NATIONAL men’s senior football coach Terry Fenwick thanked the United TTFA for showing “compassion” by dropping its case against FIFA, which will allow the T&T footballers to focus on playing the sport rather than being distracted by off the field matters.
Despite only being in charge of the T&T national team since January, Fenwick has had challenges since being hired for the position.
Fenwick is happy that matters on the field of play will now be the focus again, especially as the Concacaf Gold Cup draw is next Monday.
Fenwick, an Englishman living in T&T for over 20 years, said, “I see the compassion showed by William Wallace to get football back on track and of course with Gold Cup coming up it’s important not to just the coaches and the players, but the football public at large, the fans out there that want to see T&T playing football recognize that.”
In March, the covid19 pandemic started to affect T&T and football was brought to a halt.
Also in March, former TTFA president Wallace and the United TTFA executive were removed from office by FIFA mainly because of massive debt. A normalisation committee was then hired by FIFA to run local football.
The United TTFA decided to take legal action against FIFA’s decision to appoint the normalisation committee.
National footballers and coaches breathed a sigh of relief, as on Wednesday the United TTFA decided to withdraw the case. That situation took attention away from the national footballers.
The national senior coach said T&T can’t fall behind as football has resumed around the world.
“All over the world now we are watching football on tv. (It) might be behind closed doors, but nevertheless football is continuing. We’ve had CPL cricket here, but still no football. Me and my staff can’t wait to get moving again, get our players training, get friendly games lined up so we can be competitive.” Fenwick said the coaching staff has been planning during the downtime.
President of the Southern Football Association Richard Quan Chan said if the court case continued the players would have suffered.
“People will think about standing up to FIFA as strength, but this is one where the decision is more a nationalistic decision than a personal decision…the only people stand to lose is not the Richard Quan Chans and the William Wallaces of this world, but the athletes, the footballers are the only people who stood to lose. I think based on that I think the decision is a good one.”
Acting TT Pro League chairman and TTFA board member Brent Sancho said, “For the players, I am happy that they will get the opportunity to wear the national colours.”