‘Ex-stars must help the Soca Warriors’
By WALTER ALIBEY (Newsday)
Thursday, December 27 2007
FORMER Trinidad and Tobago football manager and member of the FIFA Technical Committee Richard Braithwaite is calling for Dwight Yorke, Russell Latapy and Shaka Hislop to be involved in the country’s 2010 World Cup campaign.
His comment came following the suspension of national coach, Dutchman Wim Rijsbergen by the Trinidad and Tobago’s Football Federation (TTFF) recently.
He expressed the view that there have been too many hiccups in the national team preparations while the other CONCACAF countries have been getting their houses in order.
“First there was the issue of the so-called ’blacklisted’ players and now the national coach is suspended.
“Hopefully things will settle in the near future because the level of success in 2009 depends to a large extent on what is done in 2008,” Braithwaite said.
The ex-football administrator, now a business consultant is advocating that the players should get involved in the preparation in some way and any way possible.
And he wants this initiative to be implemented as soon as possible.
According to Braithwaite: “2008 is going to be a critical year as far as the next world Cup campaign is concerned.
There is a tendency to wait until the final round of qualification before the momentum gets going but it is important to put a solid foundation in place as early as possible.”
He stressed also that the players represent the most experienced group of players that Trinidad and Tobago has produced and they have a lot to offer when their playing days are over.
He pointed out that they made a significant contribution to the success of the last World Cup campaign and Yorke, in particular, was outstanding both as captain and player.
“Shaka is another tremendous individual who has both the playing experience and the academic background to be a major influence in local football.
He is widely respected and it would be wonderful if he is part of the national team organisation especially in guiding the younger players” Braithwaite said.
He said that while there are some exciting young prospects emerging, like Kenwyne Jones, there may be a lack of experience at the international level, and this he said is necessary in a protracted World Cup campaign.
He made it clear the solution is to get an early start so that when the competition heats up, the young player would already have some big games under his belt.