Pushing local footballers into the professional ranks!
That’s the goal of the Barbados Football Association (BFA) and its selection panel, says chairman Sherlock Yarde while explaining the rationale for sweeping changes to the national senior team for the upcoming World Cup qualifying campaign.
Captain Norman Forde and seven other players from the last Digicel Caribbean Cup squad were left out of a new-look 35-member squad which was unveiled at a press conference at the National Stadium, yesterday.
Three national Under-17 footballers Jabarry Chandler, Diquan Adamson and Akeem Maloney and a number of uncapped young footballers are among the invitees to be coached by former national captain Colin “Potato” Forde and his assistant Thomas Jordan.
“You can see there are a lot of changes in the guard. We are looking to expose a lot more younger players as a means of achieving individual and team success,” Yarde said.
“I think we are disappointed at not having any homegrown players playing professional football, and hence one of the aims of and objectives of the BFA and the selection committee is to get youngsters into the national team with the aim of breaking that barrier and getting players to be playing in the professional leagues of this world,” he said.
Yarde said while footballers from other Caribbean territories like Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia and Guyana could be seen on television playing major league soccer and in the English leagues, there were no Bajans.
“And we believe that we have players who have that ability to make it in the pro ranks, but they have to be given that opportunity, and hence the reason for the direction that we are taking the team,” he said.
“I can assure you in meetings that we have had with the management team, a new approach of running the team will be brought because we want to get the best out of these players to ensure that some way, sometime in the very near future, within in a year or two, that some of these players are playing professional football,” Yarde remarked.
Yarde, who is also the BFA’s senior vice-president and a former team manager, said the World Cup qualifiers, scheduled to kick off in June or July, is a perfect place to start the process.
“As you know, the World Cup qualifying is an attractive environment where scouts are present and if your team does well, then they can attract the necessary attention. You never know, they might see one or two guys within our set up that can make it and we think that with the present environment that would be created that we can break that barrier,” Yarde reasoned.
“And as a result of breaking that barrier, you would see an upliftment in the overall standard of football in Barbados because we believe that if one or two fellows make it, at least people will have that inspiration to follow suit,” he added.
Forde said he will be taking his new position very seriously as he tries to justify the confidence that the BFA has placed in him.
“Barbados’ football over the years, has had its difficulties in terms of performing to a maximum. Hopefully, I will be able to, with my experience and knowledge, to impart whatever I know to the young players.”
“This project is going to be a difficult one, but is one that I feel is achievable. We have a young management, we have the confidence of the BFA and it is now up to us, from the coaching staff to the management staff, to get the guys going in the right direction.”