Huge bill for WCQs - Speid

Participating in the men and women Concacaf World Cup qualifiers simultaneously will result in excess financial burden for the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), technical committee chairman Rudolph Speid said.

The senior Reggae Boyz are scheduled to kick off their qualification campaign in September, with their female counterpart due to bow into action in November.

Speid noted that this is unprecedented for the federation and that it usually requires great resources to prepare one senior team for the qualification, much less two.

As a result, the federation anticipates that it is going to cost a lot more than usual to ensure that both campaigns run smoothly.

“One of the biggest problems we have is preparation and preparation usually cost us a lot of money.

“So both of them (qualifiers) coming so close together is going to be a strain financially on the technical staff and on administration,” he said.

“The women, we are just getting into stride with them. They have not really played any practice games but there are a few invitations to play some tournaments.

“But it is mainly about money, logistics and administration for us to be on top of our game but it is not anything beyond us,” he continued.

Although he could not give an estimate of what it would cost to actually supervise both qualifications at the same time, he said the federation is taking steps to ensure they have all their bases covered when both qualifiers start.

“It is abnormal times but we are preparing for it. The pandemic has given us time to restructure, so we have plans in place,” he insisted.

“It is going to be rough. Nothing will be easy. We will have to be on top of our game and that is what we are trying to do.”

He anticipates that soliciting support to adequately manoeuvre the two qualification processes would present its challenges.

Speid also believes the Government would have a vital role to play in assisting them.