Dear Sir,
Kindly permit me a few comments on our recently concluded Under-20 CONCACAF qualifying tournament in Jamaica.
Sometimes we are so discouraged by poor results that we fail to appreciate the positives, and it is for this reason I would like to address the matter with the pointers below.
* Jamaica's team improved as the competition progressed.
* Kudos to the JFF (Jamaica Football Federation) and its administrative team, who have become the top hosting affiliate in the CFU.
* Montego Bay and Kingston have offered two distinctly separate markets, with western Jamaica having some of the best hotels on this side of the world. Their support, and that of the fans of western Jamaica, should be commended for adding a new dimension to Jamaica's international football landscape.
* The heavyweight political leadership by the JFF that was on display is deserving of praise, in first winning the rights and then successfully hosting the CFU Caribbean Cup and CONCACAF Under-20 World Cup qualifying, especially in light of Jamaica's deteriorating foreign exchange situation.
* In blaming our JFF, it is often overlooked how important and how blessed Jamaica has been over the years in having committed presidents and an experienced JFF.
After the Trinidad scandal and the reorganisation of Caribbean football some countries have regressed due primarily to poor or non-existent administration, for example, St Kitts & Nevis and Guyana (under FIFA administration), while other administrators have excelled in their vision, hard work and team preparation, particularly Antigua and Aruba.
The negatives, no doubt, are all too obvious.
* The perennial shortage of funds to properly prepare our national teams against much better financed CONCACAF rivals. The public blames the JFF, they look to their president and the knee-jerk reaction is to blame and/or fire the coaches, who are the only ones expected to take responsibility for perceived failures.
To further ridicule the coaches, we have elevated Mr Warner's style of firing coaches, added army timing and ended up with Captain's now iconic media expectations of being summoned to his office and fired at 0100 hours.
* At the international level, the failure of our inverted schoolboy structure, which brings such glory to our schools, is the underlying structure for the JFF's youth programme. Schoolboy football will be more suited to our Under-17s' quest for FIFA glory in Honduras, starting this month. It will still probably be found wanting, as we lack the technical vision, courage and maturity to withdraw these players from their school teams and focus on the national programme, as was done by Trinidad and Tobago the last time they qualified for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup. We wish coach Andrew Edwards and his squad the very best.
* Jamaica's misunderstanding of entitlement and the lack of realisation that without a paradigm shift in our football structure we will continue to be "kings" of the Caribbean, along with Trinidad, Haiti and possibly Cuba, but will always fall short in the CONCACAF, whose leading countries are primarily committed to a professional football structure.
Solutions to Jamaica's football are not simplistic or cheap. Fundamental change requires national consensus, support and then concerted action; long overdue if we are to build on the platform of France 1998's success. Let the overhaul begin with franchise restructuring and bringing logic, transparency and a full understanding of the underpinning programmes, roles and responsibilities of all affiliates to engender the level of co-operation and hopefully national commitment to make this work. This should be a nationally supported technical thrust, not more political spin.
Recently, FIFA and CONCACAF have spent unprecedented amounts in development funds and structures in the Caribbean, but these are primarily generic long-term programmes structured on a broad amateur base. These are critically important for the smaller developing countries and to retain the existing political status quo.
Jamaica's ambitions and leadership role in the CFU should supersede this. Our expensive top-down structure desperately needs a supporting technical programme focused primarily toward the performance of our national teams.
Let us show technical leadership by being an advocate for prioritising $20 million to be spent by FIFA in supporting CFU and CONCACAF's fledgling thrust for a Caribbean professional league, which will support our franchises rather than the $20 million gift from FIFA to CONCACAF for match-fixing subsidies.
The JFF has an awesome burden in financing our national teams, as do all sporting associations. this is a national problem, and in the context of our Third World economy and our weak Jamaican dollar, mimics 'David vs Goliath' when taking on international competition.
The root problem is money, in particular foreign exchange.
The paradox is that player and personnel development requires long-term programmes. For local coaches, the national designation may be a misnomer; there needs to be an understanding that they are national coaches in training. Success requires money, time, patience, and experience. Experience by its definition means being able to learn from their mistakes. A long-term approach is critical if we are to maximise this very critical investment of scarce JFF resources.
