17 hours ago
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The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) administration is being blamed for the country’s disappointing demotion from League A to League B in the CONCACAF region on Sunday.
However, experienced former national player, now-turned coach Ron La Forest, assures he is the solution to the problem.
The accounts of the former national players La Forest, Steve David and Brian Williams provided different concepts to an ongoing issue which has plagued the nation for many years.
Yesterday, a day after a bare crowd at the Hasely Crawford Stadium witnessed a 1-1 tie that confirmed the country’s drop to League B, Williams said he can no longer butter things up for T&T football.
After merely three years of being lifted to the top-flight League A, the country’s senior footballers, under coach Derek King, made an expected return with a second-from-bottom finish in a Swiss format in Group A of the play-off, with just a point from a 1-1 tie with Curaçao in Mucurapo.
Strangely, the result assured the local charges their first point in four matches, and possibly their best performance of the campaign. Early displays that resulted in a 3-2 loss to Haiti, the Dominican Republic 2-1, as well as a 1-0 loss to Curaçao, saw the Soca Warriors enter Sunday’s match more hopeful than anything else, knowing that a victory alone would be insufficient, as they also needed a victory for Costa Rica over the Haitians.
Williams, known as a rough rasta during his heyday as a defender, assured that the solution is not only the change of a coach, but rather a problem that runs much deeper. “ What we have been looking at for a long while now is where our football is at, and how we can put our football in the right place. And we keep regressing, as we see. Every time, it’s who should change the coach, and when the coach should change, and who should not, and we’re not looking at the bigger picture,” Williams expressed sadly.
Reluctant to address concerns expressed after the result on Sunday, Williams noted, “Are we, as a country, preparing a football team to play at international level, or to show our worth, or to show our strength in international football? How our preparation will be, or how that will be, in terms of having a competitive international football team.”
“We have to look at our football from a realistic point of view, and at how we approach and do things. And that will rest with our administration, in a collective approach, if we want to prepare an international football team, and what it requires. An international football team requires a lot of preparation, and obviously, we will know where finance will play a major role in doing that. But as I always say, and continue to say, we’ve got to look at the bigger picture, and I understand this from our tabletop model, which I use as an example for a successful organisation or association. And, as in football, the tabletop model, which I always talk about, has four legs.”
Intent on educating the public about the success of sports and the genesis of it, William explained, “ Our administration carries the structure and the interests of our football, and what it requires to play international football. Then we look at our technical expertise, our coaches, our physios, our doctors, and all those things. And then we look at our players. But taken to the head, administratively, are we really serious about preparing a football team to play international football? “
“ I don’t see that because we’re always in problems. The few weeks before we enter into the Nations League, our players are paid as they complain about it. Our domestic league has to be run properly, and when those things are in place, then I will talk about the coach, and fire this coach, and this one can’t carry on etc,” Williams explained.
His sentiments were similarly echoed by another former striker who is considered one of the most lethal to have graced the football pitch in national colours- Steve David. David, an administrator at local club Point Fortin Civic Centre, said, “ I don’t want to beat up on our administration too much. I don’t want to be the one to do that, but I think we have to get a team. At first, it can’t be one person making all the decisions and stuff, and it’s just hurting our football. It’s a whole big big mess that I could talk about for two days. Just look at our League, our professional league and how it is run.”
“ The running of these things is what’s going to help our football. So are they running it the right way? Well, they’re not at all, and they can just follow the rest of the world.”
Asked if changes should be made, David assured there should be changes in every aspect of the game, from administration to coaching.
Meanwhile, La Forest, who refers to himself as the professor, has made it clear he should be given a chance at the coaching job now, as everyone else has been tried. “Tell the public to wake up now. It’s time to rebuild, and I am at your service in terms of rebuilding; I can do that. I’m not beating my drum and dancing, but we’ve tried different coaches, and they’re not good teachers, all of them.”
He concluded, “ You all have tried everybody else; you’ve tried local and foreign coaches, well, you have me here still. I have life and breath inside of me, so let’s see what I have to offer.”
English (US) ·