FILE
Sven Goran Eriksson ... would cost a cool J$1.5 billion to coach the national football team over the next four years.
Howard Walker, Staff Reporter
JAMAICA'S SEARCH for a top quality coach will not come easy unless corporate Jamaica forks out between $260 million to $1.5 billion over a four-year period, to accommodate the coach's demands.
A close look at the asking remuneration fees by these top-line coaches would make your heart race.
The highest fee being bandied about is the £3 million Sven Goran Eriksson of Sweden is asking. When converted into Jamaican dollars, the Swede is really asking for J$366 million a year or a mind-boggling J$1.5 billion over four years.
Embarrassing selections
That figure is coming from a coach who made a mess of the English team at the World Cup with some embarrassing team selections and tactics.
Furthermore, the poker-faced Eriksson requested that he also wanted to coach a European club simultaneously.
Next on the list is the Serbian-born coach, Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic, the only person to have coached five different teams at the World Cup: Mexico (1986), Costa Rica (1990), the United States (1994), Nigeria (1998) and China (2002). It is understood that his agent was asking for 3.5 million euro (J$266m) a year, and for four years it would be J$1.06 billion; a fee that rules Milutinovic out of the picture also.
He is also the first coach to take four different teams beyond the first round (all the above except China), but Jamaica won't be joining that list.
A trek over to South America saw Argentine Jose Pekerman's name emerge and he was requesting a cool US$2 million (J$130 million) a year or J$520 million over four years.
Outstanding youth coach
Pekerman, an outstanding youth coach - winning three world titles with Argentina, resigned after his team was knocked out of the 2006 World Cup by the hosts at the quarter-final stage.
The choice has apparently been narrowed down to Englishmen John Barnes and Glen Hoddle, two unnamed Brazilians and Foppe de Haan from the Netherlands.
De Haan led the Netherlands national under-21 football team to victory in the European Under-21 Championship.
All these coaches, it is believed, are asking in the region of US$1 million or less a year, which could swing the JFF in their favour.
It is understood that former coach Rene Simoes has applied for the post and would love to start in January. Simoes, who led Jamaica to the World Cup in 1998, might not get a serious thought because he was the one responsible for the sacking of Crenston Boxhill as team manager during his stint at the helm.
