Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) General Secretary Dennis Chung says the organisation would have started the search for a replacement for Heimir Hallgrimsson as Reggae Boyz head coach sooner had it known that the Icelander had long-planned to resign.

Chung made the remark to the Jamaica Observer after revealing that the appointment of Hallgrimsson as Republic of Ireland manager, less than two weeks after he handed in his resignation as Reggae Boyz head coach, came as a shock to the JFF.

The Icelander, who was brought in 2022, stepped down from his role with the national senior men’s team moments after their group stage exit at Copa America last month, where the team lost to Mexico, Ecuador, and Venezuela.

However, Hallgrimsson’s unemployment period was short-lived as on Wednesday, he was revealed by Football Association of Ireland (FAI) as their manager for the men’s team, ranked 60th in the world.

In their statement, FAI said they identified him as their number one candidate earlier this year, which ended a reported eight-month recruitment process after being without a full-time manager since last November.

But Chung told the Jamaica Observer that news of his new job was a shock as they had no prior information on his interest in joining the Irish team.

CHUNG … I discussed it with the president and we were saying to each other that we would have expected at least a conversation and that he would have been forthcoming about the situation. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)

“It was a surprise to me, it was a surprise to the president [Michael Ricketts], it was a surprise to everyone including the staff. On the same day we met and he resigned on Sunday, June 30, the reason that was given was that he didn’t enjoy the Jamaican environment any more so he didn’t give any football reasons, just that the Jamaican environment wasn’t enjoyable any more and he wanted to work in an environment he enjoyed,” Chung said.

“When we met with him on June 30, he said to us at the time that he would resign effective immediately because we didn’t want to burden the JFF with any notice period but apparently the main reason was that he had to accept the [Ireland] job.”

After Hallgrimsson’s departure, Chung told the Observer on July 2 that they parted ways on good terms and would continue to have a good relationship. However, with that in mind, Chung believes they deserved the courtesy of knowing his desire to move to Ireland.

“I discussed it with the president and we were saying to each other that we would have expected at least a conversation and that he would have been forthcoming about the situation and said, ‘that this is the reason I want to leave.’,” Chung said.

“It would have been good at the time to say it to the players also and the staff [because] it would have been the professional thing to do and no one could fight that. People make personal and other decisions for leaving, so we wouldn’t have felt any way about that, so we were very surprised about it this morning.”

Chung says the JFF would have likely replaced him before the Concacaf World Cup Qualifiers and the Copa America last month if they had the information they had now.

“Oh yes, we would have started the search already and it would have saved us a lot of time because it would mean we would have had greater continuity,” he said. “So, if we knew and it was communicated to us, then certainly we would have started the search already because we have to continue the programme with the Boyz.”

Although Hallgrimsson’s resignation was seen as less than ideal, Chung says the new Reggae Boyz head coach should be in place in a matter of weeks after seeing a high demand in the position.

“We’re much closer to identifying someone,” he said. “I know that we’ve had a lot of interest from around the world, Europe, South America, [Concacaf]. The same day we started getting requests from very well known coaches from around the world, so we don’t have a shortage of interest. People want to come and coach Jamaica because you saw how we performed at Copa and we’re definitely going to the World Cup if we continue to play like that and coaches want to go to the World Cup.

“I think [Rudolph] Speid is confident that by early August that we will have someone in place. He has a few names that he’s looking at right now and by early August, we’ll have someone.”