Howard Walker, Staff Reporter
Left: JFF President Crenston Boxhill. Right: Wendell Downswell.
- File photos
Following another embarrassing 6-0 defeat for the Reggae Boyz, this time at the junior level, Crenston Boxhill, president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) says the thought of resigning is not on his mind.
"No," he said tersely when asked the question by The Gleaner yesterday.
"My thoughts is to see how best we can improve the situation and correct it. Right now our thoughts are to sort out the technical department," said Boxhill.
The national teams have not been doing well in international competitions recently and the senior team plummeted 32 places to 78 in the FIFA rankings released nearly a fortnight ago, by far the nation's worst ranking since 1996. It followed some heavy defeats to Australia (5-0), Ghana (4-1) and England (6-0).
Technical director, Wendell Downswell, who oversees all levels of the country's football, is naturally also under pressure to step down or be relieved of his job. But Boxhill, who has been searching for a technical director for a while, might have to speed up the process to replace Downswell.
However, he was reluctant to say what will happen to the technical director at this time.
Said Boxhill: "Downswell is off the island as you know, therefore it is unprofessional for me to make any comment without sitting down with him and have a discussion and tell him exactly what I have in mind and where we go from here.
"Even though in my mind I have an idea what is to be done, I don't want to make no public statement until I have a one-on-one discussion with Downswell," he said.
He added: "We are in the process of overhauling the technical department. That is a priority right now."
Boxhill also could not divulge any information on the progress of the JFF in its search for an overseas coach.
"We are not in a position to make any comment on that either," he said.
The Wendell Downswell-led young Reggae Boyz went to the CAC Games with a pledge from technical director Downswell to win a medal, but they were unceremoniously dumped out of the competition - 6-0 - by host country Colombia on Sunday.
A FEAST OF GOALS
Colombia revelled in wet conditions and pumped in a feast of goals against the hapless Jamaican team.
The young Reggae Boyz, who beat Haiti (2-1) in their opening game and booked a quarterfinal spot in spite of losing (1-2) to Costa Rica in their next match, fell behind after only 15 minutes from a Juan Pino strike.
Jamaica's defender Nathan Koo-Boothe headed into his own goal in the 38th minute to make it 2-0.
Dayro Moreno scored twice (83rd,85th), while Fredy Guar'n (67th) and Darwin Quintero (61st) all got on the scoresheet for Colombia.
Despite the loss, Jamaica finished as the highest ranked Caribbean team during the 2006 CAC Games and therefore qualified for the men's
under-22 football tournament at the 2007 Pan American Games in Brazil.
