Tym Glaser

THE OLD adage (is there such a thing as a new one?) states a captain must go down with his ship.

Well, in good, old Jamdown we've added our own wrinkle to that and actually have a captain leaping on to a rapidly submerging vessel.

Tomorrow, in my favourite hiding place, Negril, Captain Horace Burrell will retake the helm of the good ship JFF and attempt a salvage job somewhat on par with heading out into the North Sea and trying to raise the Titanic.

Less than a handful of years ago, the JFF crew mutinied and the Captain and his mates were made to walk the plank by Crenston 'Fletcher' Boxhill and his bright-eyed confederates.

Boxhill promised Jamaica a raft of changes to the organisation and the island's football from top to bottom but, some fiscal consolidation aside, his regime's legacy will be a national programme at an all-time low, the premier league in flux and a Jamaica football academy still a distant dream.

money

Nothing is built from the top down and one criticism of Burrell during his previous reign was that too much emphasis and money went to the hallowed Reggae Boyz.

However, to attract sponsors to the sport and rekindle public interest in a moribund programme, there must be a viable national product people will want to go out and see and support.

Currently, the Boyz are ranked a disgraceful 103 in the world and any lustre from that historic ride to the World Cup in France in 1998 has well and truly worn off. Truly, which country would possibly want to travel halfway around the world to play a friendly against a team that can't even crack the top 100? Nauru? The Falkland Islands? Mauritius?

World Cup qualifying begins in a few months and Jamaica has not played a meaningful game with a proper representative squad in virtually a year.

Burrell's first task will be to raise the football flagship and he should be able to do that with his considerable clout within CONCACAF and FIFA, but any hopes of sailing off to South Africa in 2010 realistically look slim to none.

The Captain also inherits a national technical director, 'Bora' Milutinovic, whom he may not necessarily want at the rudder but will be hard to toss aside thanks to a water-tight contract signed with Boxhill.

rené simoes

Burrell may be tempted to recapture the magic of '98 by bringing back a little, moustachioed Brazilian, but the federation has barely enough money to support one let alone two high-priced coaches.

Although, it was interesting to note how quickly René Simoes responded to reports that he was interested in the Bermuda coaching gig. Either he's an avid reader of The Gleaner's website or he got a call from concerned old friends asking him "what's up with that?"

Fortunately, for the island's favourite baker, the only way for the national programme to go is up and, due to his company's sponsorship of many parish competitions, he need not fear another mutiny as his position should be near impregnable.

The only way he would leave the helm now is if there was a bigger ship to sail in the future like, say, SS CONCACAF.

Later.

feedback: tym.glaser@gleanerjm.com