Accounting is a field that requires incredible discipline and attention to detail. One must be meticulous and patient, while able to articulate in layman’s terms the results of their findings. It is a subject that always appealed to Rudolph Speid, who flourished as a financial controller in the corporate world. So how did this number-crunching, spreadsheet savant suddenly become tasked with trying to guide Jamaica to their finest footballing moment since 1998?
After years of delivering financial results, the meticulous Speid turned to his true passion of football, transforming Cavalier SC into one of the best teams on the Caribbean island and a mainstay in Concacaf competition, including a 2025 Champions Cup tie against Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami.
Now, following the departure of Steve McClaren in the wake of their failure to reach the FIFA World Cup 2026™ from Concacaf qualifying, the Jamaican Football Federation is looking to Speid to qualify the island for this year’s global showpiece via the FIFA Play-off Tournament this March, when Jamaica meet New Caledonia on 26 March, with the hope of advancing to a winner-takes-all showdown against Congo DR on 31 March.
The 63-year-old Bob Marley-quoting tactician recently spoke with FIFA about his unique path to the Reggae Boyz interim post and his approach to March’s enormous play-off fixtures.
Rudolph Speid: Oh, definitely. I was a financial controller, which means that you run the business basically. I was in charge of most of the operations, involved in everything financially in those companies. Some of the best people in the country were the directors, so you had to face them in boardrooms, etc. That’s where I got most of my experiences on how to manage people. I was managing people from when I was 22.
About 2012 I took football a little bit more serious. I had gotten ownership of Cavalier and took the team from the sixth division to the Premier League. I thought I was pretty good, but then I struggled for four years. I needed to go and learn the game. I did my Concacaf B license and A license, and I’m now doing the Pro license. Since I’ve started to do that, I’ve seen the differences in the progress that I have made as a coach.
I always thought that I wasn’t ready to coach a national team, even though for the last seven years in the Premier League, I won it three times, was runner-up once and third the other three times. We also won the Caribbean Cup and played in Concacaf Champions Cup two times. But this is really a step up for me now with the senior national team. The [federation] president asked me and I thought that I had to do it for the country, because it’s not like I wanted to jump up and say, ‘Give it to me’. The president came and said, we’re in a bad shape. It looks like it’s you and so I volunteered.
This week I met the players for the first time. It’s probably a good thing that there are a lot of locally-based players in this particular squad. They know me and know what I can do and know what my abilities are. But if I’m being honest, it’s a little bit nervy, so we’re just feeling ourselves out.
I was on the technical committee, I’m a practicing coach, and probably the most qualified local coach who has ever coached the national team. Also, after coaching against teams like Inter Miami and FC Cincinnati in the Champions Cup, you realise that some of those teams are bigger entities than national teams, so I have that experience. Our team was no slouch. We lost, but we gave it as good as we got. I handled those high-pressure situations. I understand the culture more than anyone else, being a Jamaican who understands both coaching and the culture, so that’s why I feel like I’m the right man for this.
In the middle of February we will have a clearer picture of the players that we’ll try to use and then we will start to reach out to the players. From my background, I believe that planning is very important. From today until the 31st of March, what we do on those days, training sessions, when we travel, that extensive planning is what we do now.
I did see the last four matches that they would have played. But the truth is, everybody knows that just watching the games on TV is not good enough. You need to see them. There’s a lot of things you can learn from a team by just watching them with your eyes, so they’re a bit of unknown. If there’s ever an opportunity for us to go and watch them, we will. I know that they defeated Gibraltar 2-0 in October. I have the tape. I’m hearing that they could add players too. We’re keeping our eyes and ears open.
I’ve watched all the matches. And I was there to watch one game physically. They are very interesting and are good. They have a lot of players in the top 20 leagues in the world. I think about 22. That alone gives an idea of how tough they are going to be. They are strong, fast and have a system already in place.
My main message is that we’re going to be prepared. Meticulously. And we’re going to give it everything we got. We are leaving no stones unturned. And if that’s not enough, the only thing I can do is just sing Bob Marley: “Don’t worry about that a thing, ‘cause every little thing gonna be alright.”
As you know, Hurricane Melissa devastated Jamaica. Half of the island was hit very badly. I think that qualifying for the World Cup would give the nation something to cheer about. Because it was really, really bad. Whole towns were wiped out. That’s the first thing that comes to my mind. I’m just secondary. I’ll be able to say, okay, I did it. But the truth is, I really want to do it for the country, not for myself.
You could see how happy everybody was, that national pride. Also, our tourism took a boost because people wanted to figure out what Jamaica is like. A lot of people saved their money and traveled with the national team for that opportunity to see their team play. A lot of Jamaicans who live overseas are in hard situations in new countries, but just going to the World Cup makes them feel proud for days and days. We were floating on air for months. It just helped the country tremendously. In addition, there was an influx of young players who wanted to play the game. They are their idols. And that is something that we think if we qualify for the World Cup again, it will excite another generation of players.
Photo courtesy of the Jamaican Football Federation
