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Donaldson knocks JFF’s development plan
September 22, 2023
Reggae Girlz coach Lorne Donaldson contends that the development of women's football on the island is about 10 to 20 years behind, arguing that the country was producing better-quality players a decade ago.
Donaldson's grouse is, although Jamaica reached back-to-back Women's World Cups in 2019 and again earlier this year, when they made it to the round of 16, despite the island's governing body, the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), struggling to organise a proper local women's competition.
"I think our women's programme has fallen back 10 years. Why? Because there is nothing to sustain it. Ten years ago, our (local) players were better because everybody had a team here.
"Now, we can hardly find teams to play in our local competitions, and the players are not as good as 10 years ago. It is bad," he commented during the launch of the Bell/Zaidie annual football festival at Alhambra Inn last Tuesday.
He argued that one-day or one-week clinics don't develop players, and noted that former Reggae Girlz coach Hue Menzies and himself have already created a blueprint to develop young players. He believes their proposals have been swept under the rug.
"There is no grassroots development in Jamaica. Only one person is trying, and that is a private programme, so there is no grassroots.
"When you plant grass, you have to water it. Anything that you plant young will have to be nurtured and watered. When they talk about grassroots, they talk about one-day clinics. That is not how it is done. That is not how you develop," he reasoned.
"We have even written it down, Hue Menzies and myself. So we have put a lot of stuff down in how to do it. I will not sit and talk about what they need to do. It has been said a million times. We just got to sit down and say, 'We will implement certain programmes.'
"It cannot be a one-week thing. We always have these little clinics here and there, but that is just a little clinic. That is not how you develop players."
The Reggae Girlz play Canada at the National Stadium on Friday at 7 p.m. in an Olympic Games qualifier. The winner of the two-leg clash will play in the Olympic Games in Paris next year.
