Jamaica's World Cup Squad wowed the world this August when they advanced to the knockout round for the first time in their history, finishing ahead of Brazil. Those same women are now boycotting Jamaica's upcoming Concacaf W Gold Cup qualifiers due to "constant mistreatment" from the Jamaican Football Federation, reportedly including unpaid bonuses and "poor communication."
These are the same issues the team raised a month prior to the World Cup in the hopes of "immediate and systematic change," but even after their historic performance, it appears little has changed.
A statement released on Oct. 21 by several senior players on social media said that "While this has been one of the hardest decisions we have had to make, we feel it is necessary to take such a drastic stance to put an end to the constant mistreatment we receive from the Jamaica Football Federation.
"We have received information about our coaching staff, medical staff, and equipment staff in an untimely manner and through unprofessional communication. We have gotten confirmation of our head coach 3 days prior to our report date through social media, despite our efforts to have direct communication with the JFF.
"We have yet to receive full and correct payments for our historical performances at the World Cup and the numerous outstanding bonuses for qualifying in the summer of 2022.
"We have dealt with this lack of communication, poor organisation, poor management, and delayed payments from the JFF time and time again.
"For these reasons, we take our stance in solidarity with hope to end this cycle of mistreatment."
The day before the statement was released the JFF named an unexperienced squad for the two qualifying games against Panama next week.
Reuters reported that a memo sent by the JFF to the players said they would not be selected for any national side until the issues were worked out, and also stated that they were in violation of their contract by not each separately contacting the JFF to explain their non-availability.
JFF general secretary Dennis Chung told BBC Sport that the JFF had requested the Reggae Girlz "provide an allocation" for how the World Cup prize money should be split, but didn't receive a response. According to Chung the JFF then decided to distribute the money "according to a formula we thought was fair to all," and the money has now been "sent for processing."
