MONTEGO BAY, St James — Linnell McLean a top football administrator in western Jamaica has come out in agreement with former national player Hector Wright that administrators must shoulder some of the blame for the stagnation of football in that region.

Wright, who represented the senior national team more than 100 times and was part of Jamaica’s successful qualification to the FIFA World Cup in France in 1998, chided football administrators in western Jamaica in a Jamaica Observer West exclusive recently, saying they had not done enough to grow the sport, even during the years when clubs from western Jamaica were winning repeated National Premier League titles.

At Tuesday’s launch of the Jamaica Football Federation’s Western Confederation Super League at Royal Decameron Hotel in Montego Bay, McLean, chairman of the Confederation, told the Observer West he agreed in part with Wright, but stressed that a lack of funding is also hindering the development of quality coaches and administrators.

“Yes, to an extent I am agreeing with Hector Wright,” McLean said.

“He, to an extent, has taken administrators to task that we have not put in enough development programmes in place; we have competitions but we don’t do enough in terms of development.”

McLean, who is also the president of the Trelawny Football Association, hastened to point out, however, that as Wright had also said, the mindset of the players involved in the game today is different from when Wright was playing in the early to mid-1990s.

“While Hector was taking us to task, at the same time he has indicated that the (attitude of) players have changed,” McLean said, “The players of his time (used to) train on their own; the players nowadays, they come to training and expect the coach to get them fit, and so we really have to put a different spin on how we deal with those players, that’s really what I am talking about.”

In addition to being forced to take a different approach to how they dealt with players in today’s game, McLean, a former president of the Kingston and St Andrew Football Association and a member of the Jamaica Football Federation’s executive committee, said it is their job to find ways to make sure the players’ deficiencies are addressed.

“As administrators and coaches we really have to look at how we deal with the players; we have to get them fit, we have to put the programmes in place to get the techniques and tactics up to par, and so they can’t just turn up and want to play some ball, and so we have to look at that aspect as well,” McLean told Observer West.

The costs involved in administering the game, he said, is also a major hurdle, one that they have not yet found a way around.

“There are no doubts that coaching clinics and management courses are needed, but at the same time part of it is (the lack of) funding, that has prevented more persons involved in the sports from being properly qualified.”

“As far as I am aware, most of the parish associations want more coaching courses, but the cost of getting a coach certified right now is a bit prohibitive.

“It could start at $35,000 per person and that’s just for the course,” he pointed out.

One option, he said, is for the coaches to go to Kingston to attend courses, but “that is another set of costs. Or we could get the instructors to come to western Jamaica, but we have to accommodate them and pay for others costs as well, so there is really no way to avoid these costs.” He added, however, that “we must find a way to get the resource persons here to put on courses”.

Meanwhile, McLean said he was in “total agreement” with Winfried Schafer, the coach of the Reggae Boyz team, who has called for better coaches at the youth level to ensure the young players are taught the basics properly.

The Western Confederation boss singled out veteran coach Steve Bucknor who has coached at various levels, and who is now in charge of the programme at Corinaldi Avenue Primary School in St James, as “the perfect example”.

“I am very happy that someone like Steve is at Corinaldi Avenue; that’s what the coach wants, to see someone with the experience and expertise of a Steve Bucknor at that level, developing the tactics and techniques at that level, and not leave it to PE (physical education) teachers, and those who might not be able to properly teach what is required at that level,” he argued.