Now that qualifications for the FIFA 2022 World Cup Finals are over, Reggae Boyz interim head coach Paul Hall remains firmly interested in taking on the long-term job of guiding Jamaica’s football development over the next decade.
Hall, an instrumental player in the Reggae Boyz 1998 World Cup squad, was appointed interim head coach last December following the sacking of Theodore Whitmore on the recommendation of Jamaica Football Federation Technical Committee led by Rudolph Speid.
He lost all three games in the January/February, but managed a 1-1 drawn with El Salvador, oversaw a 4-0 demolition against Canada in frigid Toronto, before closing out the 14-game Final Round campaign with Wednesday’s 2-1 come-from-behind win over Honduras.
“I feel I’m the person to do that along with the people I’ve been working with. We’ve had training sessions that are structured and you can see it on the pitch that the players are trying to play a brand of football that is attractive to look at,” Hall told the media.
“I know that’s going to take long, so yes it was important to get those three points, but it’s important that we all plan a future for the youngsters, these 10-year-olds and 12-year-olds who are not even expecting to be a part of what we are doing, but in 10 years’ time the boys and the girls will be coming up and trying to qualify for World Cup and these big competitions,” added Hall.
He noted that it was good to get the win for the record, but stated that the right questions now needed to be asked, like “Where are we going? What do we need to do? What are the next steps for Jamaica?
“I think we need to have a 10-year plan and measure that plan as we go along and make sure that in five to six years’ time those young ones who we gave a debut to over the last couple of games, they are going to be ready consistently and the first team will be challenging to get to World Cups and Gold Cups and Nations Leagues consistently.”
Still, the 49-year-old was quick to add that there’s a lot that needs to be done to get the sport developed to an acceptable level where national teams compete consistently for glory on the global stage.
“We’ve got issues that need solving all the way, with boys and the girls and we need to get football back to where it was for Jamaica. We have to take our time and really be patient with it.”
Paul Hall, a development coach at English Championship side Queen’s Park Rangers, says he’s already started laying the foundations for the future, “not only for players, but coaches, everybody who is willing to listen. I want to lay those foundations for us to go forward and make Jamaican football kind of future proof.
“I want to work with everybody and get everybody to get those skills and those youngsters working, as young as we can get them and really start giving them the football skills because starting as a teenager is just not enough. We are losing to other countries which are starting at eight and nine, so we got to put something in position to be able to give these young people skills and not only football skills but life skills as well.
“There is a lot of unrest happening where we could use football as a vehicle to get these young people some direction. It is something I’ve thought about and I see things happening all the time and young people being taken away to crime or dying, so we need to use this football as a vehicle to rescue some of these people.
“It was important for everybody [to get the win]. It was important for me, but everybody is hanging on this winning thing and all that winning is good but it needs to be consistent and … winning can paper over a lot of cracks that are already there,” said the former Jamaica international.
“So I want everybody to try to be patient with this team because it is a 10-year plan. You’ll start to see the fruition after five, six, seven years consistently, noted Paul Hall.
