Gama on the ball

Orane Hart, Gleaner Intern

Newly appointed technical director of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), Brazilian Walter Gama, expects to be a frequent spectator at football matches across the country.

Gama, who will be in charge of all the country's football programmes, spoke of some his plans to take the nation's football forward while attending a Digicel Premier League (DPL) play-off game between Rivoli FC and Cavalier at the Spanish Town Oval last Tuesday.

Gama said that he plans to attend more games at this level to have a good look at the current crop of players currently plying their trade in leagues around Jamaica.

"Every game, if it's possible, will have a member of our staff on location to take a look. We know that [it] may be impossible to look at every game at this level, but we have plans to look at as many games as we can."

Better fields

Gama, who is no stranger to Jamaican football, as he was an assistant coach to René Simoes during the Reggae Boyz 1998 World Cup campaign, said they were eyeing players for the youth programme and also to take a look at the conditions of the fields.

"We need to know everything about the players and the fields, as this information is critical in what we are trying to accomplish," he said.

He added: "We just saw the University (UWI) field where the Under-17s trained on Tuesday and the field is not good, but we spoke to Captain (Horace) Burrell and he promised us that they are going to remake that field so we can use it." Gama added, "All the playing fields in Jamaica can be better to make it easier for the local footballers to the develop."

Gama says the focus right now is on the senior team which goes to Brazil shortly to prepare for the Gold Cup and the Under-17s for their World Cup next month.

Local players and leagues, however, feature prominently in his development plans.

"For the local players, the first thing is the development of local tournaments and championships. After that we start looking at things in more technical terms. We are going step by step, and we have a lot of meetings to co-ordinate with the JFF to make decisions on numerous things," Gama said.