EX-NATIONAL football manager Richard Braithwaite is calling for a return to the one club one vote system to select the best administrators for Trinidad and Tobago football.
His call comes amid a stance by government through the Sports Minister Anil Roberts to withhold funding to the TTFF until they sumbit full accountability.
Only recently the minister described the TTFF as one of the worse run NSOs in the country. In a release yesterday Braithwaite said, “our football has been in steady decline since 2006 and it’s probably at one of its lowest levels ever right now.”
Without pointing fingers to the state of management in football, Braithwaite explained, “the senior national team has been falling in the rankings for the past few years and our failure at the Digicel Cup last year says it all.” And he said the road ahead is going to be a long, hard one which will require no “quick fix” approach.
Braithwaite said, “there has to be a comprehensive assessment of the state of local football at all levels and we cannot confine the discussions to only technical issues.
The problems are much deeper than whether the team plays 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 or how many foreign-based players we can attract. We cannot spend time talking about personalities but we must focus on issues.”
Preparations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil were kicked into limbo when Roberts called on the TTFF to provide full documentation if they are to receive funding, including payment to coach Otto Pfister and players.
The local footballers are to begin the early round of qualifiers against Bermuda on September 2. They are bracketed with Guyana and Barbados apart.
However there are concerns by fans and coaches in the domestic football leagues that with only a month to go before the start of the qualifiers, the country is yet to play one preparatory intrernational friendly under new coach Pfister.
According to Braithwaite “The fact that the national team has not played in almost a year while our opponents have been regularly engaged, is a serious indictment.
“When he arrived Pfister spoke about the need for restructuring and he was correct. “But restructuring has to involve all aspects of local football and must follow a review of current systems of administration, player development, coach education and financial management The structure of league football must also be evaluated,” he added.
He said, “the one club, one vote system used years ago is not a perfect system but even FIFA has agreed to change their approach to “one country, one vote” in selecting World Cup hosts.