Just a month before the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic football (National Under-23) team goes into competition, its coach Angus Eve does not know whether he still has the job or not.
The Olympic team had been training regularly under Eve before taking a break recently when local clubs demanded their players ahead of the opening of the Digicel Pro League.
The Olympic team is expected to resume training on Friday, in preparation for the November 26-28 final phase of Caribbean qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics Games.
Cuba, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and St Kitts and Nevis will battle on for two Caribbean spots into the CONCACAF Final Round qualifiers which takes place in the United States in March 2012. The Caribbean qualifiers will join Canada, Mexico and the United States and three Central American qualifiers who will battle for two Olympic spots.
Eve, 38, took up the job in May after Serbian-born Zoran Vranes was fired by the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF). Eve was elevated to head coach, while former national players Clint Marcelle and Derek King were made his assistants.
A source told the Express that a TTFF official had made a suggestion which would have demoted Eve to assistant coach and elevated Hutson Charles to head coach of the Olympic team.
Charles, is currently an assistant to senior national coach German Otto Pfister. While the TTFF had not officially stated its position in writing, Express sources indicated that Eve resisted the move.
"I don't know if I have the job or not," Eve stated frankly when contacted by telephone yesterday. "But, I cannot talk much about that. Tomorrow I have to talk to someone in the TTFF and then I will be able to say more about (it)."
While Eve remained tight-lipped, Express sources indicated that the TTFF, through secretary Richard Groden, had made the suggestion which would have demoted Eve.
It was also suggested that Eve would have resumed responsibility for the National Under-20, with Derek King and Sean Cooper as his assistants. Cooper would also have taken over the National Under-17 team with Marcelle as his assistant.
There are also some issues of funding surrounding the Olympic team. Like the senior team before them, the Olympic squad is also suffering a funding problem. And while, they have gotten a stipend, members of staff have also not been paid salaries for a long time.
Recently, the TTFF made an accommodation with the Ministry of Sport which would have provided funding for the Brazil 2014 World Cup campaign. However, there are concerns that funding for the Olympic team may not have been addressed.