Former England footballer, John Barnes has been named Jamaican Football coach, to replace Brazilian Rene Simoes, who was recently sacked as Technical Director.

Jamaican–born John Barnes' football career includes periods at Watford and the mighty Liverpool Football clubs respectively. He won the English League First Division twice, the F.A. Cup twice, and played for the England 79 times – at a time when it was a remarkable record for a black player.

John is currently acting as a part time football scout in the Caribbean for Sunderland. He is also a broadcaster with television Channel Five in the UK. Barnes will take over as manager of the Jamaican national team, known as the Reggae Boyz

The Jamaica Football Federation announced the appointment of Mr Barnes as Coach. “He will take up official duties on 1 November," they
said in a statement. Barnes' last post in management ended with him getting the sack from Celtic

The JFF statement continued: "Mr Barnes will be in charge of the preparation of the national team for the Digicel Caribbean Cup (DCC) between 1 and 15 December and the Concacaf Gold Cup scheduled for June 2009. He will also be in charge of the final round of
World Cup Qualifiers in 2009, should Jamaica advance to this stage of the competition. Mr Barnes' contract will be reviewed following
the aforementioned events."

Jamaica is currently last in their four-team World Cup qualifying group on one point from three games, with three games remaining.
To have a chance of advancing to the final stage of the Concacaf qualifying round, they must beat Mexico, Honduras and Canada and hope other results go their way. Former Hull and Tranmere midfielder, Theodore Whitmore, will take charge of those World Cup games, and then stay on as Barnes' assistant thereafter.

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