Tweet
A sad day for Jamaica's footballSaturday, August 18, 2007
Somewhere along the line it seems the entire secretariat of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) went comatose and stayed that way for a considerable while.
How else to explain a situation in which Jamaica's national Under-15 footballers now find themselves unable to travel to Port of Spain to defend the regional title won by their predecessors two years ago. This, after administrative bungling so amateurish, it almost defies belief.
We are told that the JFF came to this sorry and shameful pass after the United States Embassy refused to grant emergency appointments to the players to apply for visas which would have allowed them to travel to Port of Spain via Miami.
The Americans, we know, are a law unto themselves. But, in fact, in this case we are in no position to point fingers at them.
For, had the JFF, led by outgoing president Mr Crenston Boxhill, just done the basics, there would have been no need for Jamaica's young footballers to go through Miami on their way to Port of Spain and to apply for US visas.
If we are to believe the stories on our sports pages over recent days, the JFF found itself resorting to the Miami route because it was forced to give up seats originally booked on Caribbean Airlines to Port of Spain. This, because to begin with, it was tardy in naming a squad and failed to pay proper attention to detail - all of which had a domino effect in mishaps, including the failure to confirm airline bookings.
We are told that the shambolic sequence began with the late appointment of a coach, which meant the training squad was also selected late and the final squad for the trip to Port of Spain was only named last week.
Amazingly, it was at this point that the JFF Secretariat realised that the majority of the players did not have passports. We are told that the Ministry of National Security resorted to emergency measures to ensure that the young footballers were granted passports earlier this week. But by then the seats on Caribbean Airlines were gone.
That left the JFF Secretariat with no option but to go cap in hand to the unyielding Americans - a mission that was always doomed to fail.
And so we have come to this very sad day in Jamaica's football.
Ordinarily, a demand for the immediate resignation of Mr Boxhill and his administration would be very much in order. But since Mr Boxhill has already indicated he will not be contesting the voting congress set for November 4, such a call seems almost pointless.
The problem though is that the Congress is still more than two months away with much to be done as Jamaica prepares for Olympic qualifiers and next year's World Cup qualifiers.
Before this awful foul-up, Mr Boxhill's administration was already in the lame duck category. Now it finds itself in a situation that is probably weaker than anyone can remember in the context of football administration in Jamaica.
We are left to live in hope that there will be no other major challenge for football over the next two and a half months.
Comment