John Barnes

John Barnes, head coach of the Reggae Boyz, said on Tuesday that the terms and conditions of his contract with the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) do not make it possible for him to fully commit himself to being in the island.

Responding to questions posed by the media at the end of the launch of Digicel's second staging of its Kick Start Clinic, of which he is the chief convenor, Barnes slammed his critics by explaining that his current contract, which ends in July, does not allow him to relocate his family to Jamaica and, as such, he has had to be balancing his time accordingly.

Short-term arrangement

"It's a short-term arrangement until the end of July," the former Liverpool and England international explained. "The terms of my current contract are to prepare and coach the team for international games, and not necessarily to be here in Jamaica performing other duties.

"For this to happen, it would mean that I would have had to relocate my family from England, which at the time the JFF could could not afford to fund.

"But having said that, I am and have always been willing to relocate my family here full-time for, say, two to three years, so as to make myself fully available. However, until that happens, my focus right now is to prepare the team as best as possible for the Gold Cup," he added.

Meanwhile, as it relates to next month's Gold Cup, Barnes said he was looking forward to the event as, based on Jamaica's strong finish to the semi-final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers late last year, where in a failing effort they defeated Mexico, Canada and Honduras at home, he was expecting great things.

"We will be looking to win the Gold Cup as I believe we have what it takes to be the best in the region. However, in order to do so we have to be consistent from start to finish, and first and foremost play to qualify from the first round and into the quarter-final round.

"Also, I hope to use the championship to demonstrate that we had what it took to make it to the final six of the CONCACAF World," he said.