Football Federation Special Advisor Jack Warner says unless the local body gets further financial support in 2010, it could be forced to turning to volunteerism in the area of coaching of the national teams.
As he expressed his wishes for the entire sporting fraternity for 2010, Warner said it was obvious that even in spite of T&T’s failure to get to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the events and exploits of the “Soca Warriors” will continue to be close to the hearts of T&T nationals and other international fans, but the cost of funding the national teams on the world stage are becoming more challenging.
He hinted that more news on the coaching staff for the senior team would be revealed by mid-January. Russell Latapy’s initial tenure as head coach was slated to run until the end of the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign.
“We had a meeting two weeks ago to look at various technical staffs but the underlying factor has been and continues to be funding. Who will pay for the staff for these teams,” Warner asked.
“The salaries we have been paying, there is nobody who will do this. Unless we get some guarantor, some firm or government who will pay these salaries, we will have to go back to basics where volunteers will do this for the good of the game.
And that is the guided principle we will go by,” he said. Warner said he will be meeting with the TTFF with a view of coming to a decision by the second week in January. Looking back on 2009, Warner felt there was still a lot about which T&T could be proud.
“I believe we have a lot to be thankful for. This is a country though where thanks is a bad word. With limited resources we were able to qualify for the Fifa Youth World Cup in Egypt and we surely didn’t leave there embarrassed.
We were able to hold our heads high. “Regarding the senior team we all knew it would be an uphill battle and we were playing with an ageing team which meant we would have had to be a bit lucky to reach South Africa. We experienced some problems and we must be able to say we have learned from the experience.
But we qualified for the last six which is still an achievement. For me also, Joe Public has been a dream come true and they are a leading example for other clubs in Trinidad. We will also send our head coach Derek King on a coaching course in France.”
Warner had his wishes for 2010. “I wish the sporting fraternity will get many more benefits from the Ministry of Sport and the Sport Company. I wish they will spend less money in administration and more on the sport itself. I wish they would take the flag down and put up pictures of national heroes throughout the country and all over the stadiums and so inculcate values in sportsmen and young people.
I hope they would realise that the sporting associations throughout the country need more support and of course hopefully the Sports Ministry can also realise that the country would need more support in hosting the Fifa Under 17 Women’s World Cup in 2010,” Warner concluded.