KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC– Jamaica’s football chief Horace Burrell has cautioned the nation against expecting miracles regarding the country’s bid to appear in successive FIFA World Cup finals.
Burrell, the president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), says the odds are consistently stacked against the Reggae Boyz because of the level of resources invested in the island’s football programme.
“People have been saying we are our worst enemies, because we should not have qualified for the World Cup in 1998,” Burrell declared.
“I say ‘no’, I cannot agree with that”.
The Reggae Boyz have struggled to qualify ever since their historical appearance at the 1998 World Cup in France.
The team has managed to make the final round in only two of the four subsequent qualifiers.
In the 2002 and 2014 versions, when Jamaica found themselves among the region’s final six, the team finished in second to last and last spot.
“World Cup qualification is a competitive environment,” the JFF president explained.
“No country has the right to continue to qualify for the World Cup; I think we are doing the best that we can.”
Figures released by American soccer authorities indicate expenses related to the country’s national soccer teams for 2014 stood at more than US$50 million dollars
The JFF received somewhere in the region of $30,000,000 from the Sports Development Foundation last year.