JFF positive despite WCQ postponement

FIFA HAS taken the decision to postpone Concacaf’s September 2020 window, which means the final round of the Concacaf 2022 World Cup qualifiers will not start as previously scheduled.

The constant postponements have created challenges for organisers, Concacaf, and have disrupted the preparations of the respective teams.

However, Roy Simpson, team manager of Jamaica’s national senior team, is optimistic the qualifiers could get going as soon as October.

“Since the (coronavirus) pandemic, we realise that there have been a number of postponement of international tournaments. Some of the leagues in Europe have resumed and we were hoping, though somewhat sceptical, that we would have started the qualifiers in September,” Simpson said.

“But what it does for us is that we are getting to a more conclusive restart. It will afford us more time to prepare ... So we have to keep our players focused, keep them abreast and hopefully when we can get from Concacaf the reorganised schedule, we can be more direct in terms of our preparations based on the dates for the calendar that they put out,” Simpson added.

REFORM THE FORMAT

However, he believe Concacaf will have to reform the format of the qualifiers, which is heavily based on FIFA’s ranking system, which has been compromised because of the suspension of international football activity since March.

“The Concacaf president indicated before the release that there was a contemplation to reorganise the qualifiers. We still have to wait (on Concacaf to decide) but the good thing for us is that based on the good work we did before the pandemic, we were in the Hex (hexagonal) round. So any restructuring and reorganising of the World Cup qualifiers, we will be in it. It’s just that we don’t know the format, whether we will have more games or more teams. But based on the work we did, we are confident we will be in the final round of the World Cup qualifiers,” said Simpson.