Latest News
‘Our greatest strength has always been our people’ - JFF’s acting general secretary says national base needs to reconnect with local-bred players, communities and support groups
December 08, 2025
Roy Simpson, interim general secretary of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) believes the national football team has moved away from the main ingredient of their past successes on the international stage and wants to see greater belief in local-bred talent.
The Reggae Boyz recently failed in their bid to qualify automatically to the 2026 World Cup, and will have to seek qualification via the play-off route in March.
However, one of the main bones of contention in local football circles over the course of the campaign is the team's over-reliance on British-born talent.
Although not diminishing the value and contribution of players born in Britain, Simpson, guest speaker at last Thursday's Kingston and St Andrew Business House Football Association awards ceremony, held at the National Housing Trust car park, pointed out that Jamaica's most successful teams, the 1998 World Cup team, the 2017 and 2019 Gold Cup teams, which went to the final and semi-finals, respectively, had majority local-born players.
He noted that those teams produced the country's best performances on the international stage, and he believes a return to this philosophy will be crucial to the future success of the Reggae Boyz.
"I won't hide it. My original speech was written with hope swelling in my chest. I genuinely believed that tonight (Thursday) would be a celebration of Jamaica's qualification for the 2026 World Cup," he said.
"But football, like life, does not always give us the ending we dream of. And sometimes, the things that break us open are the things that make us stronger.
"But if we're honest, and we must be honest, we have drifted away from the people who give football its meaning.
"We ran a campaign where the people were not fully included. Some individuals around the movement placed personal priorities ahead of the nation's interests. And when the people are not engaged, football loses its oxygen," he told the gathering.
"What worked in our golden eras -- 1998, 2011, the Gold Cup finals in 2015 and (semi-finals) 2017 - the great moments that shaped our pride was not a foreign formula.
"It wasn't foreign voices. It wasn't foreign magic. It was Jamaica. It was community. It was unity, culture, and heart," Simpson remarked.
"There are lessons we abandoned that we must reclaim. We once trusted a strong local core. We once involved communities in the mission. Sponsors once joined because they believed in the vision, not because we begged. Every stakeholder once had a seat at the table.
"Our greatest strength was never imported. Our greatest strength has always been our people," he commented.
He pointed to track and field's example of how the national administration worked with local coaches and athletes to become the envy of the athletics world.
"Jamaica believed in Jamaicans. We trusted our own coaches, athletes, and systems and the world now studies us. That is what happens when a nation believes in itself.
"Football must adopt this philosophy. Because no foreigner understands our humour, our struggle, our rhythm, our pain, our brilliance, or our defiance more than we do."
Nevertheless, he maintains that the dream is not over, and they will go to the play-offs knowing they carry the hope of the nation with them.
"We did not get the result we wanted. But Jamaica is not a country that surrenders. Jamaica is a country that fights, rises, and believes again," Simpson said.
"Come March, trust me, We will rise. Football in Jamaica is spirit, it is pulse, breath, and prayer. It is identity, memory, and hope tightly woven into one. It is the beating heart of our people," he emphasised.
"As we prepare for March, We will go forward with discipline, we will go forward with unity.
"We will go forward with humility and purpose because we know exactly who we serve. We play for Jamaica. We represent Jamaica and we carry the dreams of Jamaica," he said.
