Their recent fallout with the Ministry of Sport has not prevented the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) from preparing for an upcoming four-nation tournament from September 5-10 in the Middle East, involving Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates (UAE), New Zealand and hosts Saudi Arabia.
Funding permitting, T&T are expected to take on the United Arab Emirates in their opening match on September 5, the opening day of the tournament, which is being organised by Asia’s leading pay-TV network OSN and the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF).
The TTFA submitted a budget to the Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago on July 31 as part of its overall programme, which includes activities of the senior national football team for 2014.
“Nothing has indicated otherwise (that the trip will not be funded),” TTFA general secretary Sheldon Phillips said.
“We are going about the business of preparing. We are calling up our players and getting ready.”
These preparations will see T&T senior team head coach Stephen Hart naming his squad next week. Hart has hinted, though, that there will be as many as eight players in the squad who were not part of the team that competed at the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup competition, during which the “Soca Warriors” advanced to the quarter-final stage for the first time since 2000.
T&T jumped nine places in the latest FIFA rankings to 78th ahead of countries such as Senegal, Togo, China, Guatemala, Angola Georgia Lithuania and Northern Ireland, Togo, Estonia and Cuba.
“We will have about eight players in the squad that will travel to Riyadh who were not part of the Gold Cup squad,” Hart told TTFA Media on Thursday.
“The main objective, particularly since we would not have much preparation time for the first game against the UAE, is to observe players in international action and more importantly to have an evaluation of them and where we’re at internationally as we look ahead to later down the road for future tournaments such as the next Caribbean Cup and the qualification for Russia 2018,” Hart added.
Looking ahead to the tournament, which also involves New Zealand, United Arab Emirates and hosts Saudi Arabia, Hart added: “It’s good to go to an international tournament such as this in the sense that it allows us the chance to see how well we can travel and adapt quickly before a game and everything that goes with playing in such conditions.
“We will be up against countries who were recently in qualification for 2014, and still involved in it and it’s good for us to face challenges like what we’ll be up against.
“It’s good for us to play countries of different styles such as what a United Arab Emirates of New Zealand will bring with them.”