Well done Clovis, A Jamaica Brazilian Coach By Conroy Julian

History was certainly not on the side of Technical Director Clovis De Oliveira when he took charge of what he calls the Reggae Boys Project, after a frantic search by the Jamaica Football Federation, JFF, to find a replacement for his predecessor Professor Renee Simoes. One can recall that a former Brazilian National, Coach, Sabastio lazaroni got the job but lasted for only two months complaining that he had found it difficult to assemble a viable squad of players for training and practice games due to the club commitment of key players. The records show that he lost about five games then bolted. Clovis, a protg of Renee Simoes, was placed in charge of the team which participated in the Fifa 17 youth world cup in New Zealand in 1999. He was initially overlooked as a worthwhile replacement for Simoes. The road to South Korea and Japan was certainly in shambles and Captain Horace Burrell had to find a Coach ,and find one fast. He was one who did not need much time to acclimatize culturally but mainly to deal with the nuance of the country as he had spend a couple years on the Island as one of Simoes side kicks.. Clovis got a better start in terms of results than Simoes and lazaroni winning his early practice games and became immensely popular with the highly critical local football fraternity. It was mooted that he was an attacking coach and had a better relationship with the players than Simoes. Big striker Onandi Lowe became a transformed player moving from being a defender under Simoes to the main striker for Clovis. Apart from Mexico and the United States no other Concacaf team has qualified for two consecutive World Cups. Cuba, 1938, Haiti, 1974, Honduras 1982 and Costa Rica in 1990 and is now assured of returning next year. The truth is that the Reggae Boyz Project lost momentum after the team qualified for the final round of the qualifying competition and never regained it except for beating Trinidad, a team which has been beaten by all of the teams at this stage. Corporate Jamaica loved Renee Simoes as his elegant deportment fits in with international business ethics and could easily pass as a fortunate 500 executive or stock trading Guru on Wall Street. He came across as an elegant Didactic motivational speaker not withstanding his Portuguese influenced English accent. The little professors image certainly helped him to convince the movers and shakers to give him the tools he needed to do the job. This allowed him to win on all fronts, including the meteoric rise of the Reggae Boyz up the Fifa World Rankings ladder, being declared the Best Mover in 1996. The compensation package of Simoes became a public issue which outraged him and he took on his detractors, all and sundry including journalists. In addition to regular appearance on the electronic media he also wrote in the press.

It is now a moot point whether or not the remuneration for the National Coach should still be an issue in the press or is it that the Federation has done a good public relations Job in disseminating information about the nature of the job and it is now well understood by all the stakeholders. Is it that Cloviss salary was much less than Simoes and therefore could not attract the attention of the probing press. Our source says it was a bargain basement price, so the Federation got what it paid for. We could add that Simoes had a much larger technical staff, many of them from Brazil. It is indeed sad to see Clovis go in this unceremonious manner, being fired early in the morning on foreign soil like a pre-dawn military strike, by former Army Captain and JFF President, Captain Horace Burrell. The buck stops with Burrell and a man has to do what a man has to do. The life of a Coach/Manager is totally dependent on results, well the Under 20 team went to the World Cup in Argentina under his tenure. Cloviss quick departure is ample proof that our expectations have hit the roof. How many great coaches will be lining up at the Federation office in New Kingston to party with the Reggae Boys. The country still needs a good one, because football is big business. Lets spend the next four years and build the infrastructure including ten stadiums. Clovis if you really love the reggae beat you may want to find a job with a local club. Well done Clovis.