'Unprofessional' - Phoenix Academy slams JFF over match promo; declines Bailey, Butler invite

Laura Butler, a member of the management team at the Phoenix All Star Football Academy, has hit out at what she says is a lack of professionalism displayed by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) with regard to how it treated the invitation of Leon Bailey and his foster brother, Kyle Butler, to the national senior football squad.

Bailey, of Bayer Leverkusen in the German Bundesliga, and Butler, of Maltese Premier League side St Andrews FC, were invited to be part of the team for the friendly international against Antigua and Barbuda at Sabina Park on March 25, however, they declined the offer through an email from Phoenix Academy.

The email said that both players had a prior commitment to the Jamaica Tourist Board to attend its event in Berlin, Germany, on the same weekend of the match. It also revealed that both players were focusing on their club careers at the moment and would not commit to any national team as yet. It added that "there have been no terms agreed to implement a national football culture that will be beneficial to the sport in Jamaica with the JFF and their manager".

Ms Butler said that she does not want the public to think that there was any malicious or ill intent from Leon or Kyle to not play for Jamaica.

"Both players are very passionate about their country, however, at this time, because of what is happening with their club careers, since huge things are about to happen now, that's not where their focus is. Having made this commitment to the Jamaica Tourist Board, they're going to honour it and are not available," she said.

However, one of the main concerns stated in the email was that the players were used to promote the match without their confirmation of availability.

MISLEADING MESSAGE

"When we arrived in Germany (yesterday), our nephews were just telling us that the JFF had tagged Leon and Kyle in their flyer promoting the match on Instagram, which was very misleading to the public that they're going to be playing. Without any discussions on details and terms, this was a huge assumption. There was no other mention of any other players in the tags, so why were these two players singled out, along with the media and sponsors?"

But JFF director of marketing and business development Sophia Harris-Lau said that the federation did nothing wrong in tagging the players on its promotional flyer.

"There's a disclaimer on the page stating that no squad has been named," Harris-Lau said. "The squad will not be named until just before the game as is typical practice."

National senior team manager, Roy Simpson said that he is awaiting a response from Bayer Leverkusen and St Andrews as they are the parties the JFF reached out to regarding the players' availability. He said that the email sent to the JFF declining the offer holds little weight.

"We have sent out invitations to both players' clubs," Simpson said. "What we have got is an email from, I don't know, but I see where some persons have been copied, so I assume they are connected to Phoenix. We have not received any official communication from either of the players' respective clubs, so we await that. We don't deal with the management of Phoenix."