ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Jamaica’s football chief Captain Horace Burrell says the Reggae Boyz’s elimination from the CFU Caribbean Cup has made the country the “laughing stock of the Caribbean”.
The outspoken Burrell was speaking after defending champions Jamaica were dumped from the Caribbean’s premier tournament on Wednesday night, without winning a single match.
“I’m disappointed. I’m livid. I have never seen such shambolic football and there is no excuse for it … the players must take responsibility,” the Jamaica Observer quoted Burrell as saying.
“They did not show the quality and it’s just an embarrassment to me and the country to come to a tournament like this and play so badly… many of these local-based players have been calling out for the opportunity and they got it and now they blew it.”
He added: “At our stage of football development, even a ‘B’ team should be able to come and do much better than what we have … what we saw has made us the shame and laughing stock of the Caribbean.”
There were warning signs when Jamaica went down 2-1 to French Guiana in their opening game last Saturday. They followed up with a nil-all draw with Martinique two days later before losing 1-0 to Cuba on Wednesday night, when needing a win to reach the semi-finals.
As a result, Jamaica also missed out on a place to next year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup in the United States, after eight appearances in the biennial confederation championship.
“Having qualified for the final round of the World Cup qualifiers and not being in the Gold Cup is not an easy one to swallow,” Burrell lamented. “But the show must go on and we have to now look at getting friendly matches and to possibly do some tours to get the team together as often as possible.”
Ironically, Jamaica have already qualified for the final round of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers starting next year. Their campaign was boosted by their overseas-based professionals and Burrell said they would have to continue to look to their talents to underpin the country’s success.
Jamaica kick off the qualifiers against CONCACAF powerhouses Mexico next February.