How Mauritanian football should be an example for Jamaica

“MAURITANIA
A country largely covered by desert.
In 18 years, i.e between 1995-2003, they never won a single football match.
In 2010, they withdrew from AFCON qualifiers due to financial crisis.
By 2011, they were ranked  207th by FIFA, practically the poorest football country in the world.
Then in 2011, their Federation voted Ahmed Yahya as FA President.
He restructured the league. Set up youth teams. Got the country’s biggest Telcom to sponsor the league. Player salaries fixed.
By 2014, they won their first away game in history, beating Liberia.
They used €10m FIFA Goal Project funds and renovated their national stadium.
Build an ultra modern Headquarters.
Built a Training Complex with hotel rooms and TV/Radio studio.
Camped U-15 team in the complex and started a youth development program.
To help their youth teams compete, they have been hosting Barcelona and PSG academies in regular friendly games.
On his tour of Africa, FIFA President Infantino praised Mauritania as one of the few African countries with proper accountability of the FIFA funds.
By 2019, they qualified for their first AFCON.
2021, qualified for the second AFCON the squad including some of the Youth players they developed from 2015.
In 2023, qualified for third AFCON.
Today, they won their first AFCON game, beating almighty Algeria.”

The above comes courtesy of Saddick Adams, speaking during the AFCON (African cup of nations) international football tournament that took place in the Ivory Coast (and won by the hosts) from January-February. The Mauritanian story of success, as admirable as it is, casts the fortunes of football associations (FAs) such as Jamaica’s (the JFF) in a bad light. During that historically bad run where Mauritania failed to win a football match, Jamaica had qualified for their first ever World Cup in 1998, and outdid several debutant nations even to this day, by winning a match (2-1 vs Japan). One would think the country would press on from that, reaching new heights in the quarter century that followed. Alas, this is not the case as Jamaica has failed to qualify for any subsequent World Cups, while other nations who were behind them from a footballing standpoint in 1998 have (such as Trinidad and Tobago in 2006 and Canada in 2022). In fact, the team they beat in 1998, Japan, was also making their tournament debut, but had since gone on to play in every World Cup since (they were joint hosts In 2002) and even have qualified out of their group on 4 occasions. The main argument that has popped up when comparing Japan and Jamaica is that the former has a population of over 120 million people and has one of the world’s strongest economies, while the latter has around 3 million people and an absolutely minuscule economy in comparison. The story of Mauritania has completely negated that argument, as they had a population of around 4.2 million in 2023, and had a completely broke FA. FIFA, as questionable as the organization may be at times, has offered several smaller (in footballing and economic terms) nations aid. As stated by Mr. Adams, it was one of the few times that FIFA president Gianni Infantino found there to be proper accountability of the funds donated in Africa. I believe this ‘accusation’ should extend to the Caribbean, where there seems to be an extreme lack of accountability as well. Of course, back in 2011 the whole region was rocked when CONCACAF president Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago was implicated in a corruption scandal, which eventually led to his resignation and then permanent ban from all football related activities. That in itself is another story, but the point is there is a history of corruption in the region, and the lack of development despite investment is further proof of this, as the talent is certainly there. The issues sadly are not even restricted to the men’s game, as the history making Reggae Girlz from Jamaica are having an ongoing pay dispute from the 2023 Women’s world cup, and still are yet to be paid according to the players. As a result, Jamaica’s women’s program has taken a massive step back over the past few months, only able to field what must be at best, their ‘C’ team.
The talent is there, and the blueprint, as set out by Mauritania, is there. If such a footballing minnow (even relative to Jamaica’s average at best status) can rise to such heights, what can Jamaica accomplish with proper management and investment? One would think qualification for the next World Cup would be just the beginning.