We fail to make use of our experience (Football)
by Russell Bell

March  , 2009 

Today, I want to speak a little about the spirit of my brother Jackie but more about

the role he would want me to play this evening in making this address. First,

however, I must thank you all here as you continue to honour his memory and,

more generally, the memory of the six Bell brothers (Jackie, Vernon, Russell,

Howard, Neville and Douglas) who have represented this country at football.

Three personal qualities separated Jackie from the mass of his peers. First, he was

a passionate fighter for what he loved and believed in. Secondly, he was incurably

infected with an unconditional love for football - one that made him cut short a potentially outstanding academic career. Thirdly, he was determined to make a

living through his involvement in football and more generally sports.

Two Basic Points

This evening, I think, that he would want me to share two basic points with you.

The first is that, for too long now, in the preparation of our national teams, we

have not been using our experience to our advantage. In fact, one could say

that we seem to be trying to re-invent the wheel.

Where is the evidence for this? In such a short presentation, I cannot go into the

details as I would like but let us look at a few facts in the history of our national

preparation programme.

Jamaica’s Peformance against Mexico.

Comments from the players

“The climate affected us.”

Comments from the head of the delegation to Mexico, Norman Hill:

“Jamaica needed more time to get acclimatized… International football is war...

Jamaica need to change their outlook on football; the experience gained on this

tour will contribute a lot to the development of the game to good international

standards”

Comments from coach Jorge Penna

“The experience has done the team well, now they know what it is like to play in

the world cup.”

TEN YEARS LATER

Comments from the players

“The climate affected us.”

Comments from manager George Prescod

“Our players (need) …to show a little more self discipline. The JFF will have to

take a long look at doing some re-structuring of the squad in the light of the lessons

learnt on this tour”

Comments from coach Otmar Calder

“The boys have learnt a lot from the exposure...the team has learned a lot as to

what is needed in international competition.”

TWENTY-TWO YEARS LATER

The Headline of the April 14 1997 Gleaner report of the match said it all.

Jamaica Thrashed 6 – 0 in World Cup Qualifier

MASSACRE I

MEXICO

According to the Gleaner report:

Coach Simoes blamed the loss on “instructions not being followed and the

experience of the Mexicans”

The facts noted above are not the only ones that could be used to demonstrate our

insufficient use of our experience. We could also give examples of our

experiences with foreign national coaches conducting coaching clinics, or local

coaches forming coaches associations, or the formation of a domestic professional

league, and more and we would see the same pattern – insufficient use of or

learning from our experiences.

Why are we not learning from our experience?

The explanation for this can be dealt with at different levels and from different

perspectives. One important reason for this consistent repeating of failures,

however, is the fact that the Jamaicans who have the experience of these events

and who have the required expertise to avoid their recurrence, have not been

involved in any meaningful and decisive way in these programmes. The coaches

in charge, whether they are foreign nationals or Jamaicans, if they do not have the

experience will all start over from the foot of the learning curve .

This is certainly an important reason for our excellent Under 20 squad’s failure to

qualify in the recent world cup qualifying tournament that we were apparently

destined to win.

Of course, this begs the question, why are the Jamaicans with proven expertise

shunned? - a question which needs to be answered but one which will require a

much longer time and a different audience to be addressed properly.

Resource Allocation

The second basic point that I would like to share with you is that we need to ensure

that the same resources are made available to the coaches of our national teams

regardless of who they are, Jamaican or non-Jamaican.

Even though many of us think that the disparity in treatment between Jamaican and

non-Jamaican coaches is a recent occurrence, it is a long-standing problem and, in

fact, is much less of a problem today than it was in previous years. Let us look at

this situation in a historical context.

Political independence in August 1962 was an important milestone for Jamaicans

as a nation as it brought political freedom from the British colonial empire. It had,

however, a special significance for the Jamaican sporting fraternity in general and

football fraternity in particular.

The completion of our first and only National Stadium coincided with political

independence and for the first time we hosted an international Games when the IX

Central American and Caribbean Games were held in Kingston between August 15

and August 28, 1962.

The organizers of the Games gave the Jamaica Football Association (the

forerunner to the Jamaica Football Federation) a gift as they employed, for the first

time, a foreign national, Brazilian Jorge Penna, as coach of our team for these

Games.

Jackie, by the way, played in every game in this tournament.

After these Games, the JFA, for the first time, made contact with organized

international football. That is, Jamaica, for the first time, started to participate

consistently in the CAC Games, the Pan AM Games and the CONCACAF/World

Cup eliminations. Jackie was a member of the first team in the new era of

international football.

