Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president, Michael Ricketts has expressed that the JFF is intent on getting things right going forward, following the Reggae Boyz’ failure to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America.

The World Cup starts June 11 and will run until the final game is played on July 19.

Ricketts is currently in Florida in the United States to observe a friendly match between Jamaica and Haiti’s Under-20 teams, put on by Caribbean Americas Soccer Association (CASA). The match takes place at the Lauderhill Sports Complex at 9:30 pm.

At 6:00 pm and 7:30 pm respectively, there will be the finals of a Masters and Super League competition at the Lauderhill Sports Complex.

Ricketts told the Jamaica Observer on Friday, that despite the failure of the senior men’s team to qualify for the World Cup, there was much to be proud of.

“The JFF has done very well. The only blot is not qualifying for the senior men’s World Cup. In eight years, we have qualified three teams for the World Cup. We are hopeful that we will qualify the Under-20 and Senior women’s teams for those World Cups. We were very disappointed (that the senior men’s team didn’t qualify for the World Cup),” he said.

He added that, “I just think that we were very unfortunate. I had some discussions with a former FIFA referee, and we were looking back at some incidents that would have prevented us from qualifying and one thing of note was the disallowed goal we scored against Trinidad. He told me that when they looked at it, it was perfectly legal and legitimate”.

The JFF president in acknowledging the result of the game, a draw, said, “We really ought to have won. We came back in the last game against Curacao. We hit the woodwork three times, and of course there was a late penalty that was called by the on the field official, which was later disallowed.”

“A number of things happened that really didn’t go our way, but we have restarted the process. We have a very young team that is in Mexico right now. They will be playing against South Africa (Saturday evening),” Ricketts noted.

He said the journey to reprogramme the men’s team over a four-year period has already started.

“It is a very, very young aggregation. We participated in the Unity Cup, and the average age of that team was 21. We have started the redevelopment and reprogramming of our journey.

“We are intent on getting as much support as we can with the development programme at the JFF. We just spoke unofficially about our sojourn down to Santo Domingo where we will participate in the Under-14 Caribbean challenge series.

“We are the defending champions and Vassel Reynolds will lead the aggregation as the head coach down to participate in that Under-14 tournament. A number of things have been happening. Of course, the Under-17 team already qualified. The Under-20 team is pretty close to doing so. Hopefully we will make it. The senior women’s team, they just have one game to go and if they beat [Costa Rica] then we would have again qualified,” Ricketts said.

He thanked all entities that have supported the JFF through sponsorship, particularly Cedella Marley, who heads the Bob Marley Foundation and who he said has been more than kind to the national women’s football programme.

“Let me use this opportunity to say thanks to all those who would have supported us. Detractors, I want to encourage you to come on board and help us to execute the plan that has already been formulated,” Ricketts said.

EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous version of this article quoted the JFF president indicating that the senior women’s team will play Puerto Rico for a spot at the 2027 World Cup. The Reggae Girlz will in fact play Costa Rica, not Puerto Rico.