EX-MANAGER of the Trinidad and Tobago football team Richard Braithwaite is concerned that the status of the local football will become similar to that of West Indies cricket.
Braithwaite called for a complete overhaul of the administration at the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) following last Wednesday’s seizure of its assets on Dundonald Street, Port of Spain.
Bailiff and armed officers entered the TTFF’s office and took all its removable assets which included computers, printers, desks, chairs, trophies, tables, fridges, telephones, cabinets and other office equipments after the TTFF could not uphold a court order to pay 13 players from the 2006 World Cup Campaign an interim payment of $4.2 million.
Braithwaite said, “If we do not restructure the TTFF then things will get worse no matter who is the national coach or the Technical Director. It reminds of when West Indies cricket started to decline and all kinds of excuses were put forward by the administrators.
Coaches and captains were changed regularly but the same structure remained in place and today West Indies cricket continues to stagnate.” Braithwaite, who was responsible for the return of Dwight Yorke and Russell Latapy to the Trinidad and Tobago team in 2005, described the TTFF as dysfunctional yesterday.
TTFF is a dysfunctional organisation that has to be totally overhauled. This is not about personalities but it has to do with the systems and structures that govern our football. We have to get over this fixation with technical matters and start looking at management and administrative issues.”
He warned that the reason why our football is in such a mess has very little to do with the quality of coaches available. “It has more to do with the poor management that has plagued the local game and the unwillingness to confront the way in which TTFF operates. For instance, the constitution that governs the organisation has to be reviewed and the clubs and players have to be placed at the centre,” he said.
He made it clear, “If we continue to do the same things in the same way with the same people then we will continue to get the same results.”
Quizzed as to whether he will take up the position of president of the TTFF, Braithwaite said he will do so when the time is right. The successful Trintoc and TT football manager refused to comment on the call for a Normalisation Committee of the FIFA to stabilise local football, saying, “Once the right people are in charge then the results will be different.”