After the IX CAC Games, Penna’s contract was not renewed by the JFA whose

official explanation was that his inability to speak English was too great a

hindrance to have him continue, as, among other things, he could not impart his

knowledge to local coaches. A more popular view, however, was that Penna

would tolerate absolute no intervention in his programme. In fact, Neville

Glanville, who represented Jamaica under Penna told me that once the Prime

Minister of Jamaica came to the dressing room just before a game to speak with the

players and Penna refused to allow him entry.

Haitian professional footballer, Antoine Tassy, replaced Penna as the coach of the

national football team. After spending a year with the national teams, differences

emerged with the JFA, and he was asked to leave in March 1964. Penna was

recalled in January 1965 and remained for just under three years as the coach of

our national teams.

With Penna at the helm, the preparation of our national team went to a new level.

For the first time the national team was consistently involved in friendly international matches our national players were treated as celebrities our national players were housed together for weeks (at Newcastle and elsewhere) employers of national players were told that representing their country )should be given priority over performing their duties at work – hence, players were expected to get time off with pay when preparing to represent

the country the government, through the Minister of Development and Welfare, Mr.

Edward Seaga, actively supported the programme financially and otherwise.

Then Penna left. In this period, the USA was starting a professional soccer league

and, with Penna leaving, the bulk of our players left Jamaica in search of

employment in this league.

George Thompson

A Jamaican who had played under Penna and who had been very successful with a

schoolboy football team, the legendary 1965 KC team led by Trevor ‘Jumpy’

Harris, was appointed coach. Thompson met a listless JFF. Here is a glimpse at

how George was treated.

♦ for a long time the national team was allowed to use the Stadium field only

once per week

♦ George had to write personally to friends and businessmen seeking

assistance in diet and housing for some players

♦ George and his squad had to organize a party in order to pay for weight

training sessions

♦ on one occasion the national squad was locked inside the stadium and had to

climb the walls to get out

♦ the JFF decided to play all their home matches away even though the record

clearly showed that we did significantly better at home

And we could add more to this but the point should be clear.

So with a weakened player base with little or no financial or moral support, George

T, as he was affectionately called, was asked to prepare a national team for the

same level competition as Penna. To be accurate, one must add here that George T

himself had a reluctance to use overseas players who had expressed a willingness

to return to the national squad.

Yet, it was under George T that Jamaica was to beat Mexico for the first time when

on 7 May 1972 at the National Stadium we won 1-0 through a Leonard Mason

goal. And it was under George T that we drew with a West Germany team that

included seven players who played on the winning 1972 West Germany World

Cup team.

It is important to note that George T’s experience was only one of several cases

where Jamaican technical football personnel have excelled despite limited support

and resources. Time allows me to mention only a few.

1- On February 23 1963, Jamaica beat Haiti for the first time in 10 years, under

coaches Jamaican Leighton Duncan and Derrick Tomkinson again, like

George T, with minimal support. A victory against Haiti had eluded Jorge

Penna in 1962 where the teams met several times.

2- Neville Glanville and Bradley Stewart’s national juvenile squad of 1979/80

is considered by many to be one of the best-prepared teams ever to leave

Jamaica. In a tournament in which teams from Trinidad, Canada and the

USA came for advice from our coaches, Jamaica outdid their opponents but

did not qualify for two main reasons. First, blatantly corrupt refereeing and

a heat wave in Texas that forced the coaching panel to be overly cautious in

fear of potential harm to players. The preparation of this team was a truly

national effort. Bradley and Neville drew on the expertise of several

Jamaicans in designing a programme that saw every player except one

having pulse rates in the 40s. These Jamaicans included Jamaica’s first

sprint world record holder, Dennis Johnson, Dr. Herb Elliot, Foggy

Burrowes, Dr. Winston Dawes, Dr. Paul Wright and others.

Support for this tournament came from the efforts of the coaching and

management staff as no funds were available from the government. Grace

Kennedy made a significant input in the preparation of this team.

In fact, it is generally felt by those in the know that the unconscionable

expulsion of Jamaica from the World Cup a few years later under the guise

of Jamaica failing to pay FIFA dues was based on a fear of the Jamaica team

that was phenomenal in this tournament. The fact was that FIFA actually

owed the JFF more money than the registration fee and this should have

been used to cover the payment they required.

3- Several outstanding national players were introduced to the game formally

as youngsters by Trevor ‘Jumpy’ Harris. After winning the Major League as

player/coach at Harbour View Trevor made a conscious decision to focus on

the primary and prep school players. From Trevor’s work at Vaz Prep, and

as coach of both All Primary and All Prep teams came players like Sean

Frazer, Andre Virtue, Jamal Greene, Wolde Harris (Trevor’s son), Akeem

Priestley, Howard Wong, Fabian Davis, Tyrone Marshall and several others.

