Tony Becca

According to the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), its technical director, Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic, will be receiving US$1 million per year for services rendered to the country's football, and to almost every Jamaican, at least to those with whom I have spoken, even if that is all, that's a lot of money for a country so poor, financially, for a football coach.

Based on the task ahead of him, however, that may not be enough.

Regardless of what else he may be asked to do, regardless of what else he is supposed to do, his job is to qualify Jamaica for the next World Cup finals, that is what he will be judged by and that will be no easy task.

Hardly likely

According to some Jamaicans, regardless of the temptation to go overseas, Bora should stick with local-based players, and in its attempt to develop local football, if its priority is to develop local football, the JFF should tell him to do so.

That, however, is very unlikely to happen and it is very unlikely for a few simple reasons.

The first one is that a team of locally-based players hardly have the chance of a snowball in hell of qualifying for the next World Cup finals.

The second one is that Bora is here to get Jamaica qualified for the finals and will hardly turn his back on the overseas players who are exposed to a higher level of football.

The third one is that the JFF's interest at this time surrounds nothing but qualifying for the finals - at least so it appears, and as far as the players are concerned, it will hardly tell Bora what to do.

It stands to reason, therefore, that Jamaica's overseas players will be invited to make themselves available for selection and while nothing basically is wrong with that, apart from the cost of flying them in and out of Jamaica for each match, apart from paying them as professionals, there are two questions which must be asked: How will coach Bora deal with them and how will they fit into the team?

Based on past experiences, with the overseas players, and especially so those from Europe, coming in a day or two or may be three days before a match - and especially so during the qualifying matches, will there be enough time, for example, for Bora to coach them - for them to get to know him, for him to get to know them.

Fitting into the team

Most importantly, will there be enough time for the local players to get to understand how their overseas brothers play the game, and for the overseas players, not only to respect the local players and the coach, for the overseas players not only to appreciate the way the local players play the game, but for the overseas players to fit into the team - to understand not only the tactics and strategies for each match, but also the individual characteristics of each player?

Apart from the JFF's problem of finding the money to fund the participation of the overseas players, that must be the problem facing coach Milutinovic as he looks down the road and Jamaica's preparation for the qualifying matches leading up to the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.

With two such problems, plus that of getting the release of the overseas players from their clubs, remembering that the clubs pay the overseas players handsomely, that the players are owned by the clubs and obligated to the clubs to keep themselves injury free, plus that of motivating the overseas players to perform, the JFF, and Bora, may be well advised to stick with the local-based players, work hard, get them to work hard and hope for the best.