For a sixth-successive World Cup campaign spanning twenty-four years, our nation is left to mull over the gloom of a failed campaign. Failing to qualify on this occasion, though, may prove a real blessing waiting to be realised.

In what was his last interview as interim head coach of the Reggae Boyz, Paul Hall painstakingly emphasised the need for a long-term plan that will give us a better chance of international success.

Coach Hall stated emphatically: “I have a ten-year plan…winning tonight was great but we have to be consistent…the consistency will start to bear fruit in five to seven years…” This is the way to go.

International football is replete with countries that have managed huge successes after having experienced the lowest pits of failure — which was used to retool, strategise, execute and accomplish great achievements.

Germany were eliminated at the group stages of Euro 2004, but in the immediate aftermath of that was a resolve to change German football to a new more technical style of play. The result? A fourth World Cup triumph in Brazil 2014.

Before Germany it was France who suffered ignominy in 1988 and used that bitter taste to establish a new culture of football, resulting in a first World Cup title in 1998. Also Belgium (2006), led by Michel Sablon, while not winning a global or continental title have risen to be number one on the Fifa rankings for almost a decade — following as well a 10-year development plan. Wales in 2011 started a 10-year journey to be ranked in the top 20 on the Fifa list.

At the end of 2021 they were ranked 18 after being ranked 117 in 2011, one place below Haiti. Are you seeing the trend as yet?

Decades of technical development analysis and research postulate that a national team is a reflection of the developmental work that went into it eight years prior. Looking backwards, this is a short explanation for Jamaica’s repetitive failings on the international stage — and especially for World Cup qualification campaigns.

Projecting forward with an eye on the precedence established by other countries, we can dare to dream. Jamaica, like all the aforementioned countries, will also reap great successes from a carefully crafted long-term development plan that is well supported by all stakeholders and diligently executed.

Culturally, long-term planning, excepting for some age-old businesses, is not a norm in Jamaican society; a 10-year plan, therefore, will necessitate a paradigm shift. Patience will become a well-embraced virtue; deliberateness of policies and execution of same will be the new norm.

All this will make accountability non-negotiable as performance indicators will be well known, measurable and time-bound.

Using the Belgian model as my reference, in 2015, I drafted my proposed version of a Long-Term Development Plan for Jamaica. It still resides on my hard drive and was very instrumental to the work I did as technical director of the Turks and Caicos Islands Football Association.

Then Reggae boyz Head Coach Winfred Schaeffer, with whom I shared this plan, reported no success in getting the plan on the discussion table.

With Paul Hall now articulating his 10-year plan, the time is ripe for all stakeholders to be brought together to make a Jamaica Development Plan. The author or authors of the plan should not be of primary importance, but rather the substance of the plan and whether it reflects the needs and possibilities of Jamaica’s football.

To execute any such plan will require, above all else, committed leadership that is determined to establish a legacy unlike any before — a legacy that will establish firm foundations for successes that can be repeated and built upon. The leadership will be sure to lead a paradigm shift in which systems and processes replace the current state of affairs.

Like Wales we, too, can aim to become a top 20 Fifa-ranked nation. Achieving this will undoubtedly establish us as a top three team in Concacaf, thereby setting us up as perennial favourites to repeatedly qualify for Fifa World Cups at all levels.

In the aftermath of the failed Qatar 2022 campaign, there is a silver lining beyond the gloom. With patience we will begin to dominate come 2032.

Editor’s note: Andrew Edwards is a former Jamaica Men’s Under-17 coach, technical director of the Tuks and Caicos Islands Football Association, and currently serves as chairman and technical director of Genesis Football Academy.