{"id":148084,"date":"2025-11-19T10:32:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T10:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/148084\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T10:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T10:32:08","slug":"steve-mcclaren-quits-as-jamaica-head-coach-with-path-to-world-cup-still-open-jamaica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/148084\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve McClaren quits as Jamaica head coach with path to World Cup still open | Jamaica"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Steve McClaren has resigned as Jamaica\u2019s head coach after a goalless draw with Cura\u00e7ao ended the team\u2019s hopes of automatic World Cup qualification and left them in March\u2019s intercontinental playoffs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Jamaica needed a win but hit the woodwork three times in the second half as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2025\/nov\/19\/curacao-complete-fairytale-with-battling-draw-in-jamaica-to-qualify-for-world-cup\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cura\u00e7ao became the smallest country<\/a> by population to win a berth at the World Cup finals. McClaren\u2019s side finished second in Group B of Concacaf qualifying despite being the favourites.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">They can still make it to the 48-team World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the US but will have to go through the playoffs in Mexico, which offer two qualification spaces. Iraq and DR Congo are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fifa.com\/en\/tournaments\/mens\/worldcup\/canadamexicousa2026\/articles\/play-off-tournament-teams-qualifying-dates-tickets-matches-format\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the seeded teams<\/a> and will be joined by Jamaica, Bolivia, Suriname and New Caledonia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cLeading this team has been one of the greatest honours of my career but football is a results business and tonight we have fallen short of our goal, which was to qualify from this group,\u201d McClaren, the 64-year-old former England manager, said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cIt is the responsibility of the leader to step forward, take accountability and make decisions in the best interests of the team. After deep reflection and an honest assessment of where we are and where we need to go, I have decided to step down as head coach of the Jamaican national team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cSometimes the best thing a leader can do is to recognise when a fresh voice, new energy and a different perspective is required to move this team forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve McClaren has resigned as Jamaica\u2019s head coach after a goalless draw with Cura\u00e7ao ended the team\u2019s hopes&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-148084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}