The failed 2014 Brazil World Cup campaign officially comes to an end for Trinidad and Tobago today. But the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs has already gone into development mode.
Yesterday, Sport and Youth Affairs Minister Anil Roberts unveiled a comprehensive plan aimed at identifying male and female football talent at Under-15 level. But the Ministry's plans do not include funding a high-priced national coach.
The programme will involve the hiring of 41 coaches across 41 regions of the country, along with 41 assistant coaches--subject to the availability of funds--to identify and screen groups of 25 players.
Roberts said there would then be an ongoing series of competitions at which "other coaches...higher level technical directors will be able to observe these young players and we will liaise with the TTFF (Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation), the T&T Pro League, the Super League, Secondary Schools and ensure that these players are seen by the widest range of coaches possible".
At a news conference at the Ministry's head office, the Minister said advertisements for coaches will appear in the newspapers this week and he expects to see the first round of competitions between the various regions by the end of January.
Roberts said the programme would be funded from the approximately $43 million left unused from the $45 million budget allocated for the 2014 qualifying campaign.
He also said the national Under-23 Olympic team would also now receive increased funding coming out of that sum.
The announcement of a programme for talent identification comes four days after the Soca Warriors were eliminated from CONCACAF qualifying via a 2-1 defeat to Guyana in Guyana.
T&T play their now meaningless final group game against the Guyanese from five o'clock this afternoon at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.
While expressing disappointment at Friday's result, Roberts offered "congratulations to the people of Guyana, to President Jagdeo, to all the football fans of Guyana for their historic achievement and most importantly to Trinbagonian coach Jamaal Shabazz...I wish Guyana all the best as they go on to play Mexico, Costa Rica and El Salvador".
The Minister also admitted that Trinidad and Tobago's early failure was not entirely unexpected since "mistakes" had been made some time back in preparing for the campaign and that yesterday's announcement of the talent identification programme was the Ministry's response to the eventuality of an early World Cup exit.
However, Minister Roberts stressed that his Ministry's plans were not an attempt to run local football.
"We will not usurp the role of the TTFF, the Secondary Schools Football League, the Primary Schools Football League, the Pro League, the Super League and so on," he said.
"The Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs cannot dictate to the TTFF who should remain as administrators, who should administer their football. We are facilitators, so we have made the decision that we have control over, which is providing through the national sport policy, total participation in football and that's where we are going to go--downstairs--the young ones, and start to prepare the table for 2018, '22, '26 and onwards."
However, asked whether he thought national senior team coach, German Otto Pfister, should stay on, Roberts said "no".
And he added that his Ministry would not continue to pay any head coach's salary of US$50,000.
"As far as we are concerned, Brazil 2014 is over," Roberts said. "We have some arrears for the coach, that will be handled. But, going forward, the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs cannot undertake to pay that exorbitant salary when we are not going for elite performance. We have been knocked out of the elite level football, therefore we cannot justify paying an elite level coach. That was only for World Cup qualification.
"We are moving now into rebuilding and development. We will be paying development salaries."
As part of the Ministry's plans for football, Roberts also announced that a national consultation on football will be held on November 28 at the Cascadia Hotel from 9 a.m.
"Anybody who has ideas on the way forward for football in Trinidad and Tobago will be invited to present their ideas," Roberts said.
He urged those interested to send their written proposals to the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs, c/o Natasha Nunez, communication specialist, so that briefs will be received before the consultation.
The Minister said participants at the consultation will also be given five minutes to speak at the event.
The Ministry of Sport will then collate the proposals and put forward recommendations to the relevant football agencies.
Roberts unveils football development programme.
By Jonathan Ramnanansingh (Newsday).
Minister of Sport, Anil Roberts revealed that Trinidad and Tobago football has to be rebuilt from the foundation in order to attain full potential from players and coaches on the local and international level. Roberts made the revelation at a press conference held at the Ministry’s headquarters on Abercromy Street, Port-of-Spain yesterday.
The meeting was also attended by Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sport, Ashwin Creed and their Communications Specialist, Natasha Nunez.
Roberts focussed on the “Soca Warriors” abrupt exit from the Brazil 2014 World Cup after an embarrassing 2-1 defeat to Guyana on Friday.
He admitted that the 2014 World Cup dream was now gone but stated that the Ministry would soon be implementing programmes geared towards football development in Trinidad and Tobago and reiterated the importance of a well-rounded coach for local football.
“We intend to go into every constituency and probably get 41 coaches and 41 assistant coaches to go through those areas, find the best talent, put them together and bring them to train at least three times per week.
Furthermore, these coaches will also go through the scientific analysis and training that is lacking in our coaches. We have many people who understand the game and its tactics, but many of our coaches do not understand how to physically prepare athletes to perform at the highest level,” stated Roberts.
The Minister continued, “We will also have specialists who will be assigned to these 41 constituencies and they shall be taught the rudiments of proper scientific planning, micro and macro-cycling, psychological and physical preparation, monitoring to ensure that our athletes are ready to prepare. This is first, separate and apart from the actual playing of football.”
Roberts explained that due to abrupt exit of the “Soca Warriors” in their World Cup bid, the monies that were allocated toward this would now go toward the overall football development.
“Approximately $45 million was approved for the World Cup 2014 campaign. Let me average that maybe $1.5 million would have been spent on expenses thus far, and so we could more or less use the remaining $43 million over the next three years, to move in the development of football across Trinidad and Tobago,” added the former swim coach.
He also intended that some of the monies go toward enhancement of the national Under-15 and Under-23 teams. Roberts admitted that these were the forthcoming players of the national squad, and investing in them should be a priority for local football elevation.
“There will be some funding that will be made available and we intend to pump it all into the development of football across Trinidad and Tobago.
The Minister then revealed that there will be a national consultation on the way forward for local football on November 28 at the Cascadia Hotel, St Ann’s, from 9am to 3pm. It is an open invitation to interested parties to submit in writing their ideas about the structure and philosophy that should be adopted in order to improve and advance the game locally.