PRESIDENT Michael Ricketts says the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) is still finalising two international friendly matches for the senior men’s team ahead of the Concacaf Gold Cup this summer.

But Ricketts says there is a challenge in setting up a date that Head Coach Heimir Hallgrímsson is comfortable with.

The JFF had been arranging two games with neighbouring South American nations but one of the dates agreed on was too close to Jamaica’s first Gold Cup game against hosts USA on June 24.

“Right now we’re in a dilemma because we have tried to book a game for the 20th or the 21st [of June] and he’s expressing some discomfort to play so close to the Gold Cup,” Ricketts said. “The first [Gold Cup] game is on the 24th so our agent is looking around for another game. We were talking with two countries that are neighbours, so we’d play one and move over to the other.”

Ricketts says Hallgrímsson is still recruiting players as he prepares for the Gold Cup.

One of these is Everton FC’s Demarai Gray who Ricketts, while trying not to give away too many details, said is finalising his documents and could be available for the tournament.

“I don’t want to speak too much on it because his parents really don’t want us to, but we are making some progress,” he said. “What I can say is that the coach is very optimistic. The coach likes him and the coach is working hard to ensure that he gets him in his programme.”

While the Gold Cup is the most immediate concern for Hallgrímsson he is still searching for young players as he prepares a long-term plan for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign which begins next year.

That recruitment already started earlier this year when a team of young, local and England-based players was assembled to face Trinidad and Tobago in two international friendly matches; a number of them were also a part of the squad that faced Mexico in the Concacaf Nations League in March. And Ricketts says that was when Hallgrímsson said he was convinced about who the core members of the squad will be going forward, but he is still searching for specific players to fill specific roles.

Statistician Simon Preston has been consulted to help in the scouting process.

“[Hallgrímsson] was in the US, he went to Iceland, and I think he’s in England now,” Ricketts said. “He is very excited; in fact, he has some young players on his radar that he’s very excited about. But, there are some overseas-based players, and we have asked Simon to work closely with Coach Hallgrímsson to identify these young players and to look at them. He’s overseas now and he’s meeting with some players in an effort, of course, to get them on board.”

Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz also have two international friendly games and a training camp lined up ahead of their FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign in Australia this summer.

“As for the Girlz, we will be having two games here in June,” Ricketts said. “We’re hoping that the Montego Bay [Sports Complex] will be ready because we want to give the west a game and play the other one at the National Stadium [in Kingston]. Then they’ll take a break, then we’ll be looking at a 10-day camp in Amsterdam that starts on July 1, then we move over to Australia where we start our World Cup campaign.”

The Reggae Boyz face the USA at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois, then Nicaragua at CityPark in St Louis, Missouri, on June 28. They then play at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on July 2 against an opponent still to be decided from a Gold Cup qualifier.

The Reggae Girlz meet France in Sydney on July 23, then Panama in Perth on July 29, and then finish Group F against Brazil in Melbourne on August 2.