BACK TO BASICS!
Blaine commits to reviving local women’s football
Published:Thursday | December 16, 2021 | 12:42 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
INTERIM SENIOR Reggae Girlz coach Vin Blaine said it will be difficult for locally based player to be included in the squad for the upcoming World Cup qualification or any immediate future tournaments, with the local women’s game virtually non-existent.
However, Blaine, who expressed that he has been very concerned about the women’s game for some time, promised to work with local stakeholders in reviving local women’s football to ensure that local players get an opportunity to be included for the next qualification cycle.
“I am very concerned, even before I took the job,” he said during a Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) online press conference on Tuesday. “From the (2019) World Cup campaign, I was always critical of the fact that we do not have a base where the likes of Khadijah Shaw, Daneisha Blackwood, Trudi Carter and Jody Brown all came through.
“We had sacrificed our development to get to the World Cup, and we need to move away from that,” he said.
Continuing, Blaine added: “At the moment, it would be foolhardy of me to bring local girls who are not prepared, and we have none, as far as I see.
“To bring in local players in the process, I do not think this will happen for this World Cup, but for the next World Cup and other tournaments that we will be participating in. But right now it is hard, because there is nothing happening here.
“It is a concern, and the only way we can bridge that gap is to get our local players playing back consistently and get them scholarships to go abroad, the same way Khadijah Shaw and Jody Brown did. It is going to be very difficult, but I plan to bridge the gap,” he said.
PLANS TO REVITALISE WOMEN’S FOOTBALL
He pointed that in his role as coach, he will be speaking with the various stakeholders to work out how they can get local women’s football back on the playing fields.
First he wants to get the school league revitalised, and then the national competition.
However, based on the decline in local women’s competitions over the last decade, he is advocating that the league starts out as a junior (U20) tournament and grow it into a senior competition.
“We want to have a vibrant school league again, and then look at the league (senior). My take five years ago before I left Jamaica, was to have the senior league scrapped and start with a junior programme, like under-20, and get it up to where we want it to be,” he stated.
Although he plans to keep most of the previous back-room staff, he said there will be changes.
“There will be some changes, but not many,” he said, when asked about his back-room staff. “As a coach, I have to work with people who I am confident with and who I can trust.
“I have worked with most of these people before, so I am comfortable with those that have been chosen.”
Meanwhile, Blaine is looking to hold his first training camp, starting on January 10, to prepare for their first-round World Cup qualifiers in February.
“The general secretary (JFF, Dalton Wint) said we will get a training camp based on the playing schedule of the girls. The English girls can’t come until the 14th (January). I want players to start arriving on the 10th.
“Those who are not involved in games in that period will start arriving on the 10th, and we will start the training camp on the 11th. They will be joined by the other players on the 14th,” he said.