All of this was achieved thorough Trevor’s personal effort.

4 - Lebert Halliman, has a track record of excellence in coaching not only

locally but in his first assignment as national youth coach he won the

Caribbean leg of the qualifying round of the world cup in. Those who know

Halliman know that he is indeed a knowledgeable and tactically sound

coach. Yet he was removed from the post of national coach.

So, as I mentioned earlier, the disparity in the treatment of coaches that we now see

is a truly longstanding problem. And, while it is in fact not as bad today as it was

in the past, there is an urgent need to level the playfield for all coaches of our

national team as was displayed in the recent world cup eliminations where Bradley

and Theodore outdid Simoes but certainly were not treated and remunerated in the

same way – not to mention that they were replaced by John Barnes, someone

whom I respect, but who has little experience at this level.

Why then are those with expertise marginalized or not involved?

There are two popular explanations given for this. One is that those in the private

sector who are willing to put funds in football have a bias against Jamaican

coaches. Assuming that this is true, I would strongly suggest that we provide

comparative statistics to these individuals showing the performance of Jamaican vs

non-Jamaican coaches. I also think that we need to provide the same level of

public relations or hype for all coaches. On what basis do we label one coach

Professor while another with similar training and experience has no label?

My feeling is that no one would prefer a weak coach to a strong coach, no matter

his nationality. Maybe I am naive, but I cannot see someone refusing to fund a

national football programme in which a coach of proven worth is in charge but at

the same time giving money to a programme in which a less knowledgeable and

experienced coach is at the helm.

The second popular explanation given for the marginalization or exclusion of

Jamaican expertise is that the politics of the sport requires suboptimal resource

allocation. That is, affiliate clubs and associations do not vote based on an

objective analysis of the situation and what is best for the sport as a whole but on

how they can benefit from the measures proposed. This, of course, is an issue that

requires much more time than a brief presentation can afford. I would suggest,

however, that, if this is true, then the Executive Committee of the JFF such address

it as a matter of urgency. So too, should all Executive Committees of all the

affiliates of the JFF.

While these two explanations are the more popular ones, there are others that we

do not have the time to discuss.

Summary

In summary, those of us who are aware of the history of this great sport in Jamaica

recognize the obvious advances that have occurred in the sport since 1962 when

we entered the organized international arena for the first time. We, however,

believe that non-technical barriers are now preventing the country from realizing

its full potential. One of the more pressing barriers is the consistent failure to use

our experience in preparing for new tournament, hence our perpetual talk of ‘now

we know…” or “now we have the experience” after we have been eliminated.

A second barrier is the failure to make resources available to our national coaches

on a consistent basis regardless of their nationality.

In 1991, in the editorial of Issue #5 of the Sports Focus magazine, I wrote:

“If we improve in quantity and quality on the success ingredients which were

present for the Shell Caribbean Cup, then just as the Cameroon did for Africa at

- 14 -

the recent World Cup, Jamaica will bring glory to Caribbean football in the not

too far future.”

Jamaica went to the World Cup Finals in 1998.

Today, I make a similar claim. If we level the playfield for all coaches and fully

utilize the expertise of Jamaican coaches of proven worth to manage the technical

development of our players, not only will our faces be seen more in the developed

leagues all over the world but our country will join Mexico and become one of the

dominant teams in the CONCACAF region.

Jamaica has a history of exceptional talent, with players like Fairy-Boots Alcock,

Clarence Passalaigue, Gerry Alexander (who captained both the West Indies

cricket and football teams), Noel Hall, Karl Largie, Lindy Delapenha, Anthony

Hill, Syddie Bartlett, Allan Cole, Tony Keyes, Trevor Harris, Dago Gordon,

Lennie Hyde, Neville Oxford, Bingi Blair, Johnny Barnes, Derrick Dennicer,

Dennis Stylo Ewbanks, Andy Williams, Ali Rose, Steve Green, Paul Young,

Kemal Malcolm, Shamar Shelton, Alan Ottey, and many others.

As far as I am aware, Jamaica is the only country in the region in which the

Brazilians have offered football contract to players. Coach Penna acknowledged

our outstanding talent; in a FIFA magazine, coach Simoes said that even in relation

to Brazil, Jamaican players were talented.

It is up to us, the leaders and those who have the experience and the expertise to

come together and guide our talented youth to their rightful place in international

football, sooner rather than later.

Again, congratulations to all award winners. On behalf of the six Bell brothers, led

by Jackie, I wish you all continued success. Thank you very much.

Russell Bell