Contributing To A Reggae Boyz Revival?

Together with the High Commissioner and Jamaica player delegation

I recently helped to organise a very special gathering to discuss the development of football in Jamaica.

My interest in Jamaican football stems from the Reggae Boyz World Cup campaign in 1998. Jamaica qualifying for the tournament was on another level. Watching Robbie Earle, Theodore Whitmore, Paul Hall and Ricardo Gardner do their thing in France – set to the sound of horns blowing non-stop for 90 minutes – was very special.

Since then, the team have shown promise but never really built on that success. I thought 2014 may be the year Jamaica made it to their second World Cup, as they only had to finish fourth in a group of six to make it to the play offs. Finish third or higher and the dream would become a reality. It was not to be. The team finished bottom, without winning a game.

Soon after Jamaica were beaten 8-0 in a friendly by France. A former Jamaica international pointed out to me that the team didn’t pick up a single booking in the defeat. Did anyone care enough out there?

Then it dawned on me. I was speaking to so many talented people from the football world with Jamaican roots in the UK who could contribute so much back to the island.

I made it my mission to try and open up a conversation about how this could happen. Former Jamaican international, Michael Johnson, one of the most qualified coaches in the world, shared that vision. So together we brought a delegation of former players and coaches to meet with the Jamaica High Commissioner Her Excellency Aloun Ndombet-Assamba.

I spend a big chunk of my life in meetings. Some meander without direction or purpose, while others smack the nail on the head with one blow. It was a private meeting so I cannot share what was said, but I can report that it went well and the ball was firmly nudged and is now rolling.

But to be clear, this is not about British Jamaicans parachuting into the country claiming to know it all. It is about tapping into the vast knowledge of coaches and working in partnership to develop Jamaican talent back home and also here in the UK.

2018 marks 20 years since the Reggae Boyz 1998 World Cup campaign – the goal that year must be to get to Russia to blow our horns and cheer on the next generation.

Watch this space…