Simoes

THE JAMAICA Football Federation (JFF) and national technical director René Simoes will look to sort out a couple of pressing issues with the sport's governing body, FIFA, as the Reggae Boyz prepare to kick off the crucial third round of World Cup qualifiers in Canada on August 20.

Drawn in the CONCACAF 'Group of Death' alongside Canada, Honduras and Mexico, every game will be important for the national team and technical director Simoes is looking to be fully prepared for the challenge.

"They always water the field before a game and at half-time," Simoes told local website JamaicaWin.com. "This makes the field extremely fast and gives them an advantage. We would like to know if this practice is permitted.

"We would want to know everything. We would like to prepare before the game and not wait until afterwards and then we complain. If it is OK to water the field, we will have to water our field and practise some times," Simoes said.

In addition to the habit of watering the field, which is said to be an artificial surface, the Jamaica technical director also said the JFF would ask FIFA to look at the dimensions of the BMO field where the game is scheduled to be played, as it appears to be smaller than the FIFA minimum dimensions.

Match date clarification

The Brazilian will also seek clarification regarding the number of days that the players will be available to him before the game.

August 20 is not an official match date on the FIFA calendar, but a day for international friendly games. On official match dates, the clubs are obligated to release the players four days in advance. However, on other dates they are only obligated to release the players two days before.

A squad of local-based players was called to camp, which started yesterday and will end on August 14.

Simoes also said that one of his assistants, Lucio Gama, has been assigned to attend the game between Mexico and Honduras at the Azteca on August 20. Jamaica host Mexico at the National Stadium on September 6.