General Secretary Dalton Wint says the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) is disappointed that it was not able to secure an international friendly match for the national senior women’s team during this month’s FIFA’s window.
Wint said the JFF had some difficulties because of travel restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is something that we hoped would have happened and therefore we are a bit disappointed but we understand the circumstances in which we are in and the difficulties that we faced with this virus,” Wint said. “It has caused a lot of the plans to be derailed and this is a setback for us because we want to utilise all the windows, but hopefully we will be able to do that for the October window.”
Head coach Hubert Busby Jr said his coaching staff has refocused in anticipation that there will be some friendly games during the next FIFA international window from October 15-26.
“Obviously, I am very disappointed but one of the logistics that goes into the planning is that we weren’t able to execute in time and now we just have to refocus for the next window,” he said. “We tried our best [to have a game], but sometimes the timing didn’t work out and so we just needed to refocus and reset and try to get those things done in the next window.”
The Reggae Girlz have been drawn in Group C in the first round of the Women’s World Cup Qualifiers which begin in November. They will play the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Bermuda, and the Cayman Islands. Jamaica is ranked 51st in the world and looking to secure back-to-back trips to the FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals.
Busby said that the next window will be critical and the players are being closely monitored by his coaching staff despite the absence of friendly matches.
“That has been ongoing for over a year and all of our professional players are in a professional environment week in, week out, and obviously that helps tremendously and so from that perspective it has been very positive for us,” he said. “The staff and I have been able to watch games every weekend based on the video platforms that we have which allow us to do so.”
The Reggae Girlz’s last game was a 4-0 loss to the United States of America in an international friendly in on Sunday, June 13.