Chung: JFF committed to providing the best for Girlz

Following Concacaf’s announcement of a revamped schedule for international women’s football competitions for the next five years, Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) general secretary Dennis Chung said the federation stands ready to play its role in ensuring success on the field.

Earlier this week, Concacaf revealed its schedule for the next five years of women’s football in the region which included the staging of an inaugural W Nations League competition, the second staging of the W Gold Cup and changes to the Concacaf W Championship.

The W Nations League is set for a February 2028 start date while the second W Gold Cup is scheduled to kick off in 2029.

The new schedule is aimed at providing consistent competition to boost the development of the women’s game.

Chung said the JFF is committed to their task of ensuring the best results can be achieved by the Reggae Girlz who have risen to become one of the more powerful teams in the region.

He said the JFF will continue to provide the best they can from an administrative viewpoint to support the work done by head coach Hubert Busby.

“What we have done from the point of view of the administration was to put a coach in place, put the infrastructure in place to support the coach and ensure that the players have what they need to perform their duties, and that is all that we can do,” Chung explained.

“That is what we continue to do and we can’t do any more than that as the administration. So beyond that, it is then up to the players and the coaches to play their part.”

Chung said while the JFF will play their role as the team’s administration, the responsibility for results on the field will ultimately fall on Busby.

The Reggae Girlz are currently ranked 42nd in the world and fourth overall in the Concacaf region.

Much is expected from the Reggae Girlz who have secured back-to-back World Cup appearances in 2019 and 2023.

“We have a coach in place and the coach is the one that selects the team. He is the one responsible for providing the victories for us and ensures that we move on. He has all the players available to him as far as I know and he has to make sure everything works,” Chung said.

For football fans, the tense relationship between the JFF and the Reggae Girlz has been a highly publicised matter in the past.

In fact, Jamaica had missed on qualification to the inaugural W Gold Cup as several key players had redrawn their international services in protest, which led to the JFF’s decision to suspend their selection until an agreement was met between both parties.

“The situation that occurred during that time has since been resolved,” Chung explained. “It is not that the JFF had wanted to suspend anybody. In fact, the only reason we had suspended them was because FIFA rules said once you are a (national) player, you must make yourself available. If we did not suspend their selection then we would be in violation of the FIFA rules.”