Never have I ever seen an inept group of people as those who run football in Jamaica … the leaders of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF). And it has been going on for a long time.

Those same people were forewarned about continuing with Englishman Steve McClaren, the big flop at Manchester United, who was dumped on Jamaica by an equally incapable so-called head of the JFF’s technical committee, Rudolph Speid.

For it was the same Speid, who, according to McClaren’s own admission, got him the job as head coach of the national team 15 months ago, resulting in the greatest waste of money in sport.

I remember having a discussion with a certain highly-placed football official during Allan ‘Skill’ Cole’s funeral service on October 11, and telling him that if McClaren was not fired immediately, Jamaica would not automatically qualify for the 2026 World Cup.

I made the suggestion against the background of the 0-2 loss to eventual Group B winners Curaçao the day before, and warned him about the false sense of security that the island would acquire in the next match against Bermuda at home, on Cole’s birthday, October 14. I made the statement at the same time that former Television Jamaica general manager Kay Osbourne was in the middle of her tribute to Cole, at the National Arena in Kingston, and thought about how disgusted Cole would have been with the latest result. 

As things turned out, the ‘rewards’ in the form of drawn results against Trinidad & Tobago, and then Curaçao, punched a hole into Jamaica’s shaky apparatus.

McClaren is the most incompetent coach that the world has ever seen. During his wasted days, the Jamaica team at no time had a system or plan, and there was no chemistry among the players. He had three assistant coaches, one technical advisor, and a team doctor whose physique does not sum up the kind of message that you want to send to players.

McClaren and all his football dunces seldom picked the right starting teams and made things messy with their substitutions, oftentimes taking too long to effect them, especially in the case of Dujuan ‘Whisper’ Richards, who, in one-on-one situations with opposing players, proved to be far more menacing than other attacking players.

And now, the time has come for Speid to take over (that was really quick indeed). Funny. He arranged for a big flop to coach Jamaica, whom he advised, and now he and his JFF misfits have sanctioned the move to get him into the hot chair. What kind of bizarre activity is that? If Speid could not succeed as a technical advisor, how will he do it on his own now?

Speid’s ‘interim’ appointment from December 15 to March 31, 2026, will see his neck being placed on the chopping block, and anything but success will not be tolerated.

New Caledonia, the French colony in the South Pacific, will be the first tough hurdle in the second round playoffs. Not for a moment should they be underestimated. They are of French heritage, and many of the squad members were born in France and play in the motherland. How does that sound when you consider Curaçao’s background with the Netherlands?

The second jump, if given the chance, would see the Democratic Republic of the Congo charging into Jamaica, if the little dragon of New Caledonia is slain by the Caribbean men. They will be tough, and I hope I am proven wrong, but I doubt that Speid will be able to turn things around by that time. It all seems so sloppy by people who continue to tear down Jamaica’s most popular sport.

(A Sunday Sips lightly edited lookback of October 12, 2025, on why Steve McClaren should be fired)

Fire football coach McClaren before it is too late

It is a puzzle, mystery maybe, that the head coach of Jamaica’s national football team, Steve McClaren, still has his job.

Last Friday’s 0-2 loss away to Curaçao in that Dutch-speaking colony’s capital, Willemstad, proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the former Manchester United assistant manager knows nothing about coaching at the international level.

His overall results have been surprising so far, and it is time that the Jamaica Football Federation makes the decisive move to strip him of his role. Oh yes, some will argue, Jamaica, now in second place of their Group B, which also includes Trinidad & Tobago in third place, and lowly Bermuda, can still qualify for the 2026 World Cup to be hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

The winner of the group advances automatically, while the team that finishes second, will get the chance to play off for a spot, which is not the easiest of tasks.

Jamaica have scored wins against Bermuda, away, the group’s beating stick, and Trinidad & Tobago in Kingston. They have upcoming matches against Bermuda at Kingston’s National Stadium, away to Trinidad & Tobago, and home to Curaçao. Automatic qualification is not as easy as it seemed up to last Friday evening.

So, what has been causing the hiccup and misfiring? Well, since the early 1970s, I have seen coaches in action who appear to know how to prepare a squad for international action. McClaren, is the worst of them, despite his links and connections.

