Jamaica’s football suffering from poor development
Jamaica bowed out of the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup at the quarter finals last Sunday. The usual post match questions are being asked after yet another tournament where the Jamaican senior national football team failed to finish at the top. The Jamaicans were aiming to go one better than their best attempts, which were back-to-back runner up places at the 2015 and 2017 editions of the competition. In the last staging, in 2019, the team was knocked out at the semi-final stage by the Americans, making this our worst showing in the past four editions of the biannual cup competition.
The Reggae Boys lost to the USA 1-0 in the match played with limited spectator turnout at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Matthew Hoppe, who plays club football in the German Bundesliga with FC Shalke, got the all-important goal for the US in the 83rd minute. Reggae Boys head coach, Theodore ‘Tappa’ Whitmore, said the team must now pick up the pieces and look ahead to the World Cup qualifiers scheduled for later this year. He said he thought the team handled the conditions well, but he bemoaned the lack of composure shown by his team in front of the goal. He also said he and his technical team will do an assessment of the tournament and decide on the preparations going forward. Whitmore was full of praise for team captain and goalkeeper, Andre Blake, an error from Blake ultimately led to the goal by Hoppe.
Questions about Tappa’s team selection and tactics have reigned rampant since the defeat with some calling for his removal as national head coach. At least one football analyst is however calling for calm heads to prevail. Former professional footballer, coach and sports analyst, Dr Don Davis, said this was not the time to uproot Coach Whitmore. He believes this would do more harm than good as the team chemistry will be important going into the World Cup qualifiers and it was impossible to build that chemistry with a new coach in just three months. He stressed that the lack of preparation going into the tournament must be considered, and when this was done the results could be considered fair. Dr Davis stressed the need for development at the youth level if the nation was to ever appear in another World Cup final. “The template for this development from the top-down was set from the Burrell administration (Horace Burrell), and there has never been an attempt to change it because it was successful at the first go… but it has not seen any success since 1998 because it really doesn’t work,” said Dr Davis.
He blamed the lack of ideas by the current administration for the team’s failures, pointing out the need to develop a robust Olympic team (under 23s) as a precursor to having a subsequently strong senior team. Jamaica has never qualified for the Olympics in football and this, he said, should be our primary target as it will be a springboard for World Cup qualification. He said grass roots development was also essential and there is a need to have the Inter Secondary Schools’ Sports Association (ISSA) being run by those who understood the business and technical side of sports. Dr Davis further stated that the current structure with principals running ISSA cannot work, if we aimed to develop football locally. “Principals should get back to running schools and leave football to those who know football,” said Dr Davis.
