LATE last year this newspaper was among those urging the executive of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) to ignore the recommendation of that body’s technical committee for then Coach Mr Theodore Whitmore to be fired.

Obviously, we will never know whether circumstances would have been different had our advice been heeded. What we do know is that at the end of the January/February round of Concacaf World Cup qualifiers, the Reggae Boyz, with three straight losses, are out of contention for a place at the Fifa World Cup in Qatar later this year.

We are also mindful that for all but one of their home games, the Reggae Boyz found themselves without home spectator support. This, as the Government — worried about potential spread of COVID-19 — for the most part declined the JFF’s request for 5,000 vaccinated fans to be allowed into the National Stadium..

Again, we will never know if spectator support, the so-called 12th man, would have made a positive difference. That said, we believe that playing behind closed doors did hurt team morale.

However, all of the above is water under the bridge. Jamaica’s football must move forward.

To begin with, we believe it’s necessary to change how young players are developed in this country.

Back in the 1990s the great majority of Jamaican-born and bred players were amateurs or semi-pros playing in the local leagues. The players knew each other, understood each other, routinely played with, and against each other. Then Technical Director Mr Rene Simoes, who arrived from Brazil midway that decade, was able to utilise that local player chemistry, and with the support of three players out of England, guided Jamaica’s historic qualification to the 1998 World Cup in France.

Today, with Jamaica’s best players constantly on the move overseas, building team chemistry is not so easy. However, a big positive is that the Jamaica Football Federation now has a dedicated football centre, UWI-JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence, at Mona.

We strongly suggest that instead of relying on schools and chronically under-resourced clubs for player development — as well as on lower-league professionals in England and elsewhere — to compete at the international level, there should be a concerted effort to nurture and develop talent using what’s readily available.

In our view there should be consistent preparation of our best players at all age group levels — the elite, with the help of our national coaches — at the football centre. That way players get to know each other and become familiar with a national team system, even as they improve individually.

Perhaps it will only be possible to do such football courses on selected weekends due to school and so forth. Also, the best players will continue to move on for contracts overseas. But by then they will have regularly spent time with top coaches in a strong football environment, towards an overall improvement of their tactical and technical game, for the greater good of Jamaica’s football.

A planned, consistent preparation programme, along the lines we have suggested, will require financial support from the Government and corporate Jamaica.

Those who lead football in this country must find the wherewithal to sell the vision of football glory ahead, just as Captain Horace Burrell did, close to three decades ago.