Cayman’s exit from the World Cup qualifiers has sprung up lots of questions over whether the football programme is heading in the right direction.
Huta wants Cayman youths to be given more chance. |
Cayman lost 3-1 to Bermuda at the Truman Bodden Complex on Sunday night to go out 4-2 on aggregate.
One local coach who feels the selection process was deeply floored is Roy Huta, head coach of Future SC, the West Bay-based football club. Huta has dedicated himself to developing football talent on the island and he felt aggrieved that there were few Cayman-born players in the side against Bermuda.
Cayman were coached by the Jamaican technical director Carl Brown, who took the Reggae Boyz to the 1998 World Cup finals and is one of the most experienced and respected coaches in the Caribbean.
‘I’m not happy,’ Huta said. ‘If I go and watch my national team playing and I see at the end of the game only a couple of born-Caymanians representing the Cayman Islands, then a man who has been involved in the game for 35 years and been developing players until they become adults is bound to feel upset.
‘I don’t want you to think I am anti anybody, it’s just that I am pro Caymanian. The rest of the players were Caymanian through the legal way.
‘What I am saying for the future of the game in the Cayman Islands, if we are going to continue in our senior national game to field the ex-patriot players who come here to work and somehow they got a Cayman connection and the majority of our national side is made up of players, what message are we sending to coaches like myself who are developing youngsters for years who aspire to play for the national side?
‘But when they look at the senior national side, it is only made up of a tiny percentage of Caymanian born players. What message that is sending to us is that we are not good enough or people are desperate to win a one-off game so they can continue to promote themselves and further their agendas.
‘I am speaking as a former national coach of the Cayman Islands. I will state again, I am not anti foreigner but I am pro Caymanian. And I know as a man who has been a catalyst in the development of football for many years that there were other Caymanian players that could play much better than some who played against Bermuda. Ian Lindo, for example, was cut from the national side, I don’t know for what reason. He’s a good player.
‘What about all the kids who have played for our Under-20 and Under-23 teams? Why didn’t they get a chance? Our national team should be based around our Under-23 Olympic team that went to Cuba six months ago.
‘Even if they had been thrashed, look at what we would have gained further down the road in terms of having a group playing together for five years. All everybody is fighting for here is for short-term advantage, which is a reflection of what is happening today. We all want things instantly, like coffee and fast food.
‘Football is not that way. You cannot have the miracle coaches and think that somehow they’re going to turn around the programme.
Huta has no problem with Brown coaching Cayman. ‘I think Carl Brown has come with high international exposure and has been at the top level of the game through being the former coach of Jamaica and being to the World Cup, but at this present time I think we need a technical director who can put together a development programme based on bringing on the youngsters. I can’t put up my name for it because there’s too much politics involved.’
‘What is needed here is accountability because if you don’t you don’t get good performance. I know I may be a voice crying out in the wilderness, but it’s alright, I have to clear my conscience and I’m not afraid of the repercussions.
Related Videos
