The Reggae Boyz pose before their World Cup qualifier against Canada at the National Stadium on Wednesday evening. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

PRESIDENT OF the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), Captain Horace Burrell, has come out firing back at critics, saying that the failure of the Reggae Boyz to qualify for the final round of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying was not in the hiring of professor René Simoes but in the Brazilian not carrying out his functions.

Burrell was bombarded with questions by journalists at a press conference after the Reggae Boyz' match against Canada on Wednesday night, which they won 3-0 but failed to progress ahead of Honduras and Mexico.

He said hiring Simoes, who guided the team to a slew of poor results in the first half of qualifying, which all but eliminated the Boyz, was the right thing to do at the time, given the fact his predecessor, Bora Milutinovic, was not doing a good job

No regrets

"I would not say regrets. Professor had done a good job for us (in qualifying for the 1998 World Cup)," was the former army man's response to whether he had any regrets about hiring Simoes, who was fired midway the campaign. Naturally, he erred in terms of his team selections, because he wanted, and tried, to use some of the younger players, which obviously never worked, instead of going for our best players overseas, and it cost us in the end," he said.

"But, like everything else, you have to allow time, and, I thought, at the time, when professor was relieved of his responsibilities, was time enough. You couldn't have acted before because, in the eyes of everyone, it would have been seen as not giving him enough time to do his job. So, he got a chance, he got time and then we acted when we thought it was appropriate to do so.

What about Milutinovic?

"What is a certainty is that the JFF will not allow, again, any coach to come here and not call our overseas-based players. Naturally, we want to expose our local players, but we have to understand that, if you don't have your strongest team, chances are that you won't go forward," he explained.

But, what about Milutinovic, who was hired by the Crenston Boxhill-led administration in 2007, and, who, many argued, was not given a fair chance to prove his abilities with a full-strength national team?

Could he have done a better job than Simoes, given the fact that he had done what Simoes came and tried to do, to build a competent cadre of local-based players?

Burrell said this view was nonsensical and dismissed it as " rubbish".

"Utter nonsense. Rubbish," he said. "Bora has been here and if you look at the work Bora was doing and, if you were honest with yourself, you would realise that Bora was wasting time," he explained.

Did not do a good job

"Bora did not do what he came here to do as a technical director. He failed miserably and I don't think you need a rocket scientist to identify that. Mr Bora came here on a holiday, he never did a good job, and that is why my administration took a decision to fire him.

"I have absolutely no regrets. In fact, I am indeed extremely happy. And, again, Professor Simoes came here, failed to perform at the level that was expected of him, and he too was fired. So, there have been no compromises whatsoever," he declared.

The Boyz failed to qualify after Honduras defeated Mexico 1-0 in Honduras to top the group with 12 points, two more than Mexico and Jamaica, who both ended on 10. Mexico ended with a +3 goal difference whereas Jamaica ended with 0.

The Boyz will now turn their attention to the Digicel Caribbean Cup Finals, which will be held here next month. The championship is a qualifer for the region's premier championship, the Gold Cup, which will be held next year.

Feedback: jermaine.lannaman@gleanerjm.com

Burrell ... I have absolutely no regrets. - File