Kwesi Mugisa

Staff Reporter

THE NEWLY elected president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) will have to hit the ground running faster than Asafa Powell if the Reggae Boyz are to be rescued from what appears to be a badly derailed journey to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

In the latest FIFA rankings, Jamaica, tumbling yet another place, have now equalled their all-time low of 96.

The Boyz are one place above St. Vincent and the Grenadines who, I suppose to be fair, did beat Jamaica in their most recent outing the Digicel Caribbean Cup.

But, enough about that. If we are to give technical director Velibor Milutinovic the benefit of the doubt, low rankings are not a major concern. However, the fact that the rest of CONCACAF is already in full swing as it relates to beginning the journey to South Africa and the fact that Jamaica's Reggae Boyz's bus seems comfortably parked in the garage must be.

no international activity

The Boyz have not taken part in any form of international activity since late June when they embarked upon a disastrous tour of Asia, crowned by an embarrassing 8-1 thrashing at the hands of Iran. Since then several FIFA match dates have passed idly by.

That's pretty bad, but there is a fact which is even more disturbing. With the World Cup qualifiers expected to begin in the first half of next year, there hasn't been anything which can be close to a full strength squad assembled since June of last year, at which point as we know, the team was blasted 6-0 by England. Milutinovic is yet to steward a team with Jamaica's top players, many of whom ply their trade abroad.

Some have screamed sabotage, believing that with the current Crenston Boxhill-led federation headed out the door, the nation's football is no longer a priority. Well, I wouldn't go that far, but one has to wonder who is in charge?

Reports reaching The Gleaner the other day indicated that some of the overseas-based players had turned up on the island for a friendly, which had already been cancelled by the JFF.

According to striker Ricardo Fuller, they were never informed that the game was off! What a tangled web.

Recently, there has been an issue regarding technical director Milutinovic in regard to what he is or isn't doing. However, once again, the fingers are being pointed in the wrong direction, the director and his priorities and responsibilities must be outlined by the JFF.

satisfied with 'bora'?

Bora works for the JFF and not the other way around. So it must mean that they are satisfied with what he has done so far. From my corner, there doesn't seem a whole lot to criticise so far. In my estimation, the role of a technical director is more the role of a tutor. Rather than attempting to coach every single team, Milutinovic has stayed in the background which allows the local coaches valuable experience while still being able to benefit from his expertise. This seems to be a reasonable arrangement.

Youth football is the key to the future competent Jamaica teams. However, it must start at the lowest level, with things like better football infrastructure, academies and more knowledgeable coaches.

We certainly can't expect Milutinovic's presence to magically fix all those issues. The fact is that he seems to be here primarily to get us to the next World Cup. As to whether we have paid too much for just that, well that's another issue entirely.

Feedback: kwesi.mugisa@ gleanerjm.com