Oral Tracey | No comparison!

It is an index of the time and space in which we currently live, where the pursuit of the ideals of infinite equality and Utopian parity is par for the course. What is good for the goose seems now to be good for the gander, or so many would have us believe. It is in that evolving context that we try to understand some of the extreme reactions to the historic qualification of the senior Reggae Girlz for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France.

Minutes after defender Dominique Bond-Flasza converted that winning penalty on October 17 at 6:47 p.m., calls began to come for a public holiday to be announced. As the subsequent minutes turned into days, those calls got louder and bolder. The Most Honourable Prime Minister Andrew Holness duly rejected those calls, but the demands have now morphed into the calls for the members of the team to be handed pieces of land by the Jamaican government.

It is quite obvious that the very line of thought that gave rise to these calls emanate from a conscious and/or subconscious reaction from events 21 years ago when the Reggae Boyz historically qualified for the World Cup finals, which were coincidentally hosted by France in 1998. The running comparisons of the Boyz's qualification in 1997 to the Girlz' qualification in 2018 continue to range from subtle to vulgar.

At the risk of being labelled a sexist and a misogynist in today's highly charged and sometimes irrational socio-political climate, I feel compelled to point out the not-so-nuanced differences between these two historic occasions.

There is no credible way or reason to devalue or underrate the accomplishment itself of the Girlz's qualifying for the World Cup, but in terms of real impact and documented novelty, it is chalk to cheese. For the record, Jamaican male football teams have qualified for four FIFA World Cup Finals, led by the indomitable pioneers of the France 1998 campaign. The Under-17 Boyz did it in 1999 and the Under-20s followed in 2001, with the Under-17s doing it again in 2011. The senior Girlz then joined the fore in 2018. World Cup qualification is therefore no longer a distant and unrealistic dream for Jamaica.

The events of the evening of November 16, 1997, will however be etched indelibly in the heart and soul of Jamaica's rich sporting history. It was a process that culminated in a moment when the impossible became the possible, when Jamaicans at home and abroad renewed their belief in and love for Jamaica and Jamaican potential. A team of Jamaican football pioneers and warriors broke the unbreakable glass ceiling and inspired hope and optimism that not only permeated not football fraternity, but swept through every hill and valley across every rural village and every urban avenue street and lane cutting the social, economic, and religious ideological divides. Jamaicans revelled in the belief symbolised by the last three letters in the word 'Jamaican' - 'I CAN'.

No matter what has happened since and what will happen in the future, the '98 Boyz will have ultimate groundbreaking history on their side. They will always be the first-ever Jamaican football team to qualify for the World Cup finals, and that feat can never be replicated.

In those euphoric moments 21 years ago, even the impromptu unconstitutional calling of the public holiday was understandable, as was the subsequent allocation of lots of land to members of the squad. The pioneering work was done, the trail was blazed, and those were mere tokens of the nation's heartfelt appreciation.

The Girlz's journey has been great, their story is touching, their achievements are indeed contextually historic, and Jamaica should continue to love celebrate and support them. However, except in word, the comparisons are hardly credible between the Reggae Boyz of 1998 kicking down the door to endless possibilities of World Cup qualifications and the Reggae Girlz walking through that door. Indeed, there is no comparison.