AFTER ALL the hype surrounding the National Under-17 team's bid to qualify for this summer's Youth World Cup in South Korea, it's quite a surprise that mum's now the word from those involved in the process on why it failed to do so.

Well, then again ... maybe it's not.

As Jamaicans, we have adopted a culture of silence, whether it be out of fear of reprisals or just plain dumb loyalty even with things going terribly wrong.

It can be broad daylight in public areas yet nobody saw who did the shootings and we often turn a blind eye, keeping quiet when our neighbours are robbed or abused right in front of our faces.

So I guess it's quite sad, that it's really no surprise that the 'no informer' attitude has crept into and could eventually choke our sacred sport of football.

So many crimes are left unsolved and I suspect that this one: Jamaica in a five-team group from which three teams went through, playing at home and failing to advance to the Youth World Cup, will fall into that category.

If the young Reggae Boyz had managed to qualify for the tournament, the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) would have willingly basked in the adoration of the public.

There would have been bold proclamations about what went right and how the feat was accomplished. So why, for the most part, is there a hush about what went wrong in this campaign? The team, after a public appeal, was very well supported. All it needed was two wins and a draw at home. So why did so many fans have to file out of the stadium with their heads held low after the home team failed to advance?

Surely, the members of the public who were asked to spend their hard-earned dollars to attend these games would like to know about the issues that led to their disappointment, instead of the whole campaign being hurriedly swept under the carpet.

Allegations

Since the end of the tournament, which had racked up an overall estimated cost of more than $30 million, allegations have swirled around about spats between the coaches, players being left out of the team for personal reasons, bad overall selection and, shockingly, players being over-used.

Yet no one is willing to step forward and set the record straight. All parties seem to have gone scampering off like roaches when a light suddenly comes on.

Not only are answers needed, but should be demanded? How could this campaign have gone so wrong? How could it have been prevented? What have we learned from the failure to qualify?

Those that were intimately involved with the programme need to be the ones to give us those answers.

Instead, hardly anyone has anything to say and some members of the contingent, grown men, can even be said to have gone into hiding.

This sort of attitude must be discouraged as it certainly leaves the door for mistakes to be repeated. In fact, refusing to learn from past mistakes could very well be a key reason for the growth of our football being stunted in the last couple of years.

Speaking about failure is not just an issue of washing your dirty linen in public, but also an admission of past errors and how the programme will improve in the future. Nobody can trust an administration which insists on shrouding affairs in secrecy. Are we to assume that it is only a public affair when things are going well?

It is not unforgivable to fail. However, it certainly is to have learnt nothing from your mistakes. That's how things look from this corner. How about yours?

Feedback: kwesi.mugisa@ gleanerjm.com