Burrell boots de Oliveira

de Oliveira

NATIONAL technical director of football, Clovis de Oliveira, became the first casualty after the derailment of the Jamaica team's Orient Express campaign to the 2002 World Cup on Wednesday night in the Honduras.

The Brazilian was sacked after a 1-0 loss to the hosts in Tegucigalpa which all but wiped Jamaica out of qualification for next year's World Cup in Japan and South Korea.

"I have just dismissed technical director Clovis de Oliveira with immediate effect," Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president Captain Horace Burrell said at a press conference after the match.

"I have also had a staff meeting and informed them that an evaluation will be done. I will communicate to them at the ending of the evaluation exercise as to their future," Burrell said.

The JFF president said the loss to Honduras was the "straw that broke the camel's back", but indiscipline within the camp is believed to have also been a major factor in de Oliveira's demise.

Players are alleged to have been seen out partying the two evenings before Jamaica's 2-1 loss to Mexico at the National Stadium on Sunday.

"... there has been a deterioration in the standard of discipline amongst the team members ... it is the view of the federation that he (de Oliveira) must take full responsibility for what has happened with the players," Burrell said.

There were mixed reactions from local football figures after the sacking of de Oliveira.

Allie McNab, former national coach, sided with the decision although he pointed out that "he (Burrell) has used what I called the international card and it is not unusual that he sacked the coach.

"It happens when you are at the end of a campaign. It happened to Trinidad and Tobago and also a number of teams. It is simply this ... when the team is not able to qualify some heads have to roll," said McNab.

"I agree with Captain Burrell about the breakdown in discipline. There is absolutely no way a player should be out at 2:00 o'clock in the morning whether he is playing or not. He is in a squad, he is vital to the team. All members are vital irrespective of whether you are playing or not as you can be called on at any time."

But while McNab said that the coach "must take full responsibility because the team doesn't have the discipline of defence, the discipline of character, the discipline of mind," schoolboy coach Stratton Palmer believes the timing was wrong.

"The timing was unfortunate. But given the fact we are so far in the program and to start over again, I figure that we should have finished the campaign with this coach.

"A lot of people that I have spoken with are hurt with the way the sacking was done and it seems to be a matter of just finding a scapegoat for the situation," concluded Palmer.

Harbour View's general manager, Clyde Jureidini, said the situation was "unfortunate".

"Normally, when a team does not achieve its main objective it is not strange for a coach to resign or be fired. This seems to have come suddenly and that in my mind has come based on some things which have come about based on a series of events recently of which I don't know all the details. It seems a little rushed," said Jureidini.

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