Jamaica’s Women’s World Cup Squad Want A Better Treatment

The Reggae Girlz Of Jamaica

The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup was one of the thrilling competitions with many surprises. Jamaica was one of a handful of the countries who pulled some of these surprises.

It’s two months away when the competition reached a conclusion, yet the Jamaican players are not content with how they’re being treated back home. The history making Jamaican players are overwhelmed in a damaging crisis and are refusing to play for their country in upcoming internationals.

In a statement shared on social media at the end of the week by senior members from the 2023 World Cup team, including Captain Allyson Swaby and star striker Khadija Shaw, the players being referred to said they were taking a “exceptional position” trying to end “mistreatment” from their national governing body.

Bob Marley instilled a love of soccer in his daughter, Cedella. Now she’s changing the lives of women and girls in Jamaica. Meanwhile, members of the World Cup squad, the statement read, were still waiting for correct payments for their performances at the tournament and accused the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) of poor management.

The statement additionally blamed the JFF for “amateurish communication” and said players just found out about their new coach Xavier Gilbert through social media. Gilbert was an assistant to the former coach Lorne Donaldson.

“We have dealt with this lack of communication, poor organization, poor management, and delayed payments from the JFF time and time again,” said the statement, which was signed “With Love, Your Reggae Girlz.”

“For these reasons, we take our stance in solidarity with hope to end this cycle of mistreatment.”

In a statement posted on its website, the JFF said it suspended any “selection of the players in question” until contractual issues had been resolved.

“The JFF is uncomfortable with the response of the players and the non attendance of the player representatives to a scheduled meeting today,” said the statement.

“The JFF is eager to clear up all the concerns that team members may have in accordance with the contracts. If there is a grievance or concern, this must be placed squarely on the table to be addressed and documented to the JFF.”

Meanwhile, Jamaica isn’t the first team from this year’s Women’s World Cup to clash with its football governing body following a competition which set participation standards and saw new stars and teams emerge.

The Spanish national team, which won the competition for the first time, put on a unified front during an embarrassment which caught the attention of the world, forcing the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) into sweeping changes in the wake of then president Luis Rubiales’ unwanted kiss on star player Jennifer Hermoso during the medal ceremony.

Jamaica Earns First-Ever Victory At The FIFA Women’s World Cup

Many of Spain’s World Cup-winning squad had boycotted subsequent games to enforce changes to the governing body. After weeks of fierce criticism, Rubiales resigned and former head coach Jorge Vilda lost his job. Many of the players, including Hermoso, have since agreed to represent their country again.

Jamaica made its own history at the World Cup, becoming the first Caribbean nation ever to reach the knockout phase of the tournament.

The team is set to play Concacaf Gold Cup qualifying matches against Panama on October 25 and Guatemala on October 29.

On Saturday, the JFF announced an inexperienced squad for the team’s upcoming fixtures, missing many of its key players.

Only six of the 23 players called up for the two matches have previously represented the national team at senior level, according to the Jamaica Gleaner.

“While this has been one of the hardest decisions we have had to make, we feel it is necessary to take such a drastic stance to put an end to the constant mistreatment we receive from the Jamaica Football Federation,” the statement from the players read.

It added:

“We have yet to receive full and correct payments for our historical performances at the World Cup and the numerous outstanding bonuses for qualifying in the summer of 2022,” the statement said.

For the first time, FIFA announced in June 2023 that, about $49 million of the record $110 million Women’s World Cup prize cash would go straight to individual players – something like $30,000 each for partaking and $270,000 to every player on the winning team.

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For quite a long time, Jamaica’s Women’s team has fought for better funding and working conditions. The team was disbanded in 2008 and 2016 due to underfunding, however despite everything – and with the assistance of financing from Bob Marley’s daughter, Cedella – Jamaica qualified for its very first World Cup in 2019.

Ahead of the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, a significant number of the first-team squad wrote an open letter to the JFF communicating their “most extreme frustration” in what they depicted as “disappointing” conditions during their World Cup preparations.

In a statement on its website at the time, the JFF acknowledged that “things have not been done perfectly.”

Despite issues off the field, Jamaica’s players once again defied expectations this year by making it through a World Cup group that contained France, Brazil and Panama on their way to making history.

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