‘We must be more decisive’

President of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Michael Ricketts has laid most of the blame for tardy and inadequate preparation of national youth teams at the feet of the technical department and director of football, Wendell Downswell.

Speaking at a press conference at the JFF headquarters last Friday, Ricketts said, many times, squads are not assembled in time to get the required preparation, and insists they must work harder to get this right.

“This certainly has been an issue. We must blame our technical department and we must blame our technical director, because a number of times we do not get these squads together on time. So we do not make the necessary preparations.

“We must be more decisive. It cannot be that we start preparing a week before (a tournament). We have to be far more strident in what we are doing in relation to preparing our teams,” he said.

He pointed out that the federation has 12 teams, six of each gender, and that it is a huge challenge taking care of all these teams, especially in such a busy year when some five youth teams were in training simultaneously.

“We need to find a way to navigate these issues. We want to make sure we make the necessary adjustments and, having Adidas on board, we are extremely fortunate. We have had in-depth discussions with Adidas and they have vested interest in Jamaica’s football. They are interested in growing the sport here.”

He added that affordability is also an issue, as well as the availability of adequate training facilities to accommodate more than one team at a time.

“Sometimes expenses are out of our reach. We are not awash with cash. People will say the teams weren’t properly prepared but there are a number of issues, like the lack of enough training facilities. When we have five to six units participating and we only own one centre, we have to be shifting and moving to try and ensure we get as much training as possible. So there are a number of things that curtail our preparation. Some are beyond our control,” Ricketts said.

JFF general secretary Dennis Chung added that they have requested reports from the youth coaches who recently completed competitions, and he said they intend to use those reports to guide them in their planning.

“I spoke with the coach of the Under -17 (girls) and he brought up the issue. I told him to submit something to the technical director and technical chairman on camps. It’s a difficult challenge and this was one of the busiest years ever for JFF,” Chung said.

Meanwhile, technical committee chairman Rudolph Speid insists that, based on the issues the president pointed to, it is hard to blame one person for all or most of the problems.

“It is no one’s fault really. We have one technical centre and seven teams training and we do not have money to rent a centre,” Speid said.

He also believes there is a need for an exclusive women’s training centre, because, when several teams are jostling for use of the centre, the women are always the ones left behind.

“For the JFF to function properly, we definitely need two more technical centres, because we play every competition. And we need to have one exclusively for women’s football. I see what happens whenever there is a choice. So we need one exclusively for the women. And, until we achieve that, we will not have the right preparation,” he stated.

Director of football, Downswell, said plans are in the pipeline to ensure that all youth teams get substantial attention ahead of competitions.

He revealed that the federation has started contracting youth coaches long before competitions, instead of a few months before. He added that they had special plans for the current Under-14 girls and Under-15 boys, as they want these two groups to form the base for the Under-17 (female and male) qualifiers in the next few years.

“We have a set of Under-14 girls and Under-15 boys that just finished (competitions). There is a special project for those two groups. The girls will be together for the next three years and the next two years for the boys. So they will have at least two years of preparation, and that has been worked out already in terms of the international games they will play. It is just for us to open the selection process to others,” he disclosed.

“We want to have about 40 local players and about 10 to 12 overseas players to select from. Having that level of preparation is always crucial and, with Adidas on board, it is a step in the right direction,” Downswell said.

livingston.scott@gleanerjm.com