Sport Minister Anil Roberts has been saying repeatedly that State funds are not going to be given to sporting associations without proper accounts being produced and I agree totally.
With this in mind, I am waiting patiently to see if any money and/or how much will be given to the Football Federation after reading (1) the statement of the High Court judge in February who ruled on the interim payment of over US$1 million to the players on the 2006 World Cup team, while rejecting the accounting documents produced by the T&TFF and (2) after seeing the performance of the U-20s in the recent qualifying tournament, a team who have been together for quite some time, playing friendly games all over the place and enjoying football camps as well.
This was a team from whom Coach Vranes had expected so much but who drew 0-0 against Cuba and were humiliated 5-0 by Mexico.
I have heard the Sport Minister talking about qualification for World Cup 2014 but I really don’t know where the players are going to appear from, especially as the hope was that the U-20s and U-23s would have graduated to the senior team by then. If it is that we plan to depend on some of these present youngsters, heaven help us.
The former Minister of Sport was roundly criticised for the $2 million flag at the National Stadium and rightly so. Now, I wait to see what the expenditure will be on football and the returns from that expenditure.
Lots of disagreements
The T&TFF is infamous for never releasing its accounts but, as far as I understand, money released by the Ministry has to be accounted for. I wait with bated breath.
I now come to the coach of the Under-20s. In the build-up to the recent tournament, the team played quite a few friendly games as mentioned earlier and lost a few. In interviews after these losses, Coach Vranes always had some excuse or the other and insisted that the team would be ready for the tournament. The results have proven otherwise.
Mr Vranes has lived a charmed life as a coach in this country. I remember only too well during the 80s when he was coach of the National Senior Team, along with Messrs “Gally” Cummings, Kenny Joseph and present Technical Director Keith Look Loy, that the senior team lost a World Cup qualifier against Suriname at the Queen’s Park Oval. An enquiry was ordered by the T&TFF.
I happened to be a member of the technical team that conducted the enquiry. It was headed by former National Coach Edgar Vidale and included several other well respected coaches – Conrad Brathwaite, Jimmy Blanc and Vernon Bain. There seemed to have been lots of disagreements among the four coaches of the senior team and the T&TFF thought that this might have resulted in the team’s poor performance.
When I got to the then Shell Savannah Club where the enquiry was to be held, Vernon Bain was the only committee member present along with Coach Vranes. There was a document on the table which Bain asked me to have a look at in Vrane’s presence.
The document contained numerous suggestions as to style of play and formation and I thought it had been prepared by a football coach, only to realise that it was signed by the then Hon T&TFF Secretary Jack Warner and that it called for the immediate firing of Mr Vranes. This was before any investigation had got underway.
Mr Vranes also read the document and one could see his embarrassment. To cut a long story short, Mr Vranes was eventually fired and another coach, his name slips me at the moment, was due to arrive the same night the enquiry was to begin. Vranes eventually got a coaching job in St Vincent, returned to T&T to coach Joe Public, eventually found his way back as U-20 and U-23 Coach and, I understand, will now be an assistant to the new national senior coach, German Otto Pfister.
The amazing thing at the enquiry was that Vranes was unable to explain to the Technical Committee about the system of play used by the team in the game against Suriname (or the absolute lack of a plan), although provided with a flip-chart and markers.
He insisted that nothing was wrong with the system employed (or the absence thereof) and that the problem was the other coaches on the panel. This is the gentleman who has been consistently handed our young footballers over the last few years. Judge his record for yourself.
All I can say is that we have to pray a lot.