Tony Becca | ​France, here we come, again

When the Reggae Girlz started their bid for a place in next year's FIFA Women's World Cup finals in France, not many Jamaicans gave them the ghost of a chance, and, maybe, correctly so.

The Reggae Girlz that Jamaicans knew played in a league that hardly anyone but football fanatics knew about, a league that was poorly supported by sponsors and by spectators, and a league that was not around for a couple of years recently due to a lack of support.

And what they saw, most times, were girls playing a sport with little skill, except for a promising few.

Come the qualifying matches, however, and things changed dramatically, and by the time Jamaica got to the final stages, Jamaicans knew that they were in with a chance, and a good chance at that.

Jamaica had put together a team, mostly of bright, young ladies, most of whom were either attending school in the USA, were born in the USA, who were playing football while studying, and who wanted to represent Jamaica.

The rest is history. Jamaica did what they had to do to qualify. They lost to Canada and they lost to world champions USA, but they defeated those who they were expected to defeat, including Panama, in the place play-off.

The Reggae Girlz of 2018 were obviously a well-prepared set of intelligent young ladies. They did not truly represent women's football in Jamaica. They were Jamaicans, they had a dream, and one that was accompanied by dedication and commitment and, obviously, national pride.

Their achievement, and the way they went about it while enjoying themselves, should be, and must be, a source of motivation, and inspiration, for young ladies, and young gentlemen, at home who dream of acquiring an education while playing sports to the best of their ability.

It was not a pipe dream. It is reality.

The praises and congratulations for being the first Caribbean team to qualify for the women's World Cup finals are well deserved, and although support was generally missing during the team's run to this great achievement, they have been coming in by the hundreds as Jamaicans from all walks of life express their joy and their gratitude to the young ladies.

In offering my own humble congratulations, however, I must commend especially Elaine Walker-Brown and Jean Nelson; the coaching staff of Hue Menzies, Andrew Price, and Lorne Donaldson; coaches like Charlie Edwards and Xavier Gilbert; former Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller, ministers with responsibility for sports, Natalie Neita-Headley and Olivia Grange; and the president of the JFF, Michael Ricketts, for their faith and continued support of women's football over the years.

Congrats also to the few who delved into pockets, and especially to the Sports Development Foundation, the Institute of Sports, Sherwin-Williams, to Cedella Marley, and to the Alacran Foundation.

A friend in need is a friend indeed.

Because of all these people, and others, but especially these good friends of women's football, the flag will be flying proudly in France next year like it was for the men in 1998.

When I was a boy, Jamaica in the men's World Cup finals was a dream, and women, Jamaican women, at the World Cup finals was not even thought about. In those days, Jamaica's sporting heroes were all men - people like George Headley, Alfred Valentine, Herb McKenley, Arthur Wint, and Lindy Delaphena.

Today, Jamaica's heroes include not only men like Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell, but also women like Veronica Campbell-Brown, Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the Sunshine Girls, Alia Atkinson, and now, the Reggae Girlz.

BAILEY'S UGLY DEMAND

One who, right now, does not measure up as a hero is Leon Bailey.

A talented and gifted footballer, but not yet a great one, Bailey obviously does not believe in teamwork. Either that, or he has been badly advised.

After saying over and over that he is willing to represent his country, Bailey is quoted as saying that he will only play if his brother, Kyle Butler, also plays as he needs players who can understand him.

In other words, it is, Leon and Kyle, or no Leon.

According to Bailey, he does not see why his brother, Kyle, has to go through the scrutiny of a trial, and he, unwittingly and arrogantly, scoffed at the selection process.

He also "dissed" the standard of Jamaica's football by saying that he alone could lift the team and that he needs his brother alongside him.

"I will need the support from good players, and I know good players because I grew up playing with good players, and I now play with go0od players," boasted Bailey.

Having followed the ongoing impasse between Craig Butler and the JFF over Craig Butler's desire to be top brass, or the top brass, in local football and how he should get there, his fight, at first, to get Leon into the national team, and then the fight for his adopted son to do Jamaica a "favour" by representing the national team, the words of Leon Bailey appear to have been penned by Craig Butler.

Whoever penned the words, however, is unimportant.

IMAGE TARNISHED

What is important is that by voicing those words for all to hear, Leon has certainly tarnished his image.

With such an attitude, Leon, or Leon and Kyle, would be, in fact, bad for the Jamaica football team. Apart from questioning the strength of the Jamaica team, and after saying that it is either Leon and Kyle or none at all, surely, no one would want to play with them or to pass the ball to either of them.

In such a situation, apart from making the JFF a laughing stock to everybody, Leon's presence, plus Kyle's presence, would be a total disaster for Jamaica's football.

May be Leon Bailey is better than any other footballer, alive or dead, but in his present frame of mind, he can be of no use to Jamaica. He should or would have to acknowledge the error of his words, and his feelings about Jamaica's football, before he ever gets the opportunity to prove it in the national team.

Bailey's tirade suggests that he is not a team man, that he does not really want to represent Jamaica, and that he can do without representing Jamaica. He must be made to understand that the Jamaica national team is not, and will never be, the Leon Bailey X1, or the Leon Bailey Invitational X1.

It is good to see that the JFF has restated its selection policy and said that it will stick by it in saying, "there is no room for special negotiations for individual players".