Premier League star Leon Bailey announced a few days ago that he will not participate with the Jamaican national team in the Copa América 2024, due to multiple lack of commitment from the Jamaican Football Federation. This would not be the first controversy that this federation has been involved in.
The 26-year-old attacker has just had an amazing season at Aston Villa, scoring 14 goals and giving 14 assists, but he did not hesitate to show his discontent against his federation. In an interview given to the media Let’s Be Honest, he accused the entity of a lack of professionalism: “There is not even adequate sports equipment. “When you get to the sports center, the only thing they give you is a t-shirt.”
Leon made his debut for Jamaica’s senior national team in June 2019 and became a key player for the team, leading the Reggae Boyz to the Gold Cup semi-finals twice. It was not only the lack of professionalism that ended up exhausting Bailey’s patience, but also the delay in payments: “A lot of people don’t know that most of the time I book my own flights to come represent Jamaica (. ..) I don’t remember the last time I received a single dollar from the Federation.”
THE WOMEN’S TEAM PAID FOR THEIR OWN TRIP
This is not the only controversy in which the Jamaican Football Federation has been involved, since the players of the Women’s National Team had to finance their trip to the 2023 Women’s World Cup and did not receive payment on time for their historic participation, in their At the time they stated that: “We have had to deal with this lack of communication, poor organization, poor management and delayed payments from the Federation for a long time.”
The Caribbean team will compete in its third Copa América, forming part of group B, where it will face the teams of Mexico, Venezuela and Ecuador. Without its main figure, the Jamaican team relies on other outstanding players such as Michail Antonio, Shamar Nicholson and Bobby Decordova-Reid to be able to have a good performance in the oldest national team tournament in the world.