CABLE BEACH, Bahamas — Head coach Theodore ‘Tappa’ Whitmore said abandoning the proposed 12-day training camp here was a collective decision of the technical, management and the executive teams of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF).

It was decided yesterday that the 15-man Reggae Boyz group here, who gave a creditable performance against English super club Tottenham Hotspur in 0-0 draw on Thursday, would return to Jamaica to continue its pre-World Cup qualifying campaign, heading home seven days ahead of schedule.

They will now await 11 other players coming from Europe and the USA, who the JFF could not secure their releases from their clubs in time to make The Bahamas camp a worthwhile exercise.

“Initially when this camp was planned, we were expecting to have all the players here, but due to reasons beyond our control we can’t have them, and we thought leading up to the game against Spurs that it would make no sense to remain here as we wouldn’t be achieving our objectives and that is to get the World Cup team here together for the purpose of chemistry and gelling,” said Whitmore yesterday after the team’s first training session on a suitable pitch at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium yesterday.

Whitmore said he believed the decision was the most practical under the circumstances.

“We believe we made the right decision after a meeting with the president… that it’s better we go home and concentrate our preparations there. But it’s football and situations like this will always happen,” he noted.

The France World Cup hero sought to underline that the period spent in The Bahamas served its purpose.

“But we don’t think that coming to The Bahamas was a waste of time because the Spurs game provided the coaching staff with the opportunity to look at some players in high-level competition, so it was good and bad if you want to look at it that way,” Whitmore told the Jamaica Observer.

But that was not the only driver for the decision to call time on the camp and the match against The Bahamas national team. The decision, according to Captain Horace Burrell, was influenced also by the Bahamian Football Association’s difficulty in getting their players based overseas released for the match-up.

“The decision was based on technical reasons, and part of that is that the Bahamians don’t have their team in training as some youngsters who are in college will not be able to make it, hence we have decided to go back home and use the facilities there and to blend everybody there,” Burrell said yesterday, prior to departing The Bahamas.

“The players, instead of coming from various places around the world and coming here, will fly straight to Jamaica.”

He warned that with the team due to head back to Jamaica tomorrow, assuming that all the players can get onto flights out, does not mean they are going for holidays but right back into training.

Darren Mattocks, who played on Thursday night, returned to his club Vancouver Whitecaps for a game this weekend, and is expected to rejoin the group on Wednesday.

Those due to join the training camp between May 29 and 30 are Jobi McAnuff, Adrian Mariappa, Garath McLeary, Donovan Ricketts, Dwayne Miller, Theo Robinson, Marvin Elliott, Dane Richards, Demar Phillips, Ryan Johnson and Jermaine Beckford.