No need for social media policy – Ricketts
Jamaica Football Federation president Michael Ricketts does not believe the federation is in need of a social media policy to streamline what national players can and cannot do on their personal online social media accounts.
Recently, national senior women’s team defender, Lauren Silver, bashed the federation after it announced that they would not be hosting a pre-tournament camp ahead of their Concacaf finalround World Cup Qualifiers, which starts in the United States today.
But Ricketts personally believes that at this time there is no need for such a policy. “I personally don’t think so, but we will watch and see if it will be required. We will have a discussion to get opinions on it, but my personal feeling is that we don’t have to have it,” he said.
He noted that the incident involving Silver was a result of her not knowing the facts, but he said they intend to hold meetings with both male and female players on how they should conduct themselves on social media.
“As soon as we have them (players) together we will have a discussion on it, as we certainly wouldn’t want a recurrence. We just want to ensure that those of the football family that use social sources are balanced in their comments.
“There is not much credibility on social media. We were instructed by the coach about the (cancellation) camp. We have had discussion with her (Silver) and she has admitted she was wrong, but more than that, we want her to understand that she has to be reasonable with her comments.
“So if you are not knowledgeable about something, then ask, but her mistake was to speak uninformed, because the coach advised us that we couldn’t have a camp; and if she (Silver) was in contact with the coaches she wouldn’t have said that,” he commented. – L.S.