Paul A. Reid,
Staff Reporter 
Brown... named technical director of football this month. - FILE
WESTERN BUREAU: TRUTH IS some times stranger than fiction and nowhere was that more evident than the recent bombshell announcement from the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF).
Unless you have been living under a rock somewhere in Outer Mongolia or sharing a cave with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan you should know by now that long-time coach Carl Brown was named the new national technical director of football.
Such a surprise was the news that members of the media who had gathered for the press conference greeted the announcement with laughter. Not that they did not welcome the news but such was the magnitude of the surprise.
The whole process is a bit baffling. We were told that JFF supremo Captain Horace Burrell and Brown were in negotiations for two weeks or so before the announcement.
In that period, Burrell had made promises he would announce who the new technical director would be and added the name would have "a European flavour". I don't know about you but Brown does not sound very European to me. Then again I guess it Burrell had maintained his militaristic stance that none of the local coaches were up to the task and that we needed an overseas coach to lead the way forward. He had repeated that sentiment as late as the final World Cup qualifying game against Costa Rica on November 11, telling a television announcer that "make no mistake, we need help from overseas".
The million pound net question now is what had changed between the Costa Rica game and the announcement?
A part of Brown's training will be a one-year attachment to Bolton Wanderers of the English Premiership where he is supposed to improve his skills as an international coach. Why Bolton? Why not another more established programme with a proven record over a period of time? Isn't that short changing the entire process? Those are other questions for another time however.
Burrell would have us believe that sending Brown to England for the year was what he had in mind with the "European flavour" comment. Really now captain?
I hope I am wrong. I really hope I am made to eat my words but I do believe strongly that Carl is being set up. He is being used to fill space until the real football starts again.
With no major tournaments on the horizon for at least until 2003-04, there is no need to employ a coach that would attract a high salary package.
Therefore, Brown is the perfect person to keep the director's chair warm until it is time to bring in the European-flavoured name. It is my guess that come 2004 when the World Cup qualifying gets underway, Brown will be sidelined once again. Maybe he will last until the start of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying semi-final round and then his performance will be 're-assessed'.
I am willing to believe that Burrell and his advisors reassessed their positions after hearing that the going price for a decent coach was somewhere in the region of one million pounds net. Friends, that is almost J$70 million a year after taxes and deductions.
With no major competitions in the next three years, the JFF boss thought maybe he could save some money and hopefully following the World Cup next year and subsequent European competitions, some good coaches might become available. You cannot flaw that argument. And with Carl quoted as saying that he had decided to walk out of the programme if a decision was not made soon, Burrell the strategist must have realised he had to hold on to his man a little longer and came up with what he must have perceived was a brilliant idea.
We have no other option but to wait and see and, as I said above, for Carl's sake, I hope I am wrong but only time will tell.
What the JFF needs to do now after naming Brown is to outline what the job of the technical director entails.
Will he be the person who will draw up the blueprint for Jamaica's football over the next 10 years, starting with the lowest age group and encompassing all teams and the top clubs? Or will he be the person who handles the day-to-day running of the national senior team?
Different countries call their coaches by different names and we need to know what Brown's responsibilities will be.
We have a technical committee at the JFF, which by the way has been very quiet all this time, and it is high time the JFF explained once and for all what its responsibilities are.
We were of the belief when Rene Simoes came here seven years ago he would have designed a manual for the coaches to follow. Two other technical directors later we are still waiting for this road map.
Maybe after Brown returns from Bolton he will have an idea.
