The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) will begin the hunt to find a head coach for the Senior Women’s National Team, the Reggae Girlz after interim Head Coach Vin Blaine tendered his resignation on Tuesday.
The players, in the two-page letter, accused the veteran coach and his technical staff of lacking the requisite competence to successfully guide the team through the CONCACF Women’s Championship and into the FIFA World Cup Finals in Australia and New Zealand next year.
They also cited concerns with Blaine’s leadership style, the technical staff’s tactical preparation including the absence of specific pre-match preparations, lack of communication and professionalism, the and absence of daily schedules among others concerns.
Blaine had denied all the charges and defended himself by claiming “external” forces were at play in the allegations.
An investigation by the Technical and Development Committee found insufficient evidence to warrant the sacking Blaine and his staff, and it recommended no action be taken against the technical group at this time.
The JFF board accepted the recommendation of the Technical and Development Committee despite the fact that the Girlz had made it clear that they would not be able to commit their future of the programme if substantive action was not taken.
But it appears Blaine had long planned to walk away from the post in the best interest of the national programme, as he told the Jamaica media on Tuesday, he only delayed tendering his resignation as he waited for the compensation packages of his technical staff to be addressed by the JFF.
In accepting the resignation, the JFF issued a statement on Tuesday, which read: “The Jamaica Football Federation would like to express sincere thanks and appreciation for the work that coach Vin Blaine has done with the Senior Women’s National Team.
“Unfortunately, he has decided against taking the team to the next level. We hoped that the relationship shared with the Federation would not end this abruptly, but we appreciate his take on the situation at hand.
“The JFF wishes him all the very best for the future.”
The veteran Harbour View Football Club coach has guided the Reggae Girlz at various levels for more than a decade before moving overseas to take up the post of Technical Director of the Grenada football programme in 2017. He later moved to the US Virgin Islands for a short spell before being reappointed to the Reggae Girlz programme last December.
In his last spell he guided the Girlz to four-consecutive victories in Group C of the CONCACF Women’s Qualifiers, with the team tallying 24 goals while conceding two.
The final round of the qualifying series, the CONCACAF Women’s Championship takes place in Mexico from July 4 through to 18. Jamaica are drawn in a tough group which included defending champions USA, hosts Mexico and Caribbean powerhouse Haiti.
Only the top two teams from each of the two groups will advance to next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals.
There is speculation that the next coach could be somebody familiar with the group, who had been among the technical staff previously.
