Trinidad and Tobago Senior Men’s Head Coach Dennis Lawrence will represent the Concacaf Confederation on a five-person panel to discuss the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018. This is a feature event of a special conference hosted by football’s governing body on September 23 in London, which will sum up the results of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia.
Lawrence and Technical Director Anton Corneal will be amongst the head coaches and technical directors of all 211 member associations, as well as the technical experts of all six confederations, who were invited by FIFA to the conference, which aims to analyse the FIFA World Cup from a technical and tactical point of view, identify trends and compare the main findings with previous editions of the FIFA World Cup based on the report by FIFA’s Technical Study Group (TSG) and assess the impact of VAR on the game.
The other participants in the special panel will be Gareth Southgate (Coach of England), Tite (Coach of Brazil), Aliou Cisse (Coach of Senegal) and Juan Antonio Pizzi (Coach of Saudi Arabia). The discussion will be moderated by ex- players Clarence Seedorf (Netherlands) and Alex Scott (England)
“It is indeed an honour and privilege to be in this illustrious group of coaches but it’s also good for Trinidad and Tobago as we would be front and centre on the world stage once more” Lawrence told TTFA Media. “For me, this is another learning experience which will serve us well as we aim to take Trinidad and Tobago Football forward on and off the pitch. The knowledge which will be gained from this conference could only be helpful and it’s up to us to apply said knowledge in ways which will benefit our football” added the Head Coach.
The FIFA website has indicated that World Cup winning coach Didier Deschamps will share his view on France’s path to glory at the Conference in London.
Besides Deschamps and Southgate, the other FIFA World Cup semi-finalist coaches Croatia’s Zlatko Dalic and Belgium’s Roberto Martinez as well as Russia’s Stanislav Cherchesov and 2014 FIFA World Cup champion manager Joachim Low have registered for the conference. More than 140 coaches have already signed up and the list is set to increase.
“I obviously responded favourably to FIFA’s invitation as soon as it was received,” said Deschamps. “This kind of meeting is always a privileged moment to see my colleagues from other nations and share our experiences. I have always felt the utmost respect for all of them and our title of world champions will not change that point of view.”
T&T Technical Director Corneal also sees tremendous benefits coming out of the conference, “This will give us an idea of all the new trends that you see happening in the game today and allow us to analyse them and the effects, such as the VAR. We will also take a look at the preparation of players coming off long domestic seasons and this will be done region by region, so we will be interested in the comparisons.” Corneal expressed to TTFA Media.
The TD will be in a dual role at the gathering as a FIFA Technical expert and intends to garner the information from the conference with a view of sharing with coaches locally and regionally, paying special attention to goals scored and where they came from and the role of key players throughout the tournament.