BLAINE

Howard Walker, Staff Reporter

Head coach of the national female football team, Vin Blaine, has resigned with immediate effect, saying he was undermined by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF).

"I done with the JFF," Blaine told The Gleaner yesterday. "You can't go around under-mining people like that."

Blaine said the Crenston-Boxhill led JFF was disrespectful to him in announcing changes to the football programme without consulting him.

Disrespectful

"The JFF was very disrespectful, they went behind my back without even consulting me," said a livid Blaine. "On Friday, we were summoned to the JFF to give a report on the programme and I outlined my plans and then Mr. Boxhill (Crenston) announced during the meeting that they will be appointing coaches for the under-15s and under-17s without first consulting me, and I was in charge of the programme. That's disrespectful."

According to Blaine, the JFF is appointing additional female coaches for various level of the programme and they can barely pay him.

Said Blaine: "They can't even pay me and they want to take on four other coaches. I spend my money going around the island recruiting young girls and I didn't even went to the JFF."

Only last year Blaine led Jamaica's Under-19 girls to the brink of qualifying for the World Cup, finishing fourth with the top three teams advancing.

Responding to the claims, Boxhill, JFF president, says he does not know what Blaine calls disrespectful and that his organisation is only getting in line with the Caribbean Football Union (CFU).

"I received his letter today and I wanted to talk to him about certain things. He has done a lot for female football and I am trying to get him to have dialogue," said Boxhill.

Expansion

According to the president, at the last Caribbean Football Union Congress, a lot of things have been reviewed and the programme has been expanded to more teams, hence the changes in Jamaica.

"Normally, we have two teams and that has been expanded with the under-15s and under-17s. The technical committee met on Friday and we were looking into getting other coaches involved," said Boxhill.

As for Blaine's claim that the JFF cannot even pay him, much less four other coaches, Boxhill responded "I won't even go there."