Contrast what we spend/waste on local coaches to what we spend/waste on foreign coaches and their expensive redundancy packages.
The JFF will be reluctant to release these figures.
My major concern, therefore, is for our national programme and local coaches. Contrasting with the structural success of our coaching school is the policy of personal appointment of some of our best local coaches to national jobs with all the above national pride and financial commitment this entails and then their decapitation, with very little due process or technical assessment and maximum publicity, as they are forced through embarrassment to resign or be fired.
It is ironic how highly the top members of the FIFA Technical Study Group (TSG) rate Theodore 'Tappa' Whitmore. They acknowledge his unique grasp of certain technical matters and his thirst for knowledge (given the key for the TSG room, as he is usually the first to arrive and the last to leave).
To declare my bias for Whitmore has to be broadened to all those local coaches we have invested in and discarded. At the national level, Carl Brown, Bradley Stewart, Jackie Walters, Wendell Downswell; others such as Leebert Halliman, Emerson 'Diggie' Henry, Anthony 'Follies' Williams, Paul 'Tegat' Davis, Donovan Duckie, Marvin Tate and now the younger ones like Merron Gordon, just to mention a few.
Add to this our inability to transition younger age group national players into our Under-20 and senior programmes and we should see the short-sightedness of our existing approach.
Jamaica desperately needs a respected technical director who, among other things, can coach, advise, monitor and evaluate our coaches, and ensure that team preparation is standardised among the various national teams. Our islandwide technical development programme and the competitions supporting it also need his critical input.
FIFA's original policy and affiliate financing mandates a technical director, who may still rescue us from the destruction of prime national assets -- our local football coaches and young players.
With approximately US$1 million due from FIFA to support to all Caribbean affiliates this year for national development, it should be interesting to see if our parish administrators will continue to vote their parishes into poverty at board level or redefine national, to include stemming the alarming deterioration of club football in the weaker rural parishes -- remembering that clubs are the base of our national programme. Strong clubs equal a strong JFF.
Yours truly
Tony James
Note: Tony James is a Manchester-based businessman, former JFF president and a FIFA Youth Committee member.
High marks for JFF in hosting tourneys, but that's just tip of the iceberg
-->
Kindly permit me a few comments on our recently concluded Under-20 CONCACAF qualifying tournament in Jamaica.
Sometimes we are so discouraged by poor results that we fail to appreciate the positives, and it is for this reason I would like to address the matter with the pointers below.
* Jamaica's team improved as the competition progressed.
* Kudos to the JFF (Jamaica Football Federation) and its administrative team, who have become the top hosting affiliate in the CFU.
* Montego Bay and Kingston have offered two distinctly separate markets, with western Jamaica having some of the best hotels on this side of the world. Their support, and that of the fans of western Jamaica, should be commended for adding a new dimension to Jamaica's international football landscape.
* The heavyweight political leadership by the JFF that was on display is deserving of praise, in first winning the rights and then successfully hosting the CFU Caribbean Cup and CONCACAF Under-20 World Cup qualifying, especially in light of Jamaica's deteriorating foreign exchange situation.
* In blaming our JFF, it is often overlooked how important and how blessed Jamaica has been over the years in having committed presidents and an experienced JFF.
After the Trinidad scandal and the reorganisation of Caribbean football some countries have regressed due primarily to poor or non-existent administration, for example, St Kitts & Nevis and Guyana (under FIFA administration), while other administrators have excelled in their vision, hard work and team preparation, particularly Antigua and Aruba.
The negatives, no doubt, are all too obvious.
* The perennial shortage of funds to properly prepare our national teams against much better financed CONCACAF rivals. The public blames the JFF, they look to their president and the knee-jerk reaction is to blame and/or fire the coaches, who are the only ones expected to take responsibility for perceived failures.
To further ridicule the coaches, we have elevated Mr Warner's style of firing coaches, added army timing and ended up with Captain's now iconic media expectations of being summoned to his office and fired at 0100 hours.
* At the international level, the failure of our inverted schoolboy structure, which brings such glory to our schools, is the underlying structure for the JFF's youth programme. Schoolboy football will be more suited to our Under-17s' quest for FIFA glory in Honduras, starting this month. It will still probably be found wanting, as we lack the technical vision, courage and maturity to withdraw these players from their school teams and focus on the national programme, as was done by Trinidad and Tobago the last time they qualified for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup. We wish coach Andrew Edwards and his squad the very best.
