 Welcome back to the Sportsman's Zone. We start with the football and news breaking earlier on Friday. The Jamaica Football Federation, GFF, announced via a press release that the contract of senior women's head coach, Lauren Donaldson, will not be renewed. Donaldson's contract expires on Saturday, September 30. The GFF says the decision was mutual. The Jamaica Football Federation and coach Lauren Donaldson had a meeting to discuss his contract as the senior women's team coach, which comes to an end on September 30, 2023. After an extended discussion, both parties came to an agreement that the contract would not be renewed. Onto being appointed in June 2022, Donaldson led the reggae girls to their second consecutive World Cup where he marshaled the team to the knockout phase of the competition. The release from the GFF goes on to say, a plan will be in place to facilitate the reggae girls' qualification for the inaugural women's gold cup. The GFF is cognizant that the reggae girls will be involved in CONCACAF women's gold cup qualifying in less than a month. We will immediately put the machinery in place to have competent staff in place for this important competition. Of course, as we should and of course we have trying to get in touch with Lauren Donaldson or an executive of the Jamaica Football Federation. But no luck so far this afternoon, but Mariah and Lance, this matter must be discussed. Of course it has come up on this show in the past week as we build up to the Olympic qualifying tie against Canada. And here we are with confirmation coming from the Jamaica Football Federation that Lauren Donaldson will no longer be the women's team head coach. And it's news Ricardo as you said, we discussed when we were getting ready for these matches against Canada. For me I will say I was, I'm not surprised, I am disappointed but I'm not surprised. And I'm not surprised because of how the events led up to this. As I said before he has been speaking out, he spoke about some of the things that he wished would have been done differently. And the moment I saw those articles coming to light before the matches, I felt as if something did not sit very well. Something was brewing and I guess this is where the news has come to hand now. Lauren Donaldson is a coach. I've had the opportunity to interact with going to the reggae girls' matches. I've listened to some of the girls' soundbites about his relationship with the team and I felt that personally he has been on the right track. It's unfortunate that the girls has not gotten the results that we want and when we think about results we want to see wins. That's all the fans care about and the people that support the team. However, we have to remember when you get a new team, it takes time to create a winning culture. It takes consistency and Kosh has always spoken about the fact that the girls didn't get the practice matches that they wanted. They didn't get the opportunities that he would want for camps and all these different things. So I always have an issue when the coach is the first one to go without people considering there are so many different things that happen behind the scenes. So one, I'm disappointed that he has to go. But two, I'm also happy that he spoke out just to give us an insight into some of the things that he would have wanted before he left. Well, it's obvious that there are a lot of things going on that we don't know the details of. But it is clear that there was a strained relationship between Lorne Donaldson and the members of the Jamaica Football Executive. And I would suspect that that has led to this position that we are now in where his contract is not being renewed. Because Lorne Donaldson, as you said Mariah, has been outspoken about things that he thought weren't going in the right direction. And usually administrators don't like their employees speaking with that kind of narrative. But it's usually disappointing because it is clear to me that this is not a footballing decision. Because his performance as coach has been exemplary. In fact, the performance of the reggae girls at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand could easily be ranked as the greatest ever achievement. But any football team out of Jamaica has achieved. And given the fact that football is such a competitive global event, a Jamaica team going to the World Cup and getting to the round of 16 is a tremendous success. And even though there was huge disappointment that they lost to Columbia and didn't make it into the quarterfinals, I don't think anyone could honestly say that the coaching staff and the performance of the reggae girls at the World Cup was anything short of outstanding and beyond expectations. So it is very harsh for the public, I think, to accept months after that kind of performance that the coach goes. And we are getting a release that says it was an agreement after the two