Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) President Michael Ricketts has come out swinging against the production of the National Senior Men’s team in the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers thus far against the investment of his association.
Speaking on a national radio programme this morning, Ricketts explained that for what his local governing body has invested in the programme, the Reggae Boyz have fallen short of the returns expected.
The Jamaicans are in sixth place in the Final Round points standings with six points, the same as Costa Rica and El Salvador and only ahead of Honduras on three points.
The US, whom the Boyz play today at home, are leaders on 14 points, the same as Mexico, with Canada next on 13 points, followed by Panama on 11 points.
The top three teams at the end of the qualifiers go directly to Qatar for next year’s World Cup Finals, with the fourth-placed team earning another shot at Qatar through an Intercontinental play-off.
“I think we have underachieved, having invested so heavily in this programme, both from the Gold Cup and into the World Cup qualifiers,” Ricketts told Nationwide radio.
“We have given them just about everything they have asked for. They wanted a chef, we gave them a chef to travel around with; they wanted a video analyst we got a gentleman out of Canada with all the requisite equipment that they would have asked for. He wanted a drone, we gave him a drone; he wanted a ball shooting machine we provided that; they wanted more persons from a medical perspective, we gave them; they wanted two assistant coaches we provided two assistant coaches; the sports psychologist, the JFF has invested heavily in this programme, so I do believe that we have underachieved and that is of some concern to us,” he stressed.
Inevitably, Head Coach Theodore Whitmore’s position came up for discussion and Ricketts said that irrespective of the outcome of today’s game, the Technical Committee would be meeting soon to review the campaign so far at this stage, just past the halfway mark of the 14 games.
Ricketts was deliberate in his explanation of the process regarding the coach’s future.
“That is not a decision for me, personally, it would be for the executive of the JFF and certainly this would have to be in conjunction with the technical committee, but again I want to reiterate that we are disappointed.
“Honestly, Friday evening’s result [1-1 draw with El Salvador] would certainly have put us back greatly. Using cricketing parlance, we would be on the back foot, so we would have given away at least maybe three or four points having conceded these very late goals. If we had three or four points more we would be in a very decent position,” JFF President Ricketts argued.
Lloyd Bronson
Caribbean National Weekly Sports
