While voicing pleasure at returning as head coach for Jamaica’s senior women’s national team, Hubert Busby is emphasising the need to build on past successes as he gets ready to prepare the Reggae Girlz for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup campaign.

Busby served as the Reggae Girlz’ head coach between 2020 and 2021 before he was relieved of his position by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) due to allegations made against him in a sexual misconduct investigation. This was relevant to his term as head coach of the Vancouver Whitecaps women’s team in Canada from 2010 to 2011.

He was later cleared by FIFA of any wrongdoing, allowing him the chance to return to the national programme.

Busby said that the focus is on starting strong in the upcoming training camp and leveraging each opportunity to progress towards the World Cup qualifiers, which are set to begin in 2025.

“I’m excited to be back and excited to take the helm once again. This is an exciting group of players, an exciting time again in Jamaica football, with regards to Jamaica football, with all the things on the horizon.

“I am just looking to continue the foundation and success that this programme has had in the last few years. I just really am looking forward to starting this camp and getting back to ultimately the next World Cup,” Busby said during an interview posted on the JFF’s YouTube channel.

The Reggae Girlz have qualified for consecutive World Cup tournaments — 2019 in France and the 2023 edition jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

Busby highlighted the significance of two scheduled friendly games against hosts Brazil on June 1 and 4, stressing the need for intensive preparation.

“There’s a lot of work to do in a short period of time. There’s a lot of work that we’re doing now behind the scenes to get up to speed in terms of watching Brazil and getting the players organised,” Busby said.

“More importantly, I think some of the objectives for us are to reset the culture, reset the objectives in terms of what we’re looking to do. I know it’s the most used cliché in sports, but what we want to do is really is stick to a process of how we look to get back to the next World Cup in 2027.

“So this is just the first part and utilising each and every FIFA window and making sure that regardless of the results, we are hitting our targets and objectives of what we want to accomplish heading into the World Cup qualifiers,” he further stated.

The expansion of the Under-17 Women’s World Cup from 16 to 24 teams is seen by Busby as a significant step forward for the sport, especially for emerging nations like Jamaica. He said it promises better development opportunities and a pathway for young talents to rise through the ranks to senior levels.

“Well, I think that’s really important for the emerging nations like ourselves because the funding and the support needs to be in place for that continuing evaluation and development year-round,” the former national goalkeeper coach said.

“And that is then the springboard for us to develop even more local talent here. That allows for them to kind of matriculate through the 20s and into the senior team. And what we’ve found, especially at the Under-17, and we have great examples of that with the likes of Jody Brown,” he explained.

“We see how beneficial that is to our development pyramid and what that means to the senior women’s team at the end. So that’s pretty important for us,” he added.

Squad: Chantelle Swaby, Konya Plummer, Jade Bailey, Denesha Blackwood, Kayla McKeena, Allyson Swaby, Drew Spence, Atlanta Primus, Vyan Sampson, Peyton McNamara, Page Bailey-Gayle, Trudy Carter, Kameron Simmonds, Tiffany Cameron, Sydney Schneider, Rebecca Spencer, Niya Cardoza, Liya Brooks, Amelia Van Zaten, Jody Brown, Israela Groves, Davia Richards, and Lauren Reid.