met regarding the continuation of his contract. Unfortunately, as Ricardo said, we haven't been able to get Lorne Donaldson. We have tried repeatedly to get him here. We're not getting through to him. And we are not getting any comments from the JFF as well outside of the press release that we got. But it is hugely disappointing to me that a major story like this comes up and we are not getting an immediate opportunity to talk to the principals and hear exactly what happened. Because as we said on the face of it, Lorne Donaldson has been a hugely successful coach. So if his contract isn't renewed, it just sounds like a non-footballing decision. Yeah, I completely agree with you, Lorne. So about it being a non-footballing decision, you spoke about the World Cup campaign. Let's also not forget that in June 2022, when Lorne Donaldson took over this team, it was at a point when we were weeks away from World Cup qualifying. Remember that Vin Blaine had been removed as the head coach after complaints came from the players. And Lorne Donaldson stepped in. That was a critical time for Jamaica's women's football. And Lorne Donaldson was able to guide the team through that period and get the team to qualify for the World Cup. Then the historic qualification to the round of 16 at the World Cup. And following that, two of the best performances we have ever seen for a Jamaica women's team against Canada. Canada, reigning Olympic champions, top ranked team in the world of women's football. And Jamaica 2-0, losing to them in Kingston and then 2-1 in Toronto. Although they ended in defeats, those were two outstanding performances from the regular girls. And I don't know if realistically and honestly anyone could say that there was a genuine expectation that the regular girls would have beaten Canada in those Olympic qualifying matches. So when you put the performances together, it is clear that the non-renewal of the contract for Coach Lorne Donaldson, it is very clear that it has nothing to do with football. And it has, in my opinion, everything to do with the relationship between Donaldson and the Jamaica Football Federation. Now, here's the thing, Lance and Mariah, we have seen this release from the Jamaica Football Federation. And in this release, the Jamaica Football Federation has said that both parties came to an agreement to not renew the contract. There are so many questions though, because you want to know in the lengthy discussions that the Jamaica Football Federation spoke about in the press release, what were those discussions about? I would love to hear what the Jamaica Football Federation had to say to Lorne Donaldson. Did they say to Lorne Donaldson, Lorne, you have done a fantastic job with this team. We see the direction that this team is going. We think it's the right direction and we want you to stay on. Was that the type of discussions that were being had in that meeting? Or was it a case of we didn't like ABC, we didn't like these things that happened in the summer, we didn't like all these off the field issues? So I have to wonder, because as far as I'm concerned, I would like to think that based on everything that he's achieved, Lorne Donaldson would have wanted to stay on as national team head coach. And if Lorne Donaldson wanted to stay on as national team head coach, then what would the Jamaica Football Federation have said to this man that would have led him to the conclusion to side with the JFF and say, well, it's best with part ways. And that's the part of the meeting that I want to hear about. Mr Dennis Chum, Mr Michael Ricketts, the JFF president, if indeed he was even in the meeting, Mr Michael Ricketts, or whoever was in the meeting or from the man himself, Lorne Donaldson. One of the things you said is you would like to know the contents of the meeting. The first thing I would ask is how long was this lengthy meeting? I want to know if it was an ongoing number of meetings. Was it just, hey, welcome to my office, let's have this, you know, we're done, five minutes, ten minutes. So I would want to start by asking the duration of the meeting. Another thing I wanted to add is that I have an issue with this culture of sacking coaches before competitions. I have an issue with that because we have to remember, when Ben Blaine was sacked, we were getting ready for a competition. Now Lorne Donaldson is sacked, we're getting ready for Gold Cup. I think the only people that suffer because of this, and remember, when the fans judge these players on their performances, they don't ever take into consideration that these ladies are now entering a new football culture. They have new rules, new coaching strategy, new tactics, nobody ever talks about that. They just talk about how bad the team did because, well, they're looking at the results. I think football suffers and the players suffer when we make rash decisions like this. The point