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The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association is to benefit from some of FIFA’s assistance programmes because of the progress made by the local FA in recent months. That according to FIFA Development Officer Howard McIntosh.

McIntosh, along with FIFA vice-president Jeffrey Webb, TTFA president Raymond Tim Kee and its general secretary Sheldon Phillips met with other stakeholders, including senior Government officials to discuss various initiatives and plans for local and regional football. McIntosh, one of the region’s development officers, was in Trinidad for two days this week, participating in meetings.

Among the topics touched on was Trinidad and Tobago’s hosting of the senior women’s Caribbean Cup Finals in August, while T&T could also host a phase in the 2014 senior Men’s Caribbean Cup, which serves as a qualification for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. It was pointed out that being able to schedule two international matches against Argentina and Iran was no easy feat, and that the strides made by the T&T senior men’s team was commendable.

Both the TTFA and head coach Stephen Hart and his staff were commended for their efforts. McIntosh said both FIFA president Sepp Blatter and general secretary Jerome Valcke were also paying attention to the TTFA’s business.

‘I am very encouraged and I know the president of CONCACAF is also very encouraged by some of the things happening in the TTFA and Trinidad and Tobago football. I know that the president Sepp Blatter and general secretary Jerome Valcke are also positively looking at the possibilities in Trinidad and Tobago and we will continue to support as manifested by the visit of the vice-president (Webb) and my continued visits here to work with the TTFA,” McIntosh told TTFA Media on Wednesday.

“FIFA has supported football in Trinidad and Tobago over the years and we now know that with the starting of the TTFA last year and with president Raymond Tim Kee and the entire staff of the TTFA that you are working on a new plan and part of the reason of president Webb’s visit was to meet with key stakeholders to get a better understanding of the plan and to talk with them about their support for the plan. We also wanted to reconfirm FIFA’s support for what is happening here and to support president Tim Kee in the plan that he has put forward,” McIntosh added.

“Very soon we expect that with the support and cooperation of the Government that we will have the Goal Programme and specifically a Technical Centre established for Trinidad and Tobago national teams and the association and then move the programme in a particular way.”