Chairman of the FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee Robert Hadad, in the first meeting with coaches assigned to the National Teams’ programmes outlined strategies that will reverse the fortunes of T&T football.
In a zoom video session on Wednesday night, Hadad, a businessman also discussed ways to resume all programmes, contracts and remuneration, given the limitations due to current coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions.
In addressing the staff members, Hadad said: “This is a brand new time for all of us. I am not here to play the blame game. I am here to fix the game of football. I never had any idea that I would be here today. I want to sit with you all and really work out what it is we need to do to get the football to where it needs to go.”
He added: “What I can tell you is what I know very well is business, and my team and I will focus on how we get out from the debts we are in. And we have to get out of these debts so we can plan a way forward. Football is not in a lost place. It’s just in a disorganised, deranged place and we just need to get it back together.”
Technical Director Dion La Foucade, who chaired the meeting commended the members for utilising the past few weeks to connect to their players and fellow staff members for online learning and team meetings. And Hadad committed to holding further discussions with each team, specific to their respective programmes and scope of work and requirements. “We will meet on an individual team basis, on an individual group basis. We will be talking to all of you with respect to your individual contracts and we will spend time with each one of you. And we will talk of what we expect of each national team,” he said.
Hadad asked each member to maintain their mental and physical wellbeing during the current pandemic. “Preserve your physical and mental health as best as possible. We may have disagreements as we go along. But what I will tell you is that I am the person that will try my best, my team and myself, to find the right path so that we can move forward in a very positive manner.”
Among those who attended the meeting were: Terry Fenwick (senior men’s head coach) and his assistant coaches; Ryan Augustine and Chad Appoo (Beach Football coaches); Constantine Konstin (Futsal coach and his assistant coaches); Derek King (Under-20 head coach and his assistants); Richard Hood (Women’s U17 and 20 coach and his assistant coaches); Angus Eve (Men’s Under-17 coach and his assistants);
Jason Spence (Girls Under- U15s coach and his assistant coaches) Keith Jeffreys (Boys Under-15 coach and his assistants);
Kelvin Jack (National goalkeeping coach) and Yale Antoine (Administrative and technical support staff).
“I am please with how the meeting went. There is nothing that I want more than to see T&T football in a better place. The speed at which you saw the Home of Football opened is the speed at which you are going to see a football field get green again. And I am going to fight every day for more”, Hadad said.
Hadad who was appointed to the committee alongside banker Nigel Romano and Environmentalist Attorney Judy Daniel has since been in conflict with ousted president William Wallace and his vice presidents Clynt Taylor, Joseph Sam Phillips and Susan Joseph-Warrick, for the right to run the affairs of the sport after he and team were appointed by FIFA on March 27. Meanwhile, Wallace is maintaining that he’s still the president following the TTFA annual general meeting (AGM) election which he won on November 24 last year.
The ousted executive is pursuing justice through the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) after the FIFA moved in on March 17 and appointed a normalisation committee due to a burdening debt of $50 million, coupled with an inability to show ways of managing the football association’s financial affairs.