Former Reggae Boy Paul Hall has been appointed interim head coach of Jamaica’s senior men’s team following the Jamaica Football Federation’s (JFF) decision to fire Theodore Whitmore earlier today (December 9).

Hall joined the Reggae Boyz coaching staff as an assistant coach in June as Jamaica finalised its preparations for the final round of qualifiers. He will now serve as head coach for the remainder of the World Cup campaign that resumed early next year.

“Bearing in mind that the World Cup campaign is still ongoing, the JFF has decided to appoint former assistant Paul Hall to lead until the World Cup cycle ends,” the JFF said in a statement today.

“The JFF wishes to thank Mr Whitmore for work that he has put in with the team over the years.”

Hall was among the first set of England-based players to join the national set up during the 1998 World Cup campaign when Jamaica qualified for the World Cup for the very first time.

Whitmore was fired on the mid-November recommendation of the JFF’s Technical Committee, the members of which believed that they needed to go in a different direction based on how poorly the team was performing during the campaign.

Jamaica lies sixth in the eight-team standings with seven points from eight matches during which they only had one win.

The top three teams will automatically qualify for the World Cup with the fourth placed team required to qualify by way of a playoff.

With six matches to go, Jamaica is seven points from fourth place, which is currently held by Panama.

Canada (16), USA (15) and Mexico (14) are the top three teams in the final round.