Talented under-14s need transition plan – Ricketts
Published:Thursday | August 29, 2024 | 12:11 AM
PRESIDENT OF the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), Michael Ricketts, says a clear plan should be put in place to facilitate the seamless transition for the country’s youth players into the national setup.
Ricketts shared the sentiments during a press conference yesterday in which he congratulated the Andrew Peart-coached under-14 Reggae Boyz, who were recently crowned champions of the Caribbean Football Union under-14 Challenge Series in Trinidad and Tobago.
“We must have an organised plan in place to ensure that the under-14s now make the transition. I was impressed with how the youngsters played and conducted themselves. Congratulations to coach Peart and his support staff. He has shown the highest level of commitment to this programme, and we want to assure him that the Jamaica Football Federation will give as much support to ensure longevity and that the process will continue up to the under-17’s qualification to the World Cup,” said Ricketts.
The under-14 team went unbeaten across six games, scoring 25 goals and conceding two.
According to General Secretary of the JFF, Dennis Chung, proper structure should be created to keep this core of players together for the long haul, which could reap serious benefits in the future. Chung also described the boys a “true representation” of the country.
“The boys are not only good footballers, but they’re disciplined and are a true representation of the country. This JFF is intent on the development of football locally, and with all the players of the team being local-based, we showed that we have the talent here. If we put the infrastructure in place to hold everyone together, then we could be producing world-class footballers similarly to athletics. That’s our intention as we want this under-14 team be the one that goes on to qualify for the 2030 FIFA World Cup,” said Chung.
Andrew Peart, head coach of the team, explained that while it may have seemed like one-way traffic for the Jamaican team throughout the tournament, there were quality teams that participated.
Peart believes that this only showed the true dominance of the Jamaican team, who defeated French Guiana 7-1 in the final.
“The quality of the teams we played against was good for the under-14 level. Look at Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico, who had an influx of players from the United States, or Aruba, who have players playing in the Netherlands. I think the quality was actually very good. I don’t think we should use the score lines to undervalue the quality of the opposition, but rather, praise the efforts of our team,” said Peart.