Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Technical and Development Committee (TDC) Chairman Rudolph Speid says the decision to leave Captain Andre Blake out of the Reggae Boyz’ squad for an international friendly later this month was neither his nor the committee’s.

Jamaica face Argentina at Red Bull Arena in New Jersey on September 27, and Blake, the team’s captain, and most experienced goalkeeper, was the most notable omission from the squad. He told the Jamaica Observer on Monday that he was surprised at the exclusion, especially as he is not injured, and said that Speid could probably give an explanation, suggesting that the administrator is involved in the selection process.

But Speid is offended by the comments.

“We are the monitoring group and we’re not involved in the operations [regarding team selection and tactical decisions], so for Blake to say that I am the one that picks the team, as well as the selection committee, is disingenuous,” Speid told the Observer. ” He knows better and he’s careless and reckless to say that.”

Speid says none of the Reggae Boyz’ previous coaches, regardless of the differences they may have had with the TDC, have ever been able to say players were selected on their behalf.

“I don’t even go to national team training sessions,” he said. “Because I have a club [Cavalier FC] and I lend expertise to the JFF, people may think that I would have undue influence. I try to ensure that’s not present with any of the coaches or anyone for that matter.”

Speid says should a situation arise where a coach was not fully in control over the selection of the team, that coach is fully at fault.

“If the coach didn’t pick that side, they would be the one that’s weak and ineffective and not picking their side, allowing someone else to pick it.”

The idea also exists among the public that the TDC is involved in the team selection process, especially with no officially recognised head coach involved with the team at the moment. But Speid explained the duties of the TDC for further clarity.

“The technical committee is an advisory and supervisory committee to the JFF’s board of directors,” he said. “We advise the board and anything it votes on or agrees to, we monitor its progress in entirety.

“I serve on the board but I have no vote. So that means when we recommend anything, I don’t even vote on it. That is as far as our powers go.”

It is not the first time that it has been suggested that parties other than the head coach have influence on team selections. Former National Assistant Coach Bradley Stewart said after Jamaica’s 3-0 loss to Panama in a Fifa World Cup qualifying match at the National Stadium in September last year that the eight changes made to the team for the game was uncharacteristic of then Head Coach Theodore Whitmore.

“I personally don’t think that he was fully in charge of the team for the last game, because you have to be crazy to change a team that drastically,” Stewart said at the time.

But Speid says comments like these are born out of a lack of information about the JFF’s operations.

“People are just speculating because they like to find excuses,” he said.

Speid says the TDC does, however, play a key role in making recommendations on the selection of a head coach, at all levels of the national programme, including the new head coach, which the JFF plans to unveil on Friday.

*Editor’s note: National goalkeeper Andre Blake said that questions about his exclusion from the national senior men’s football team to face Argentina on September 27 should be posed to JFF TDC Chairman Rudolph Speid and other team selectors. However, based on the JFF’s statutes, the TDC’s role is to provide recommendations to the board of directors ahead of decisions such as the appointment of coaches, which are ratified by a voting process.