* Jamaica's misunderstanding of entitlement and the lack of realisation that without a paradigm shift in our football structure we will continue to be "kings" of the Caribbean, along with Trinidad, Haiti and possibly Cuba, but will always fall short in the CONCACAF, whose leading countries are primarily committed to a professional football structure.
Solutions to Jamaica's football are not simplistic or cheap. Fundamental change requires national consensus, support and then concerted action; long overdue if we are to build on the platform of France 1998's success. Let the overhaul begin with franchise restructuring and bringing logic, transparency and a full understanding of the underpinning programmes, roles and responsibilities of all affiliates to engender the level of co-operation and hopefully national commitment to make this work. This should be a nationally supported technical thrust, not more political spin.
Recently, FIFA and CONCACAF have spent unprecedented amounts in development funds and structures in the Caribbean, but these are primarily generic long-term programmes structured on a broad amateur base. These are critically important for the smaller developing countries and to retain the existing political status quo.
Jamaica's ambitions and leadership role in the CFU should supersede this. Our expensive top-down structure desperately needs a supporting technical programme focused primarily toward the performance of our national teams.
Let us show technical leadership by being an advocate for prioritising $20 million to be spent by FIFA in supporting CFU and CONCACAF's fledgling thrust for a Caribbean professional league, which will support our franchises rather than the $20 million gift from FIFA to CONCACAF for match-fixing subsidies.
The JFF has an awesome burden in financing our national teams, as do all sporting associations. this is a national problem, and in the context of our Third World economy and our weak Jamaican dollar, mimics 'David vs Goliath' when taking on international competition.
The root problem is money, in particular foreign exchange.
The paradox is that player and personnel development requires long-term programmes. For local coaches, the national designation may be a misnomer; there needs to be an understanding that they are national coaches in training. Success requires money, time, patience, and experience. Experience by its definition means being able to learn from their mistakes. A long-term approach is critical if we are to maximise this very critical investment of scarce JFF resources.
Contrast what we spend/waste on local coaches to what we spend/waste on foreign coaches and their expensive redundancy packages.
The JFF will be reluctant to release these figures.
My major concern, therefore, is for our national programme and local coaches. Contrasting with the structural success of our coaching school is the policy of personal appointment of some of our best local coaches to national jobs with all the above national pride and financial commitment this entails and then their decapitation, with very little due process or technical assessment and maximum publicity, as they are forced through embarrassment to resign or be fired.
It is ironic how highly the top members of the FIFA Technical Study Group (TSG) rate Theodore 'Tappa' Whitmore. They acknowledge his unique grasp of certain technical matters and his thirst for knowledge (given the key for the TSG room, as he is usually the first to arrive and the last to leave).
To declare my bias for Whitmore has to be broadened to all those local coaches we have invested in and discarded. At the national level, Carl Brown, Bradley Stewart, Jackie Walters, Wendell Downswell; others such as Leebert Halliman, Emerson 'Diggie' Henry, Anthony 'Follies' Williams, Paul 'Tegat' Davis, Donovan Duckie, Marvin Tate and now the younger ones like Merron Gordon, just to mention a few.
Add to this our inability to transition younger age group national players into our Under-20 and senior programmes and we should see the short-sightedness of our existing approach.
Jamaica desperately needs a respected technical director who, among other things, can coach, advise, monitor and evaluate our coaches, and ensure that team preparation is standardised among the various national teams. Our islandwide technical development programme and the competitions supporting it also need his critical input.
FIFA's original policy and affiliate financing mandates a technical director, who may still rescue us from the destruction of prime national assets -- our local football coaches and young players.
With approximately US$1 million due from FIFA to support to all Caribbean affiliates this year for national development, it should be interesting to see if our parish administrators will continue to vote their parishes into poverty at board level or redefine national, to include stemming the alarming deterioration of club football in the weaker rural parishes -- remembering that clubs are the base of our national programme. Strong clubs equal a strong JFF.
Yours truly
Tony James
Note: Tony James is a Manchester-based businessman, former JFF president and a FIFA Youth Committee member.
High marks for JFF in hosting tourneys, but that's just tip of the iceberg
-->