Bora upbeat
New TD expresses confidence in Boyz's chances for 2010 World Cup
BY IAN BURNETT Sport Editor
Friday, December 15, 2006
Serbian Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovich is confident that Jamaica's Reggae Boyz possess the talent to qualify for the FIFA World Cup Finals in South Africa in 2010, but he has asked for self-belief, respect, discipline and patience as he goes about building his team.
The 62-year-old Milutinovich was addressing an audience moments after being officially introduced by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) as the new technical director at the Jamaica Pegasus yesterday.
"I know I am not familiar with the players, but I know in Jamaica we are rich with the young players, they have the speed, they have the talent, and now I need to see them to make a better assessment of what we can do in the future.
"I am very optimistic, I think positively, I think we are going to do something important, the only question is that we need to have patience," he added.
In a jovial, but carefully worded response, Bora, seen as a magician due to his exploits at the World Cup Finals, said the real magic word in Jamaica is RESPECT. "We need to respect each other (in order to succeed)," he said. "We need to believe in the coach and everybody needs to believe in everybody. Discipline and the right attitude are also key elements of the building of a good team."
He added: "If you want to be a good team, for that you need to build team spirit, but to play good, you need to have normally good balance, you need to have good organisation... it is so simple to say it, but with time you can build it."
The coach, in the presence of a group of locally-based Reggae Boyz, hinted that players of all ages would get a chance to prove their worth in his set-up. "First, we have only two years to build the team, and my experience tells me it is not important your age, but what you can give the team. I always, in my teams, have one or two players over 30 years.
They give experience, they are the leaders in the field, there are so many things you need to analyse. If you are a good player, meaning technically, tactically, good team discipline., it is not important what age you have," he said.
"I laugh all the time, and I have sentiments, but when it comes to football, I am not sentimental. I take football seriously and I expect hard work from all my players."
Bora is initially seeking to identify about 22 locally-based players in the second week of January to add to the overseas-based players in an effort to build a quality pool of players for the campaign.
It was an elated JFF boss Crenston Boxhill who officially announced details of Bora's contract.
"The Jamaica Football Federation has signed a four-year contract with Mr Velibor "Bora" Milutinovich to be the technical director for the national football programme for the country," Boxhill said.
The contract, reportedly valued at US$1 million per year, took effect on November 16, 2006, the day after Bora watched the Boyz play out a 1-1 draw with Peru at the National Stadium. It will run through November 15, 2010.
The new TD's salary will be undertaken by the Government, in collaboration with private sector companies - Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS), Red Stripe, National Commercial Bank (NCB) and Digicel.
Other companies participating in the coach's overall package are General Motors and Courts.
But Air Jamaica, Life of Jamaica, Wisynco, PetCom, JUTC, Sports Development Foundation (SDF) and the Jamaica Observer are also primary sponsors of the JFF.
According to Boxhill, Bora - the only man to have coached five different teams at the World Cup Finals - Mexico (1986), Costa Rica (1990), the United States (1994), Nigeria (1998) and China (2002) - will have primary responsibility for the preparation of the national senior team for Jamaica's qualification for the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.
"In addition, and I stress, he will give overall guidance to the varying units of the national programme, some of which are in the final preparation stages of World Cup qualification," added the JFF boss.
Since his appointment, Bora has visited games at the national and local levels of the sport, including the National Premier League, Super League and the school level. He has also performed international duties, visiting Europe on a trip to the Far East recently, where he met with a number of the overseas-based players after watching them in action.
"The federation is extremely pleased with this appointment and considers it of fundamental and strategic importance to the development of the game in Jamaica," continued Boxhill.
"We are first of all pleased because of the incomparable international experience, knowledge, technical expertise and accomplishments that he brings to this new assignment. We are secondly very pleased with the appointment because of important components to the agreement. In particular, we are happy that the technical director has agreed to work very closely in the initial two years with our local coaches. We wish again to note that his willingness to do this was highly influential in the federation's decision to hire coach Milutinovich."
President Boxhill also used the opportunity to publicly acknowledge the input of former head coaches Carl Brown and Wendell Downswell, as well as all national coaches at all levels.
The JFF boss also hinted that it might not have been the last of Brown at the national level.
"It certainly was not the first and I have the strange and pleasant feeling it would not have been the last time, when Carl would have given of his experience in the interest of the national football programme."
Downswell, too, could form part of Bora's support staff, as the new TD is set to meet with as many of the local coaches as possible this afternoon. The coach, through a process to be decided by himself and the federation, will select his local support staff. Bora will also meet with the technical committee this morning.
Meanwhile, representatives of the main sponsors - Air Jamaica, Digicel, Red Stripe, Jamaica National and NCB - welcomed Bora and reassured the TD and the nation of their commitment to the FRi "Back to Africa" campaign.
