NATIONAL SENIOR team coach Thomas Jordan has been demoted, with former Barbados captain and stand-out midfielder Colin “Potato” Forde taking over as head coach.
Investigations by MIDWEEK SPORT reveal that this decision was taken at a Barbados Football Association’s (BFA) executive council meeting on Monday night, which was not attended by president Ronald Jones, who is overseas. The meeting was chaired by senior vice-president Sherlock Yarde, who is also chairman of the selection panel.
Numerous attempts to reach Yarde yesterday for a comment were unsuccessful.
Jordan, who presided over Barbados’ unsuccessful Digicel Caribbean Cup campaign last year when the team failed to make it past the first round, will now serve as assistant coach.
Forde, who has had a number of coaching stints with clubs, including Youth Milan and Pinelands, also coached the now defunct Lambada semi-professional outfit, alongside Englishman Kevin Millard.
Team restructuring
A fully English-qualified coach, Forde’s first assignment will be in the restructured 2014 World Cup home and away group qualifying phase, which is expected to kick off in either June or July.
A training squad, minus captain Norman Forde, who is still the best player in the country, and several other senior footballers, had been selected prior to the start of the 2011 BFA’s season but weren’t ratified.
It will be left to be seen whether Colin Forde, who ironically was serving a suspension handed out by the BFA’s Disciplinary Committee, will now request that the senior footballers be invited to national training.
Jordan was first appointed as head coach in 2008, taking over from Eyre Sealy after Barbados were eliminated from the World Cup qualifying tournament in the second round by the United States.
He immediately reaped success, playing unbeaten in their first-round group of the Digicel Cup in St Kitts and the team also emerged from the second round of qualification in Cuba unconquered when the Bajan Tridents held the host country to a 1-1 draw, beat Suriname 3-2 and the Netherlands Antilles 2-1 to qualify for the finals in Jamaica.
However, Barbados failed to win any of their three group matches in the final when they lost to Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada.
With the premature departure of technical director, Roberto Rodriguez of Argentina last year, Jordan was identified as the man to take Barbados’ football forward and was sent to Hungary for a three-month coaching stint.
On his return, Barbados drew with hosts St Vincent and St Kitts/Nevis and even though they trounced Montserrat 5-1, did not advance to the next stage of the Digicel Cup.
Fail to advance
The Bajan Tridents were locked in a three-way tie at the top of the group with Vincy Heat and the Sugar Boys but missed out on advancing because they had fewer goals than St Kitts in the clashes between the three teams.
In another change, council members Frank Gill and Terry Sealy will serve as team manager and assistant manager respectively, replacing Stephen Reid and Anthony Jordan.
Enreco Ramsay moves up from the Under-17 team as medic/trainer while the hard-working Antonio Brandford has predictably been retained as equipment manager.
However, no decision was taken on whether a new technical director would be appointed to assist Forde and Jordan. Long-serving coach Keith “Grell” Griffith has written the BFA since February last year, applying for the vacant post but despite sending a second letter last December, he is still awaiting a response from the association.
