by PHILIP SPOONER in Grenada

By the end of this month, Barbados’ football will have its much-talked-about technical director, and he will be Brazilian.

According to Ronald Jones, the Barbados Football Association (BFA) president, they have already earmarked a few candidates on a short-list and the man for the job should take up the post shortly.

No names were revealed, but whoever he is will have the task of restoring the game on the island to the heights of the 1970s.

One name which springs to mind is Jorge Ramos, the man who held the same post in Barbados in the 1980s. Another is Rene Simoes, who took Jamaica to the 1998 World Cup in France.

“By the end of this month, we should have our technical director on board bearing in mind the resources being made available by the Promotion of Arts and Lottery Fund,” Jones said during the launch of the US$1 million Digicel Caribbean Cup on Sunday at the Queen’s Park Stadium.

“We had an initial draw-down of $25 000 to start this and the person is likely to be a Brazilian. We have been able to identify some people and we have been having communication with them, bearing in mind the proposals that we have made to them. And we have seven very good people,” he said.

The director will be responsible for football at all levels on the island, and will work alongside the various national coaches.

“One would hope that coming out of the technical knowledge and expertise of the technical director, all our coaches on the island will be able to grow over time. We are looking at four years in the first stage which would take us from these World Cup qualifiers into the Digicel Cup and onward as we seek to improve our profile in the Caribbean,” said Jones.

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