Coley remains calm amid chaos - Former JC football coach safe for now in United Arab Emirates

Former Jamaica College (JC) football head coach, Miguel Coley, is in the midst of an unexpected and difficult chapter in his coaching career

The coronavirus pandemic has put the sporting world in a vice and football leagues across the world have been forced to suspend their seasons as countries take extreme measures to combat the virus. The effects have been felt by Coley in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where he has been serving as assistant coach for FC Baniyas since last June. With the current number of confirmed cases in the country now at 98, the football federation has suspended league play for four weeks with the club in ninth place in the UAE Gulf League.

Coley, who coached at JC from 2013-2017 and won both the Manning Cup and Olivier Shield for five straight years, has remained in his apartment since the suspension and has done everything to keep himself active. “I have started taking note of the ceiling of my apartment, reading the Bible, watching football matches, movies, talking to family and friends and making several unsuccessful attempts to exercise,” Coley told The Gleaner. “The gym at the hotel apartment that I live in is closed. Family and friends (from abroad) have been reaching out and I have been reaching out to them.”

The silver lining for Coley currently is the fact that the FC Baniyas team and staff have all tested negative for the virus and he’s happy with the measures taken to safeguard the country.

“The ratio of recovery is very great and we find optimism in this. People from countries with high rates of the virus are also barred from entering,” he said.

While the situation is serious in the UAE it is more dire in Iran, the country that he left behind last summer. Although no longer at Esteghal FC where he spent more than a year as assistant manager to former Jamaica national head coach Winfried Schäfer, he still gets updates on the situation in that country which has been ravished by the virus. The league has been postponed for two months while the country struggles with containment. The updates received by Coley are anything but comforting.

Virus Containment

“Containing the virus in Iran is a mammoth task but many persons are staying in. That is essential. The security forces are on the roads to ensure this is done. But many persons are infected and many have died especially in the south of Iran,” he said. “Some people are scared, some are calm but losing their minds after being in home quarantine for 22 days now.”

To date almost 15,000 persons in Iran have been infected with the virus resulting in more than 853 fatalities. In a country where football is the lifeblood of the people, Coley says that the passion has now been replaced by a constant cycle of uncertainty.

Coley tries to remain calm and keeps abreast with the news.

“For me it’s a constant follow-up of what is going on in Jamaica where my family lives and in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE. Now I also try to work on things I didn’t have time for like writing and trying to see the opportunities in the situation we are faced with,” he said.