Kemar “Taxi” Lawrence is very disappointed that Jamaica will be missing out on the FIFA World Cup in Russia next year, but he isn’t alone.

He claims that all of his teammates who represented the country at the CONCACAF Gold Cup, where Jamaica finished second earlier this year, share the same sentiments.

Similarly, there is hardly a Jamaican living on the island or overseas who doesn’t bemoan that fact that the first English-speaking Caribbean island to qualify for the showpiece football tournament will be missing once again. Jamaica had a singular appearance way back in 1998, almost two decades ago.

Lawrence, a left-sided defender, believes that the federation missed a beat in not putting their faith in the current crop of players from the beginning of the qualifying campaign.

“It’s really disappointing that we will miss the World Cup, especially when I talk to all the guys, after having such a good Gold Cup. If only somebody knew to bring this bunch of guys together and just try to let it work.

“If the organisers, if the head off the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) and all these people can just trust the players and invest in our talent and stop worrying about the money that you are going to spend on us, because at the end of the day, it’s really going to pay off,” Lawrence said.

The New York Red Bulls man believes that the current Jamaican squad is now at the right age to push on and do really well at the international level, listing a number of players who are still not yet 25 years old.

“When you look at Andre Blake, Darren Mattocks, Jermaine Taylor, Damion Lowe, Junior Flemmings, there are so many players, Devon Williams, Owayne Gordon, look at the age group, all 24, 23, 22… no one there, apart from (Jermaine) Taylor is over 25; everybody else is 25 or younger.

“These are the players that want to play, that want to represent their country, not only for the money, but at the end of the day we all know that this is our job and as much as we love what we do, it’s still our job, we have families like everybody else,” Taylor bemoaned.

Jamaica’s football programme is notorious for being disrupted at international tournaments due to the financial concerns of the players and Lawrence is calling for an end to the perpetual cycle which invariably serves as a major distraction at the most crucial of times.

“Every time that we go to a camp, every time that we are supposed to play a game there is something… another money issue and it’s not worth it. It’s killing our concentration as a team when we get together and a lot more things. All we want to do is to get to the games; everything is prepared, laid out for us like any other teams in the world and all we want to do is just play, that’s all we want to do to be honest. We don’t want to be having money discussions, that’s not for us,” he suggested.

As far as the 24-year-old father of two is concerned, all the pieces of the puzzle are in place for Jamaica to do well at the international level, except one. For him, the JFF needs to give the current set of players a chance to prove themselves.

“Just invest in us, give us a chance and stop worrying about what you are going to pay us. Just pay us and give us a chance and see if things don’t work out,” he challenged.

The new president of the JFF, Michael Ricketts, has vowed to continue with World Cup ’98 hero Theodore “Tappa” Whitmore as head coach of the Reggae Boyz.