EVEN with mounting calls for the removal of Theodore “Tappa” Whitmore as Jamaica senior men’s head coach, at least two prominent players have publicly supported the under-pressure tactician.

The Reggae Boyz, who have endured a patchy final-round World Cup qualifying campaign, saw their chances of advancing to the global football showpiece further dented after a 1-1 result away to El Salvador last Friday and at home to United States on Tuesday.

The Jamaicans are sixth in the eight-team table with seven points from eight matches, with only the top three countries assured of a place to the Qatar 2022 World Cup Finals.

Canada lead the regional qualifying table with 16 points, ahead of United States (15), Mexico (14), Panama (14) and Costa Rica (nine). Seventh-placed El Salvador have six points, while Honduras (three) are at the back of the pack. Each team is left to play six matches.

While the top three nations in the table will progress automatically to the World Cup, the fourth-place finisher will head to an intercontinental play-off for another possible spot to Qatar.

Jamaica’s next scheduled qualifier is at home to Mexico on January 27, 2022.

Despite the Boyz plight, midfielder Ravel Morrison, in a Twitter post on Wednesday, said it “makes no sense to sack” Whitmore at this stage when the team played two “very good games” against El Salvador and the USA.

Morrison added that the Jamaicans bettered their opponents for “large spells” and were “very unlucky to not take maximum” points from both encounters. He noted that in San Salvador they conceded a late equaliser, while in Kingston they dropped points because a “wrong decision” was made against them.

Against the Salvadorans, the Boyz conceded an Alex Roldan goal in the 90th minute after they had taken an 82nd minute lead courtesy of Michail Antonio’s impressive solo effort.

Days later versus the USA, Antonio’s blockbuster strike gave the Boyz parity in the first half after Timothy Weah opened the scoring for the visitors.

In the second half, Bobby Reid blasted a sitter into the evening sky before Costa Rican referee Juan Gabriel Calderon controversially ruled that Damion Lowe had committed a foul while heading home the potential game winner inside the final 10 minutes.

Ahead of the El Salvador clash, winger Leon Bailey voiced his support for the head coach.

“Tappa is a great person, a great coach, and I believe that he has done a lot for the country,” Bailey said in a Jamaica Observer article published on November 10, 2021.

“He’s a man for the people and for the team, so anything that he is doing I’m sure he’s doing it for the best interest of the team and the best interest of the country, so we have to always believe in him,” the Aston Villa player added.

The Observer has learnt that Wednesday night the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) technical committee, which is chaired by Rudolph Speid, voted 5-2 in favour of relieving Whitmore as head coach for the senior men’s programme.

The process requires that any recommendation from the technical committee has to be passed to the JFF executive, led by President Michael Ricketts.

The matter is to then be presented to the JFF board of directors for ratification after which the executive would action the board’s decision. Though the Observer could not confirm the timeline, it is expected that the board will soon make its final decision.

The 49-year-old Whitmore, in his fourth spell as the senior men’s coach, is a former midfield standout and one of Jamaica’s star players at the 1998 France World Cup. He coached Jamaica to the final of the 2017 Concacaf Gold Cup. He was also the man in charge when the Reggae Boyz were eliminated at the semi-finals of the 2019 Gold Cup.

When he guided Jamaica to the 2010 Caribbean Cup title, he became the first person to lift the trophy as player and coach.