Former Girlz coach slams JFF - Edwards: I was hoping that with the Girlz going to the World Cup we would have got on top of the wave to push the programme ­forward

Former national senior women’s team coach, Charles Edwards, has heaped blame on the nation’s football administrators for the Reggae Girlz’s disappointing showing at the ongoing Concacaf Women’s Olympic Qualifiers in the United States.

Edwards, who was head coach of the Reggae Girlz at the Pan American Games in 2007, believes that instead of ‘riding the wave’ and capitalising on the Girlz’s FIFA Women’s World Cup qualification in France last year, the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) drove the programme into turmoil and he believes our performance at the tournament is a result of the ripple effects of the federation’s mishandling of a number of affairs concerning the women’s teams and their coaches following the World Cup,

“We went to the (men’s) FIFA World Cup in 1998 and we never rode that momentum. I was hoping that with the Girlz going to the World Cup we would have got on top of the wave to push the programme forward but we have seen where we have fallen down. So we definitely suffer from an administrative problem, we are not recognising the importance of these waves to push the programme forward.

“The blame has to be on the administrative side because the coaches don’t pick themselves. The coaches (that were) there before had a falling-out with the JFF because of a reported lack of honouring payments for salaries and money owed. So if what we hear in the media is true the blame has to go on the side of the administrators,” he told The Gleaner.

Since the Reggae Girlz’s historic qualification to the FIFA Women’s World Cup, things have gone downhill, with head coach Hue Menzies quitting the programme due to the federation’s failure to pay money, he said, was owed to him and poor communication. Menzies’ assistant and heir apparent, Lorne Donaldson, then walked away, citing poor administration. As a result, goalkeeper coach Hubert Busby Jr was only appointed to the job one week ahead of the tournament and Edwards said that was a grave error.

However, he does not think the 9-0 defeat to Canada is a massive setback. He said the programme can recover quickly from the embarrassment if they get the girls properly prepared for future tournaments.

“To the average spectator looking on it (9-0) would seem like a serious setback but I would want to more look at it as an eye-opener. A lot of issues caused these problems. Now it’s just a matter of getting the players and coaches to sit and have a meeting and iron out all the issues and put the proper things in place and I think we can get over it quickly,” he said.

“I don’t know if changes (technically) are needed right now … but we need to start dealing with the team on a better level in terms of the commitments we make … We need a proper programme in place so the team can be assembled quicker (ahead of tournaments),” Edwards said. He added that some overseas professionals might not be able to join the team immediately but they are in a well-organised environment and that will help them fit in quickly when they join up with the rest of the squad.

“But the rest of players need to be in camps working diligently and hard to get the team meshed together. So going forward the administration needs to sit down and look at the programme and see where they want to go and give the coaches more time to work with the team,” he added, while noting that the players’ mental toughness also needs to improve.