should be held accountable. Holding yourself accountable would mean admitting that your prior course was decidedly wrong...and that you, our Captain, have sailed our football ship upon the rocks.
Somehow I doubt your ego would allow you to change the comprehensively failed course...and by inference, if not explicitly, make that admission of fault. I hope I'm wrong in that assessment.
Unfortunately you have morphed from an inspirational figure of the 1990s to hubris and unwarranted self-importance in the 2000s. In this sad journey you have been aided by an unsophisticated public before which you constantly and successfully dangled qualifying for the "next World Cup". This by using any player available with a trace of Jamaican heritage. We've indulged this nonsense as WCQ is a feat to which you are indelibly associated in our minds.
The failure of this bankrupt policy is now obvious and hopefully the end of our indulgence is nigh.
Since the public's focus is on the World Cup, you may easily be able to shift the blame from yourself to others as being responsible for the failure. Undoubtedly the current coach will be blamed for the failure and some well publicized administrative "fixes" surrounding his ouster will be orchestrated.
As in the past, the hope is the public will be satiated by this phony show of "accountability" while our football continues to rot at the head i.e. where you and your bankrupt JFF team are located. We've seen this movie many times before.
As written before...World Cup play is important but the progress of our young in the game we all love is what's indispensable. Jamaica must be willing to make sacrifices to properly and creatively develop our young even at the expense of realistic 2022 WCQ. We must resist the temptation for the instant WCQ gratification you offer. That should now be easier as your promises are now meaningless and your predictions of glory mere puffery.
You have presided too long over a system (or lack thereof) which by its neglect, penalizes and wastes our very talented youths. We reject the lip service you and your team pay to our youth's welfare and development in football. This waste of human potential cannot continue...it's too perverse and is totally unacceptable.
There will be many opportunities coming up shortly for you and the JFF to commit to a changed course featuring prioritizing the development of our young... at ALL levels of national football.
Absent a bankable, believable commitment to that end, this problem will need to be addressed by some affirmative action in the public domain.
Looking forward to seeing a positive change as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Don1
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