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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Building the roof before the foundation</SPAN>
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Saturday, August 19, 2006
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<P class=StoryText align=justify>It speaks to the vagaries and uncertainties of football that less than two years after he was unceremoniously sacked and replaced by Mr Wendell Downswell, Mr Carl Brown is back as head coach of Jamaica's football - albeit on an interim basis - replacing Mr Downswell who was recently left no option but to resign.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Another twist of course is that Mr Brown - now in his fifth stint as head coach - has been rehired by the same Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) administration led by Mr Crenston Boxhill which fired him back in 2004.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Musical chairs? Perhaps not quite. After all, there is the essential difference that Mr Brown is now only expected to hold on to the top coaching job in Jamaica's football for three months. His task will be to guide Jamaica through three international friendlies and the crucial regional tournament, the Digicel Cup, which Jamaica won last year - marking the highpoint of Mr Downswell's topsy turvy 21 months at the helm.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Mr Brown's credentials as coach are not in question. Indeed, his record suggests that but for the Brazilian Mr Rene Simoes, who was in charge as Jamaica qualified for the 1998 World Cup Finals, Mr Brown has been the most successful of Jamaica's coaches.<P class=StoryText align=justify>But Mr Brown's decision to help the JFF out of its current tight spot is testament, as much as anything else, to his patriotism. For after his experience of two years ago he could easily have told Mr Boxhill and company to 'shove off'.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Now, like John the Baptist, he will be expected to prepare the way. Again we are looking abroad for a 'saviour' who will take over from Mr Brown in three months' time and hopefully guide Jamaica through World Cup qualifiers with the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa being the ultimate goal.
By then, hopefully, Mr Boxhill and his team will see their way clear in terms of money to hire one of the several international big names that have been noised about. We are told that the Argentine Mr Jose Pekerman heads the list, but that the Jamaican-born former England International Mr John Barnes, as well as the globe-trotting Mr Bora Milutinovic and Dutch Under-21 coach Mr Foppe Dehana are also in contention.<P class=StoryText align=justify>If that's what it will take for Jamaica to qualify for the World Cup, so be it. We are in favour of an overseas coach.
But as we have said in the past in this space, we would urge the JFF to consider the chuckling comment of Mr Simoes back in the 1990s as Jamaica closed in on an unlikely World Cup spot. Qualification, Mr Simoes said then, would defy all logic - like a builder who first installs the roof before erecting the foundation.<P class=StoryText align=justify>It is a shame that eight years after Jamaica gloriously exited its first World Cup Finals with victory over Japan in France, the foundation that will make the future of Jamaica's football secure is yet to be built.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The National Stadium remains the only football venue of international standard, the academy to be provided through the FIFA Goal Project is yet to get off the ground, most of our promising young footballers are honing their craft on surfaces that are dust bowls or cow pastures at best, and many are guided by individuals who - well-intentioned though they may be - are coaches in name only.<P class=StoryText align=justify>A shortage of money is, of course, a major obstacle. But we do not have the impression that Mr Boxhill's administration has even sought to build a comprehensive, integrated development plan that it can use to woo the business sector.
A master plan, if you will, to t
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>
Saturday, August 19, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>It speaks to the vagaries and uncertainties of football that less than two years after he was unceremoniously sacked and replaced by Mr Wendell Downswell, Mr Carl Brown is back as head coach of Jamaica's football - albeit on an interim basis - replacing Mr Downswell who was recently left no option but to resign.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Another twist of course is that Mr Brown - now in his fifth stint as head coach - has been rehired by the same Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) administration led by Mr Crenston Boxhill which fired him back in 2004.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Musical chairs? Perhaps not quite. After all, there is the essential difference that Mr Brown is now only expected to hold on to the top coaching job in Jamaica's football for three months. His task will be to guide Jamaica through three international friendlies and the crucial regional tournament, the Digicel Cup, which Jamaica won last year - marking the highpoint of Mr Downswell's topsy turvy 21 months at the helm.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Mr Brown's credentials as coach are not in question. Indeed, his record suggests that but for the Brazilian Mr Rene Simoes, who was in charge as Jamaica qualified for the 1998 World Cup Finals, Mr Brown has been the most successful of Jamaica's coaches.<P class=StoryText align=justify>But Mr Brown's decision to help the JFF out of its current tight spot is testament, as much as anything else, to his patriotism. For after his experience of two years ago he could easily have told Mr Boxhill and company to 'shove off'.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Now, like John the Baptist, he will be expected to prepare the way. Again we are looking abroad for a 'saviour' who will take over from Mr Brown in three months' time and hopefully guide Jamaica through World Cup qualifiers with the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa being the ultimate goal.
By then, hopefully, Mr Boxhill and his team will see their way clear in terms of money to hire one of the several international big names that have been noised about. We are told that the Argentine Mr Jose Pekerman heads the list, but that the Jamaican-born former England International Mr John Barnes, as well as the globe-trotting Mr Bora Milutinovic and Dutch Under-21 coach Mr Foppe Dehana are also in contention.<P class=StoryText align=justify>If that's what it will take for Jamaica to qualify for the World Cup, so be it. We are in favour of an overseas coach.
But as we have said in the past in this space, we would urge the JFF to consider the chuckling comment of Mr Simoes back in the 1990s as Jamaica closed in on an unlikely World Cup spot. Qualification, Mr Simoes said then, would defy all logic - like a builder who first installs the roof before erecting the foundation.<P class=StoryText align=justify>It is a shame that eight years after Jamaica gloriously exited its first World Cup Finals with victory over Japan in France, the foundation that will make the future of Jamaica's football secure is yet to be built.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The National Stadium remains the only football venue of international standard, the academy to be provided through the FIFA Goal Project is yet to get off the ground, most of our promising young footballers are honing their craft on surfaces that are dust bowls or cow pastures at best, and many are guided by individuals who - well-intentioned though they may be - are coaches in name only.<P class=StoryText align=justify>A shortage of money is, of course, a major obstacle. But we do not have the impression that Mr Boxhill's administration has even sought to build a comprehensive, integrated development plan that it can use to woo the business sector.
A master plan, if you will, to t
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