Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

is one of the most popular sports in

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

. It introduced to the country by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

colonialists by the end of the 19th century and quickly took hold.

Early History

In 1893, the Kingston Cricket Club, which was founded in 1863 by the elite of the colonial society, founded the first football team. Two years later, nationwide newspapers report about women's football for the first time. Between 1925 and 1932, a Jamaican men's national team was formed and played a number of friendlies, mostly against neighbors Haiti. These matches were usually played at

Sabina Park Sabina Park is a cricket ground and the home of the Kingston Cricket Club, and is the only Test cricket ground in Kingston, Jamaica. History Sabina Park was originally a Pen (urban residence and adjoining land of a wealthy merchant, shopkeep ...

, the main cricket ground of the island. In the following years, female football clubs started to form in Kingston, playing a first match in the same stadium in November 1935 to raise funds for charities. In the coming years, women's football started to outgrow men's football on the island and reached the cities of

Spanish Town Spanish Town ( jam, label=Jamaican Creole, Panish Tong) is the capital and the largest town in the parish of St. Catherine in the historic county of Middlesex, Jamaica. It was the Spanish and British capital of Jamaica from 1534 until 1872. Th ...

Montego Bay Montego Bay is the capital of the Parishes of Jamaica, parish of Saint James Parish, Jamaica, St. James in Jamaica. The city is the fourth-largest urban area in the country by population, after Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, Spanish Town, and Por ...

Port Antonio Port Antonio is the capital of the parish of Portland on the northeastern coast of Jamaica, about from Kingston. It had a population of 12,285 in 1982 and 13,246 in 1991. It is the island's third largest port, famous as a shipping point for b ...

and

Saint Ann's Bay Saint Ann's Bay is a settlement in Jamaica, the capital of Saint Ann Parish. It had a population of 10,961 at the 1991 census. Musicians Floyd Lloyd and Burning Spear, and Marcus Garvey were born in the town. History When Christopher Columbus ...

, attracting more fans than the men did and igniting public debates about the need for a nationwide league for women. Starting from the 1940s, there is no further reporting on women's football, suggesting that

Jamaica Football Federation The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) is the governing body of football in Jamaica and is in charge of the Jamaica national football team and the Jamaica National Premier League. History Early history (1893–1962) According to the JFF, th ...

might have followed the English FA and officially banned the sport for women. It is unknown if men played football at that time on the island, but by 1952 a Jamaican men's representative team again played internationally, organising an entire series against a Caribbean All Stars team. Under the leadership of

Jorge Penna Jorge Penna was a Brazilian football manager. Coaching career The first mention of Penna's foray into international football management came when he was appointed manager of the Jamaica national football team in 1962. He appears to have had a br ...

Jamaica did participate in a men's

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

qualification campaign for the first time in 1965, failing to qualify for the 1966 edition by losing to Mexico and Costa Rica in the final stage.

Football governance

The

(JFF) is the governing body of football in

. It was formed in 1910 and governs men's football since then and women's football since 1991. Between 1987 and 1991, women's football was governed by the Jamaican Women’s Football Federation. The JFF joined

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typese ...

and

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

in 1962.

League system

There is currently no women's league in Jamaica. For the men's league system, see Jamaican football league system

Cup system

There is currently no women's cup tournament in Jamaica. For the men's cup, see

JFF Champions Cup The JFF Champions Cup, known since 2009 as the Flow Champions Cup, is an annual knockout tournament in Jamaican football. The modern tournament was established during the 1990–91 season and is contended between the 12 Red Stripe Premier League ...

Men's National team

One of the major successes of the Jamaica men's national team came when the team qualified for the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. They did not progress beyond the first round, but managed to win their final group match against

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, winning 2-1. They have also won the

Caribbean Cup The Caribbean Cup was the championship tournament for national association football teams that are members of the Caribbean Football Union. The first competition, established by Shell and run by former England Cricket fast bowler Fred Rumsey, wa ...

on five occasions.

Women's national team

One of the major successes of the Jamaica women's national team came when the team qualified for the

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. It ...

. They lost all their group matches, but

Havana Solaun Havana Marguerite Solaun (born 23 February 1993) is a Jamaican professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Houston Dash of the American National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and the Jamaica women's national team. Solaun began her pr ...

managed to score a first ever World Cup goal for the team in their final group match against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. They have participate in 7

CONCACAF W Championship The CONCACAF W Championship (previously known as the CONCACAF Women's Championship, CONCACAF Women's Invitational Tournament, CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup and CONCACAF Women's World Cup Qualifying) is a football competition organized by the Confede ...

s, winning the bronze medal in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

and

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

. They also finished runners up in the second CFU Women's Caribbean Cup in

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

Jamaican football clubs

References

External links

Jamaica Football Federation
{{Football in North America