Ricketts Defends Whitmore’s Dismissal as Reggae Boyz Head Coach

President of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Michael Ricketts has defended the decision of the executives of the local governing body to sack Reggae Boyz head coach Theodore Whitmore.

According to Ricketts, the executives had no choice but to act on the recommendation of the JFF’s Technical Committee led by Rudolph Speid based on the current state of affairs as regards the Senior Men’s National team.

Whitmore was relieved of his duties with immediate effect yesterday morning with his assistant and former Reggae Boy Paul Hall being appointed to take charge until the end of the World Cup qualifying campaign.

“You judge a coach’s performance based on results and having gotten seven points from a possible 24, which represents about 30 per cent, certainly that’s a failing grade,” Ricketts told a youtube channel.

“Just when we would have invested so heavily in our Gold Cup and World Cup qualifying programme; I think that the results, the numbers won’t lie and based on the review that was done by the technical committee and was submitted to us, the recommendation that was made to us it was inevitable and like I have said we don’t gloat when we have to make these decisions but in the nation’s interest we really had no options,” Ricketts added.

“The executive committee met, looked at the recommendation that was made by the technical committee and we made this decision, but this was never a personal thing, it’s in the interest of our nation and certainly we can’t do the same thing and get different results, so we decided that we are going to do some things differently and hope that we get some different results.”

Jamaica currently lie in sixth place in the eight-team points standings with seven points.  The group is being led by Canada on 16, ahead of the US on 15, Mexico on 14, same as Panama, but with a better goal difference. Costa Rica are next with nine points, with El Salvador in seventh place on six points and Honduras at the foot of the table on three points. Each team has played eight games with six remaining with ninth-round slated for January 27, 2022.

Asked if it was the time right to make the change, Ricketts thought it was.  “Absolutely, I think we still do have a chance, we’ve been pushed on the back foot, so to speak, but we still do have a real chance. We have four home games and if we can get maximum points from those then we would have garnered 12 in addition to seven we have. If we can beat Panama in Panama and that’s going to be a crucial and critical game, then certainly we could still find ourselves in serious contention.”

The JFF Technical Committee had voted 5-2 to recommend sacking Whitmore following Jamaica’s 1-1 result with the US inside Kingston National Stadium on November 16.

Yesterday the executive accepted the recommendation and notified Whitmore of the decision. The matter will now be taken to the board of directors next week Saturday for ratification.

Hall, a member of the Reggae Boyz side that qualified for the 1998 World Cup in France, joined the Reggae Boyz group as an assistant coach in June just ahead of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

The JFF expressed its gratitude to Whitmore for his services.  “The JFF wishes to thank Mr Whitmore for (the) work that he has put in with the team over the years,” the release stated.

Meanwhile, the governing body has appointed veteran coach Vin Blaine as interim head coach of the women’s national team.

“Blaine is vastly experienced, having served as head coach of said aggregation for an extended period.  He is tasked with preparing and guiding the team throughout the Women’s World Cup Qualifiers which starts in February,” the JFF said.

Blaine’s appointment comes after the JFF provisionally suspended head coach Hubert Busby following the recent allegation of sexual misconduct.