The entire 211 membership of FIFA have competed intensely over the last two years as they try to become one of the final 48 nations hoping to wrest the FIFA World Cup from defending champions Argentina.

All nations within FIFA have traditionally been issued with a ranking by the organising body. This rank is determined based on how well these nations have fared in various confederation competitions as well as international tournaments.

With approximately six months remaining until the staging of the 2026 World Cup, 42 of the proposed 48 qualifiers have already been assigned slots. The six remaining aspirants are currently engaged in either inter-confederation or UEFA play-offs set to conclude on March 31, two months before the June 11 commencement of the World Cup.

All or most Reggae Boyz fanatics may have believed that our sophomoric appearance at the World Cup would have been much easier and less problematic to achieve than in our débutante year of 1998. Well, nothing could have been further from reality.

With all the top guns — Mexico, USA, and Canada — from the Concacaf confederation sharing co-hosting responsibilities for the 2026 World Cup, one would have thought that qualifying would have been tantamount to a casual walk in the park for Jamaica.

The Boyz have even had the good fortune of being placed in a group in which the combined population of the three other nations is below the approximately three million population of Jamaica.

To add more fuel to the fire, the Reggae Boyz entered the zonal round rank at 70, the highest within the group as Bermuda is ranked 169; Trinidad and Tobago, 104; and autonomous constituent within the Kingdom of The Netherlands, Curacao, ranked at 82 — 12 ranks below Jamaica.

Despite having a larger population and a higher ranking, Jamaica failed to qualify for one of the 48 slots, unlike Curacao, who did so for the first time. Notably, like Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago have also previously qualified for a World Cup — 2006 in Germany.

Unfortunately, though, what happened yesterday doesn’t matter unless a nation is prepared to correct its mistakes and improve on its strengths.

As the Jamaican fanatics were about to call it a day and look ahead to 2030, FIFA came to the rescue of the Boyz and threw them a proverbial and hopefully redemptive bone. Some of the remaining also-rans have been allowed to compete in the inter-confederation play-offs.

Jamaica will go up against 149-ranked New Caledonia from the Oceana confederation, and if the Boyz advance, their next encounter will see them taking on 58th ranked Democratic Republic of Congo from the African confederation. Victory in both engagements would see Jamaica attending the big dance for the second time in 28 years.

But just as the confidence of both local and Diaspora fanatics had started to rekindle, an unexpected bolt of negative lightning struck once more. The Democratic Republic of Congo, on account of its previous utilisation of ineligible players, were disqualified and replaced by the 38th ranked Super Eagles from Nigeria.

The question that is currently being contemplated by the fanatics is whether the Boyz from the land that gave the planet Bob Marley will return to the Big Dance one more time. Many, filled with emotion and unbridled hope, would answer in the affirmative, while those imbued with realism and the rewards of dedicated, focused work would answer negatively. The forces of make believe have found themselves in conflict with the adherents of reality.

The relevant question at this juncture is: Which school of thought will prevail? The realists contend that Jamaica should return to the drawing board and try to figure out what did Captain Horace Burrell and Rene Simoes do to make Friday, June 26, 1998 around 4:00 pm in Lyon, France, possible. The dreamers, on the other hand, need to awake from their slumber and read a page from the book of the realists.

On that sunny summer afternoon in Lyon, a World Cup débutante with a gross domestic product (GDP) of US$3.7 trillion was defeated by a fellow débutante with a GDP of approximately US$9 billion.

Both goals that enabled that phenomenal, historic victory emanated from the boots of Theodore “Tappa” Whitmore who represented Seba United from the parish of St James.

The football administrators need to look both introspectively and objectively on their football developmental model and be brutally honest with themselves. Should they resign en bloc? I think they should.

Our football development and growth appear to have stalled as we don’t seem to know how to come out of reverse. Don’t we all want to replicate the unbelievable ecstasy of 1998? Yes we do, but, as far as this realist is concerned, it will not occur in 2026.

It is imperative that the Jamaica Football Federation rethink strategy, proactively refocus, and commence preparations for 2030, the year of the centenary.