has to be made though, that when Vin Blaine was replaced by Lorne Donaldson, Vin Blaine had been undefeated with a team and it was the girls that had a problem with him, so that is how Lorne Donaldson became the coach. So the circumstances of Vin Blaine ending as a coach to Lorne Donaldson ending as a coach appear to be vastly different. Yeah, very much the case, Lance, very much the case. The only similarities that both were successful and both have lost their jobs. And I agree with Mariah here though. So maybe if you lost, you'd keep a job? Yeah, I agree with Mariah here though because I think we can't continue in a situation where you are sacking coaches weeks and months ahead of important tournaments. The Konkukaff Gold Cup Qualifying Tournament is a highly important event. It's weeks away. You cannot begin to imagine, Lance and Mariah, how it would feel as if we have taken 10 steps back if the regular girls having done what they did at the Women's World Cup ended up not qualifying for the Konkukaff Gold Cup next year. And don't forget, they are in a tough group with Panama. Yes, we beat Panama, the regular girls beat Panama at the World Cup. Guatemala is in that group as well. Guatemala has recently defeated Panama. So you would suspect those matches will not be easy and they are a matter of weeks away. I just think that maybe, maybe the Jamaica Football Federation should have considered keeping Lauren Donaldson on even for another month or two to get those matches out of the way in Gold Cup qualifying and then make a decision beyond that. But again, if we are right and this decision was less about football and more about other matters, then I guess I understand why the rush. But Ricardo, we just have to take into consideration. They did say it was a mutual agreement from the press release. Yes, but at what point? At what point did it become mutual? That's the question I'm asking. Yeah, so maybe Coach, and I'm just saying because we don't know, we're trying to get on to the people that will make us know. Maybe Coach got so fed up of asking for the things that he wanted and he felt as if there was no solution. But that would mean, Mariah, that the conversation started on the wrong tone and then went down the wrong line from there. Because if on the part of the JFF, you start the conversation on the right line, then I don't think you end up there. Yeah, there's actually a report going around at the moment in the last few minutes suggesting that Lauren Donaldson has refuted the JFF report that it was a mutual decision. That it was a mutual decision or that it was a lengthy discussion? I'm just seeing that it wasn't mutual from what Lauren Donaldson is saying. This is unconfirmed but it is something going around now that Lauren Donaldson has refuted the narrative that it was a mutual agreement. And as I'm suggesting to you, Lance and Mariah, maybe at some point it was mutual. If I'm in a meeting with you, Lance, and I'm saying, I think this is the direction and you're saying something completely different. There's going to come a point where one of us will say, you know what, let's agree to disagree. If you agree to disagree, is that mutual or are you just frustrated and can't be bothered anymore so you're moving on with your life? I think Lauren Donaldson wanted to stay on as reggae girls head coach and everything we have about this discussion must have that as the starting point that Lauren Donaldson wanted to stay on as national women's coach. On a point of accuracy though, the word neutral wasn't used in the press release was it? No, they both agreed. Which means the same thing. They both agreed not to renew the contract. They both agreed, reached an agreement. Yes, which again, before you reached that agreement, you had discussions according to the GFF in lengthy. I can't wait to hear how long this lengthy discussion was. But yes, I also want to know what the GFF was saying to Lauren that would have him move from a position of, I would like to remain as national team head coach too. Well, you know what, maybe you're right, let's go our separate ways. Well, Lauren Donaldson, we're trying to call you. We'd love to have you on the Sportsmax zone. We want to hear about that discussion. We've also got some reports that the meeting lasted only five minutes, which I'm seeing here coming through. Lance has some sources. Unconfirmed, but that is what we're hearing. We have to hear from Lauren Donaldson because something isn't right here. As I said at the top of the show, I'm sure Lance Donaldson wanted to continue in the job. And we want to talk to him, but we have to go, Ricardo. The only thing I will say, Lauren, we have a new beautiful set here at Ocean Boulevard. It's cool. It's nice. It's beautiful. It's seeds four or five. You can bring a member of the Jamaica Football Federation with you. Let's sit down and have a chat on Monday. Yeah.