21/02/2019
The Bahamas will have a chance to improve on poor results as they play Turks and Caicos in a friendly match, and Dominica in the final match of 2018-2019 Nation's League play.
The Bahamas started off Nation's League play with three dismal results. Two losses against Belize and Antigua and Barbuda, as well as a draw with minnows Anguilla, ensure that The Bahamas maintains its position as the last place ranked team in FIFA's men's football rankings.
The absence of a qualified technical director and National team head coach calls into question the ability of those persons to make proper, independent decisions. Bahamas Football Report understands that Nesley Jean, who scored the Bahamas' only goal thus far in Nation's League play, is acting as head coach.
In BFR's opinion, Jean has the potential to be a qualified coach if he goes and gets more licenses, qualifications and experience. As it stands, he will only serve as a BFA puppet. If he does anything short of that he will likely find himself in the bad books.
The question right now is whether Jean will be able to select the team that he wants heading into March's matches against Turks and Caicos and Dominica. Back in May 2018, the BFA released a 40 man list of players invited to try out for the national team. Most of the players were under the age of 20, several under the age of 18. It was clear to any honest observer that the pool of players were too young, lacked experience, and would have made a great pool if the competition was u20 or u23. Instead, these developing footballers were thrusted into international men's competition, where many of them even lacked experience at the u17 national level. BFR thinks the BFA executive has had too heavy a hand in the selection of national teams. BFR also believes that national team spots are used to bribe players into silence because if they speak out they will be excluded by the BFA.
The Bahamas played Turks and Caicos twice in 2011 and beat them 10-0 on aggregate. Unlike the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos has recorded a win in Nation's League play. They beat St. Vincent and the Grenadines 3-2 back in November.
Turks' recent positive result may not be an accident. They have a head coach with NCAA Division one coaching experience, and they've just hired a slew of Jamaican coaches to guide the country's football program. Included in that recently engaged group of Jamaicans is a former u17 Reggae Boys coach. To put things into perspective, The Bahamas' technical director is a former P.E. teacher with no international coaching experience.