The staff of the T&T senior national football team, inclusive of assistant coach Hutson Charles and manager William Wallace have now resigned.
Following in the wake of the sacking of national coach Stephen Hart on Thursday both men submitted their resignation letters on Friday night to T&T Football Association (TTFA) president David John-Williams and it is understood the other assistant coach Derek King will be tendering his resignation in the coming days.
When contacted by the Sunday Guardian Charles confirmed his resignation and said he took the decision to resign because it was the proper and ethical thing to do since Hart was the person who hired him.
Yesterday, at the T&TFA’s Annual General Meeting of the General Council, at Naparima College in San Fernando, the sacking of Hart was approved, and a decision was taken to appoint an interim coach from T&T as his replacement in the short term basis.
A close source of the TTFA told the Sunday Guardian that the names of Former T&T World Cup captain Dwight Yorke, Russell Latapy, Stuart Charles-Fevrier, the coach of W Connection and Terry Fenwick of the Football Factory Academy, have been coming off the lips of many members of the general council, as Hart’s successor.
This coach, it is understood, will take over the team for the next few games and the performances of the T&T team will determine whether the TTFA will go in search of a permanent coach to take the team to the World Cup and beyond. The TTFA will seek a permanent coach who will come from abroad.
Also coming out of yesterday’s meeting was a decision by the council to appoint Richard Piper, the All Sport Promotions football administrator, as the new manager of the T&T team.
The TTFA is expected to make an official announcement on this tomorrow.
Concerning the resignation of Charles, the former Strike Squad midfielder said he felt compelled to resign as there were circulating rumours that he and King were to be fired on December 1st by the TTFA.
He said he’s aware that concerns were raised by the TTFA president about their competence as assistants coaches. The President had also made it clear he wanted Latapy and Reynold Carrington to be Hart’s assistants.
“It was only because Latapy turned down the job to coach the T&T Under-17s that we were able to keep our jobs” Charles said.
He added, “The president kept on questioning Hart on whether we were good enough, and although Hart responded in the affirmative every time, he still kept on enquiring about our ability,” Charles explained.
Charles said the TTFA is to blame for the poor performances of the team to date, pointing that: “There were senior officials who kept calling players after every training session and questioning them about the sessions, looking for ways to dismiss the coach.
Hart was never in a comfortable place to do his work as there were always concerns.
“The TTFA placed too much pressure on the coach, who I still think is the man to carry the country to the World Cup.”