Dear Mr. President,
Congratulations Sir on the hiring (or the soon to be announced hiring) of a new head coach for the 'Reggae Boyz' in the form of Mr. Bora Milutinović to lead our 'Back to Africa' 2010 World Cup campaign.
I can't help contemplating though, whether this move represents a confirmation that our national programme has indeed taken a few steps in the wrong direction. Is this not where your predecessor had placed the programme way back in 1998 only for us to be returning there now? Was not Mr. Rene Simoes doing a fabulous (alright, maybe an okay job) with the national programme considering that three national teams qualified for world championship during his tenure? Yes there was discontent regarding the number of overseas players as part of the various national teams, but were we not getting the desired results? Was there not a 'trickle down effect' taking place? Has not Mr. Bora now emphasized that he will be looking to get overseas players to get us 'Back to Africa' 2010?
Nevertheless I support your vision for the development of youth football in Jamaica and regret to see that your vision never really developed much momentum. It is in this regard that I especially wanted to write to you.
There seems to be much discontent among pundits that the national football programme remains somewhat disjointed. Critics and fans alike have, possibly due to varying levels of frustration, questioned everything from player commitment, to coaching to the quality of leadership provided by your administration. Despite all that may have been said, what continues to be said and is yet to be said, it appears that the problems of the National Program are akin to those faced by any entity that depends on human resources or people skills – the lack of a proper education system. There are some who may take umbrage to such a statement. But just think for a moment for example, if companies or organizations in whatever country, want to be able to produce goods or services efficiently and thereby compete effectively in the global economy, there needs to be a certain quality attached to its input factors of production such as, labour. The labour force has to be educated. As examples of this, countries such as China, Japan, Singapore and The United States of America spring readily to mind.
Whilst the emphasis in the corporate world is on labour being literate and numerate etc., and this is not to say that such skills are not required by or of footballers, footballers by the nature of their field of activity need athletic and football skills. And here is where I believe the education system has again failed to produce for the national good. It has been oft repeated that young footballers lack the fundamentals necessary to play the game at the highest level. And this scenario is fundamentally the reason why it has become difficult to rely on the local-based talent to comfortably select an efficient and competitive national senior team outfit.
Despite that being the case, it is also well-known how difficult an exercise it is for schools and their principals to, year-after-year find resources in an ever tightening economy and funds from ever shrinking budgets to adequately prepare teams and players to any high level. And, even if with the best efforts the majority of players leaving our secondary schools have very few opportunities to focus on football as a career. Football either becomes a hobby or something to be done when there is free-time. This in my opinion is an untenable situation if we are ever to improve our football output.
Whilst the emphasis in the corporate world is on labour being literate and numerate etc., and this is not to say that such skills are not required by or of footballers, footballers by the nature of their field of activity need athletic and football skills. And here is where I believe the education system has again failed to produce for the national good. It has been oft repeated that young footballers lack the fundamentals necessary to play the game at the highest level. And this scenario is fundamentally the reason why it has become difficult to rely on the local-based talent to comfortably select an efficient and competitive national senior team outfit.
Despite that being the case, it is also well-known how difficult an exercise it is for schools and their principals to, year-after-year find resources in an ever tightening economy and funds from ever shrinking budgets to adequately prepare teams and players to any high level. And, even if with the best efforts the majority of players leaving our secondary schools have very few opportunities to focus on football as a career. Football either becomes a hobby or something to be done when there is free-time. This in my opinion is an untenable situation if we are ever to improve our football output.
The Jamaica Football Federation along with Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association need to sit down and start talking. This will be critical if youth development is to be a reality.
1 comment:
Interesting commentry. I also want to extend congratulations to the JFF president for such a prudent decision to hire Bora. I however wish to echo the sentiment expressed about the need to create a system capable of generating home grown footballers that meet international athletic and intellectual standards.
I hope we will be able to work on generating a new brand of football
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