IN football the coach has the final say on the field of play, even if that’s not always the case.

So, we can’t argue with Jamaica Football Federation President Mr Michael Ricketts’s position that he has no choice but to support national team selections for upcoming Inter Confederation play-offs, especially with a place at the 2026 FIFA World Cup on the line.

“It’s not my responsibility to instruct the coach who to select and who not to select…” Mr Ricketts told the Jamaica Observer this week ahead of Friday‘s announcement of the squad chosen by Mr Rudolph Speid, the men’s senior team interim head coach.

Mr Ricketts was responding to news that fan favourites — including Jamaica’s leading goalscorer among current national players Mr Shamar Nicholson, as well as exciting young attackers Messrs Dujuan “Whisper” Richards and Kaheim Dixon — would be excluded.

So it has proved.

And, as was previously reported by this newspaper, three English-born newcomers — Messrs Ephron Mason-Clark, Tyrese Hall, and Andre Brooks — are included.

We are told that Mr Speid has established clear criteria for his selections, including that players should be playing first-team football for their clubs. That apparently explains the new faces as well as the absence of Messrs Nicholson, Richards, and Dixon.

There is clear precedent for that approach in high-level global football. However, it would seem that previous Jamaican national coaches have been far more inclined towards flexibility.

That is understandable in our view, given the vagaries and relatively underdeveloped nature of Jamaica’s football, notwithstanding heavy reliance on overseas-based professionals.

Mr Speid, who took over from Englishman Mr Steve McClaren late last year following the Reggae Boyz’s failure to qualify automatically for the World Cup, will need no one to tell him that, ultimately, whether his approach is considered right or wrong will depend entirely on results. And further, that those results are likely to determine his future as head coach.

So, now attention turns to the play-offs in Guadalajara, Mexico. The Jamaicans will first face Oceania’s New Caledonia, with the winner facing seeded Democratic Republic of Congo out of Central Africa.

After the disappointment of failing to qualify automatically, success for the Reggae Boyz in Guadalajara — which would mean a place at the World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada in June — would trigger extraordinary celebrations.

Those who were around and aware back in November 1997, when Jamaica first qualified for a senior men’s football World Cup, won’t easily forget the overwhelming joy after the Reggae Boyz drew 0-0 with Mexico at the National Stadium to secure a place to the France 1998 global showpiece.

Such was the atmosphere that then Prime Minister Mr P J Patterson declared a public holiday to mark the occasion. Yet even should the nation miss out in Guadalajara, Jamaica’s football won’t end there.

Lessons from mistakes made over the last four-year cycle will need to be taken on board to make sure they are not repeated in the new period leading to the 2030 World Cup. Plans and programmes must be meticulously thought through and the best-equipped head coach — preferably a Jamaican — appointed.

Recent performances from our young men’s national teams, including the under-17s qualifying for that age group World Cup, suggest plenty of light up ahead should we walk the right path.

The leadership of Jamaica’s football must not mess up.