Yes, if the JFF does not fire him by time Bermuda gets to Jamaica on Tuesday, October 14, the birthday of Allan ‘Skill’ Cole, the greatest footballer to have come from Jamaica, the Reggae Boyz would be handed a further three points, as there is no way that Bermuda can create the upset of the century, even if in wild imagination, the JFF uses politician Everald Warmington to coach the team for that match. But what if Curaçao defeat Trinidad & Tobago on the same day, and then T&T slap Jamaica in the next match? It means that Jamaica would not be guaranteed automatic qualification as group winners, maybe even not as runners-up, depending on other results.

McClaren has had the best squad of players at his disposal. He has recruited several from the United Kingdom, who fly to matches, and warm the bench for the duration of the game. That should not be. Any player who boards a plane in England and cannot start a match or go on as a substitute, is not worthy of a place in the squad. It’s best then to focus on those who are available in Jamaica, even to keep the substitutes’ bench warm.

The JFF needs to act before it gets too late.      

Why was John Barnes not offered the job?

When head coach of the Jamaica national jacks team … sorry…Jamaica’s national football team, Steve McClaren decided that he had dragged the nation’s football programme too deep into the mud and opted to go back to England to spend the attractive salary that he had been receiving for doing nothing, only one name should have been called as his likely successor: John Barnes.

For Barnes, when he coached Jamaica for ‘peanuts’ between 2008 and 2009, he reaped more positive results than any other coach over a similar period. In his first regional assignment after signing a one-year contract on September 16, 2008, to start working on November 1, 2008, the former Sudbury Court, Watford, Liverpool, Newcastle United, Charlton Athletic and England international, who is Jamaican by birth, won the Digicel Caribbean Cup with Jamaica from December 1 to 15, despite multiple cases of technical and tactical interference by operatives of the JFF.

During the tournament, he was handed starting team lists by those same JFF bigwigs, highlighting players who should start in two matches. Many of the players on the sheet represented Portmore United in club football.

As cool as he can be at times, Barnes ignored administrators, who knew little about the game, to dictate to him about the players who should take the field, and went with his choices.

His monthly salary was more like an allowance, as he said that he wanted to give back to Jamaican football, although in my mind, Jamaica’s football gave him nothing.

To add insult to injury, JFF president at the time, Captain Horace Burrell, had a problem with how Barnes dressed during matches in Jamaica and overseas. His view was that John should not be wearing shorts and T-shirts when he was on the touchline, telling me that it was not a ‘good look’.

What a silly thing, eh? Barnes was not into wearing the ‘Jesus Saves’ shirts that the man whom he succeeded, Brazilian Rene Simoes, chose to put on. He wanted to be comfortable, and what’s wrong with that? Should he have been wearing three-piece suits?

Many times, he had to struggle to get his monthly ‘allowance’ from the JFF at the agreed time, which added to Barnes’s frustration.

As far as I can remember, he remains the only Jamaican coach who has never lost a match, and one match in particular, Jamaica’s friendly against Nigeria in England in early 2009, which ended 0-0, is still talked about as a classic.

Although he did not accompany Jamaica to the Concacaf Gold Cup in July 2009, by virtue of Jamaica qualifying as Digicel Caribbean Cup winners, the unsteady heads at the JFF forced him to turn again to coaching at the club level in England, for he could not manage the ‘politics’. So, on June 14, 2009, he signed a deal with English League One team Tranmere Rovers, thus ending just over six months of hell with the JFF.

Now would have been an ideal time to have him back, but then, the Friend Club at the JFF continues to run things.  

Those rapid price hikes

Consumer prices in Jamaica have never reached the level that they are now. Guess what, too? Everyone you speak to will tell you that things will get worse.

It does not have to happen, though. The prices of food items will step up, due to what Hurricane Melissa caused, which means that for the next few months at any rate, there must be importation of some items – vegetables, meats, fish, among others.

Can there be a special system, an agreement between the suppliers and importers, for food items to be discounted as part of the suppliers’ contribution to the national recovery effort, and for the Government to reduce duties in order to accommodate the provisions?

Already, improper eating has affected hundreds of thousands, forcing them to dump all kinds of unhygienic stuff into their bodies when they become available – a process that, if sustained, will result in serious health situations later on.

Let’s get those subsidised foods into the system and simultaneously arm our local farmers with the tools to resume production in a meaningful way.