The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) has backed the Technical Staff of Jamaica’s National Senior Women’s Team, the Reggae Girlz, including Head Coach Vin Blaine.
Blaine and his technical staff were targeted in a scathing letter from the majority of the members of the current Reggae Girlz squad in a recent letter sent to the JFF.
But on Tuesday, the JFF announced that it had accepted the recommendation of the JFF Technical and Development Committee to retain Blaine and his technical staff.
In its report, subsequent to an initial investigation into concerns expressed by team members, the committee cited there was insufficient evidence to warrant any such change in personnel at this time.
The JFF Technical and Development Committee noted that “it was in the best interest of the JFF to continue on its present course, with the current coaching staff, where the progress would be closely monitored and evaluated periodically”.
It added: “Further, based on results so far and with less than two months before the CONCACAF Women’s qualifying tournament gets underway in Mexico, it is felt that introducing changes at this time would not be prudent.
“Towards this end, the JFF has the full confidence in the coaching staff and the team members but recognises the need to share in and support the process with some critical core values of the organization, including professionalism, teamwork and respect.”
The local governing body has pledged to put everything in place, within its powers, to ensure the team is comfortable and can perform at its optimum to achieve Jamaica’s second consecutive qualification to the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand next year.
The Jamaicans qualified for the CONCACAF Women’s Championship, the final round of qualification to the FIFA Women’s World Cup, and have been drawn into a tough group which includes World Champions USA, hosts Mexico and Caribbean powerhouse Haiti.
The final round is slated for Guadalajara in Mexico in July.
But problems have been brewing for some time, as the Reggae Girlz, first-time qualifiers to the France 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, appeared less than impressive in advancing to this stage.
The discontent prompted a letter signed by 20 players addressed to the JFF citing a lack of confidence in the coaching staff’s competence to guide the team to qualification.
In the two-page letter dated April 25, the 20 players said they were unable to commit to the “cause” if the JFF did not intervene in a “meaningful” manner.
In fact, the letter stated categorically that while the players appreciated the “conundrum you are now placed in to remedy the highlighted deficiencies, our commitment is contingent on decisive and serious actions, as anything less is an indication of a futureless Reggae Girlz.”
The players claimed that their concerns did not “suddenly” arise, but that they were compounded during the last two playing windows.
Their main concerns were lack of details in training sessions, lack of video analysis, set pieces, post-match review for team improvement, the absence of an organized game plan, no tactical training sessions, lack of specificity of training sessions leading up to matches, the absence of specific positive instructions, lack of incorporation of all aspects of training, recovery methodology, strength work, communications deficiencies, lack of professionalism, scant regard for punctuality and the absence of a schedule, daily or otherwise.
The signatories to the letter are said to be Khadija Shaw, Allyson Swaby, Trudi Carter, Jody Brown, Sydney Schneider, Chantelle Swaby, Sashana Campbell, Kayla McCoy, Paige Bailey-Gayle, Drew Spence, Tiernney Wiltshire, Courtney Douglas, Vyan Sampson, Yazmeen Jamieson, Rebecca Spencer, Chinyelu Asher, Tiffany Cameron, Miyera Grey, Kalyssa Van Zanten and Alika Keene.
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