The inside story of the sacking of the umbrella coach: The Jamaica Football Association owed wages and refused to buy tickets, and also said that local players are not bad either

Hupu, November 21st, TheAthleticUK Manchester United and team reporter Laurie Whitwell wrote the inside story of coach McLaren's dismissal from the Jamaican national team.

Former England coach and Manchester United assistant coach McLaren's next plan may only be revealed on the operating table.

The 64-year-old coach has been suffering from ankle arthritis for two years. Doctors recommended that he undergo joint replacement surgery, which will require a recovery period of four to six months. He underwent surgery last year, but even then he still needed to take steroids and painkillers while coaching Jamaica. McClaren's condition became more serious this summer when his assistant Paul Simpson left to coach the U.S. U16 national team. He lost his assistant and could not continue to lead the team in the Solidarity Cup, the first stage of World Cup qualifying and the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

McLaren prefers more active training with the players, but this puts a heavy strain on his body - during the past three international breaks, it was Ian Birchnall who replaced McLaren on the training ground to coach the team.

This partly explains why he chose to resign rather than lead the Jamaican team in the intercontinental play-offs in March. Jamaica was drawn against New Caledonia in the semi-finals. If they win this game, they will face the Democratic Republic of Congo in the finals to qualify for next year's North American Championship.

Of course, an important factor in the Englishman's rapid resignation was the estrangement between him and the fans. This disconnect gradually emerged against Curacao and exploded at the final whistle. Players got into altercations with fans and even police.

After that, it was very difficult to continue coaching. Thus, McLaren's coaching career in Jamaica came to an unexpected end.

While coaching Jamaica, McLaren's responsibilities went far beyond the selection of the team lineup. The people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their own interests, explained how McLaren's responsibilities extend to logistics. He has intervened on numerous occasions when players and staff needed to book and pay for flights and hotels.

In September, when the second phase of World Cup qualifying began, the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) informed players that they would no longer bear the cost of business class upgrades on flights to and from Jamaica. Previously, players' match winnings were enough to cover long-distance travel costs, but this benefit has been removed.

As a result, players had to pay additional costs out of their own pockets to ensure they could lie down and rest during long journeys.

On one occasion, the Jamaican Football Association initially opposed the call-up of Dujuan ‘Whisper’ Richards as a replacement for Demarai Gray, who left injured during training in October.

In the end, after agent Craig Butler paid for the air ticket, Richards flew to Curacao to join Jamaica the day before the game. He later got the money back from the Jamaica Football Association.

People close to the team said that the staff of the Jamaica Football Association lack the professional knowledge to apply for visas and plan routes, and sometimes change the itinerary multiple times in order to reduce costs.

Simpson (McLaren's former assistant) resigned in August, with financial issues also being the main reason for his departure. The Jamaican Football Federation initially owed Simpson salary, which was not reimbursed until he accepted an invitation to join the U.S. youth team.

McLaren worked with Richard Hartis at Manchester United for two years from 2022 to 2024, and invited him to join the World Cup preliminaries training camp to replace Simpson and serve as the second coach and goalkeeper coach at the same time, but the Jamaica Football Association refused.

So McLaren paid for Hartis’s flight and hotel expenses out of his own pocket. Hattis has not been paid yet.

The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) has accumulated huge debts over the past few years, which has affected its decision-making. If they qualify for the World Cup, these debts will cease to exist. FIFA has not announced the prize money for the 2026 World Cup, but in 2022, a total prize pool of $440 million (about £336 million at today's exchange rate) was distributed according to the progress of the 32 teams.

Since McLaren took charge of the Jamaica Football Association, its standards have improved, including upgrading training equipment and no longer using cricket pitches for training. But widespread adoption of football technology such as GPS tracking is still missing.

In addition, there are also internal political factors in the selection and selection of players. Senior figures have their own preferences and express them publicly, while rumors of some players violating curfews also occur.

Personal chef Ricardo Hepkins posted on Instagram after Tuesday's game that he saw three players lingering at the RawBar in Kingston at 2 a.m. on Sunday, just hours before training at 10 a.m. on Monday.

The Jamaica Football Association did not object to this in an interview with TheAthletic.

Mixing native-born Jamaican players with those recruited after years of living abroad is another challenge. McClaren had doubted whether local players in Jamaica were better than European players, but team insiders believe that if he could stay in Jamaica longer, he might be able to discover more potential players. McLaren usually flies to Jamaica from his home in Yorkshire a few days before training starts.