THE EDITOR: The tragedy of Trinidad and Tobago football is that just like Rijsbergen and Maturana before him, Russell Latapy will now be made a convenient scapegoat. The real villains will remain in the background and continue to make deals and take decisions that are for their own benefit and not for the development of football.
Since 2006 the national team has been in a steady decline that started when a vindictive TTFF decided to blacklist key players because they asked for money they were promised.
This matter has gone through several legal stages and in every case the decision was in favour of the players.
Yet the TTFF continues to play hardball and now we are told that the current crop of players has also not been paid for several months. I wonder if this was not a deliberate strategy to upset the players and undermine the team spirit.
I am sure that if a foreign coach was in charge, the players would have been paid promptly and arrangements would have been made for friendly games with top quality opposition. But Latapy is a local and he is inexperienced so he and his team can be treated with contempt.
What about the “localise it” philosophy that is supposed to give priority to local culture, local talent and local personalities including local coaches?
The other issue is the role of all the technical committees, technical directors and technical advisers who we hear about but we hardly ever see. Has anyone of these people been removed along with the coaches or do they continue to enjoy their salaries and perks without any accountability? Most of them have been around the TTFF for years although they have few achievements to talk about. They survive because they know how to keep their mouths shut and support the status quo. The collapse of football in Trinidad and Tobago cannot be the fault of Russell Latapy alone and there are others who must share in the blame. All of them must be removed and a clean sweep has to be made otherwise our football will continue to fall apart.
F JOSEPH
Maraval