Clean Slate Protocol: What to expect from Hubert Busby Jr as he returns to coach the Reggae Girlz after his three-year exile
Today’s women’s football landscape in Jamaica is different yet familiar to the one Hubert Busby Jr knew three years ago.
There have been the highest of highs. The Senior Reggae Girlz despite being in their customary tug-of-war with the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), not only qualified for their second consecutive Women’s World Cup but shocked the world by advancing to the round of 16, the farthest any national team, men or women has ever gone in a global tournament.
There has also been the lowest of lows. That similar tug-of-war with the federation which continued during their unsuccessful bid to make the Olympics, led to a freeze out of the World Cup-based players for the Women’s Gold Cup qualifying campaign; A campaign that would end miserably, missing out on the inaugural competition.
Add in the Girlz' response to the fray, the JFF’s ‘demand’ for an apology for what was nothing more than hurt feelings Cedella Marley’s departure as Reggae Girlz ambassador and the long-term future of the women’s game in Jamaica turned sideways in the space of nine months.
Busby’s second coming as head coach of the senior Reggae Girlz, announced two weeks ago ahead of the team's first international window in six months is maybe the first step to trying to heal the wounds caused by mistrust, poor communication and politics.
His return comes with baggage as well. He was suspended in November 2021 after sexual misconduct allegations made by former Vancouver Whitecaps player Malloree Enoch while he coached the team between 2010 and 2011. Busby said in his introductory press conference on Wednesday that he had not commented publicly on the matter out of respect for the process but felt vindicated after the FIFA investigation cleared him of all allegations.
“I wish it on no one, but it is the past. I have said it was all a part of God’s plan. Sometimes you have to have faith and see things through,” Busby said. “It was a difficult time but it is in the past and it is important now to turn that page and sit in front of you knowing that vindication is there.”
The most important caveat is that his return, according to him has had the backing of not only the federation but also the players with whom he will be tasked to continue the work started last summer. It is a stark contrast to the situation that unfolded in Spain in the aftermath of winning the world title last summer. Not only did a significant number of players wanted their now former head coach Jorge Vilda to resign last year but also the former president of the federation Luis Rubiales reigned and was banned by FIFA after forcibly kissing World Player of the Year Jennifer Hermoso during the trophy presentation.
In this partial case, Jamaica Football Federation general secretary Dennis Chung believed that Busby’s reintroduction into the fold was justified with FIFA clearing him of wrongdoing.
“Do you convict somebody for an allegation that was not proven? You cannot do that. There has to be evidence that something was done. If something arises that points to evidence then certainly, the JFF will act, as it has always done in the past,” Dennis Chung JFF General Secretary said in a Gleaner interview last week.
With that chapter closed for now, he has his work cut out for him.
His return also coincides with the return of the majority of the World Cup players who were suspended as part of the ongoing rift between the team and the federation. All except for captain Khadija Shaw. She will have to wait for her own reunion with Busby as she recovers from a foot injury sustained during the latter part of Manchester City’s failed bid to win the Women’s Super League Title. They will be very familiar with Busby as some of them got their international debuts under him, including Page Bailey Gayle, Tottenham’s Drew Spence and goalkeeper Rebecca Spencer, the latter who won the starting job from Sydney Schneider and was instrumental in getting Jamaica to the round of 16.
The released squad of 23 also includes a handful of the young players from the Gold Cup campaign, players that Busby would have seen from his days with the youth programme and players who assistant coach Xavier Gilbert would have evaluated during his time as interim manager.
He won’t have to convince the players of the vision or his sincerity, but collectively they will have to show Jamaica that the old wounds have healed enough between team and federation to get on with the business of progressing further in the women's game.
Since their exploits in Australia, Jamaica’s world ranking has dropped from 37th, their highest-ever ranking, to 42nd due to their failed Women’s Gold Cup qualification. It doesn’t help that their first game back in the saddle is against world number 10 Brazil on June 1. A team that is preparing for the Olympics this summer. A team going through its own transition. And the team that Jamaica knocked out of the World Cup last summer.
Oh, and there's the small detail of Brazil hosting the next World Cup in 2027. So, plenty of motivation for Brazil to stamp their class.
The biggest goal that Busby sees to achieve during this cycle is to be a team that can set the tempo in games rather than relying on the grit and grind approach that resulted in them making history in Australia. That starts against Brazil on June 1 and again on June 4.
“We will take a foundation of our defending principles and all of the attributes of the players that we know we have and try to give them the best platform to be successful,” Busby Jr said. “It is really about laying those principles of not what is now but what it looks like in 2027. We were in a very tough group in the World Cup, arguably the group of death. So it meant that we had to play and advance in a certain way. But to take our football to the next level it means that we have to improve upon that as well. In order for us to want to be the provocateur and to take the games to teams, it means that we are going to lay down some of these principles that suit the attributes of a Jamaican player in these sorts of matches.”
That will be the problem Busby hopes to solve in the long term. In the short term however, given everything that has happened, can Busby say for sure that the civil war between the team and administration?
He hopes that a truce has finally been achieved.
“I have spoken to everyone coming into camp and it is a clean slate to come back in. Everyone is excited to start fresh. What is gone has gone by. We have looked past everything. It is a new dawn, a new cycle. I can't control what people think about the players, what they think about me, what they think about the federation,” Busby said. “But the most important one is that these players are focused on representing their country and their focus on being ambassadors for their country.”
How long that will last will be up to both parties to not necessarily forget, but forgive. It is the devil they know after all.
