John Barnes was today named Jamaica's head coach effective November 1, 2008.  However, until he assumes his responsibilities, Theodore Whitmore will be in charge of Jamaica's next two matches in the current round of World Cup qualifiers.  

The Jamaica Football Federation held an extraordinary meeting of the Board of Directors today and Whitmore, scorer of Jamaica's two goals in their historic win over Japan in World Cup 1998,  was given the interim job of coaching Jamaica against Mexico and Honduras.

Come November 1 however, Barnes, the Jamaican-born former England international will assume the position of head coach through to the Concacaf Gold Cup scheduled for June 2009, according to a statement released by the JFF.

The Liverpool legend replaces the recently sacked Rene Simoes, who was fired following back to back losses by Jamaica in their CONCACAF zone World Cup qualifiers last week.

The JFF statement also stated that "Barnes will be in charge of the preparation of the national team for the Digicel Caribbean Cup (DCC) between 1 and 15 December and also in charge of the final round of World Cup Qualifiers in 2009, should Jamaica advance to this stage of the competition."

Jamaica currently sit at the bottom in their four-team World Cup qualifying group as they have one point from three games.  With three games remaining, the Reggae Boyz will have to win their remaining three games and hope that the results of the other matches in their group play to their favour to have a chance of advancing to the final stage of the Concacaf qualifying round.