T&T road to Brazil 2014 open.
By: Alvin Corneal (T&T Guardian).
Sometimes, four years tend to appear far away and we believe that its possible to shelve some plans until the time gets closer.
Not so in World Cup Football! The journey starts immediately after the finals of the past one, in this case South Africa 2010.
The fact that this country’s national team got off the ground with their preparation is an indication as to their intention to get the machinery in motion for what is expected to be a challenging route towards qualifying for the finals in Brazil.
The words of the Fifa vice president Jack Warner, in quote, “we shall be going to Brazil”, is as positive a start as we could wish, for two reasons.
The first is that Warner’s desire is always backed by the financing needed, and despite the recent head-to-head payment clashes with the players from our historic Germany World Cup finals, he may still be keen to make his wishes come true.
The second is that the team preparation is on its way, convincingly defeating Antigua/Barbuda (4-1) in its jump off match and well, falling to Jamaica, 3-1, a formidable opponent which has the same intention as the Soca Warriors.
Funnily enough, I like the concept of being emphatic in my belief that the direction in which I want to go should be clearly defined, hence the reason why I have taken Warner’s comment seriously.
However, the statement must be backed by careful planning for everyday onward, leading from the mental, physical and psychological aspects of our preparation of the players, staff, the administrators and the fans, together with a well organised “on the field” programme for the next four years.
Clearly, the first step will be our preliminary tournament of the Digicel Cup which will give us some match competition against Haiti, and one of Suriname/Guyana/ Netherlands.
This tournament which T&T will host must be treated with the importance of even a World Cup qualifier, because the only answer will be victory over the opponents, who are also in search of going forward.
Already, the man behind the Brazilian journey, Russell Latapy, has indicated that he can win this tournament with the locally based players.
He has been working with a group for the past two months and is probably now aware that there is sufficient ability to achieve his primary goal.
Maybe the most essential aspect of that four-year journey is the methodical training programmes which are geared to develop every department of the game, and the choice of the various junctures which one can test the progress of the squad.
This will certainly mean some dialogue which the T&T Football Federation (TTFF) will have with the Pro League organisers and the team administrators, with specific reference to the training schedule which will circumvent both the matches in the league and also the national team match fixtures.
A fixed calendar of friendly and competitive matches should be arranged from now until maybe the Gold Cup in June 2011, taking into consideration the Under-23 Olympic Qualification, and opportune occasions to utilise the players, who may be available from the Major League Soccer (MLS) between October and March.
This long term plan will ensure that the marketing process can be the catalyst to keep the public engaged in the happenings of our team and open more doors for greater income possibilities.
One of the most recent innovations practiced by the more advanced countries is to engage the services of a group of players who are considered fringe prospects, whereby the potentially strong contenders will be under a similar type of training, maybe with less training days (because of team commitments), and knowing that they can catch the eyes of the technocrats with their positive attitudes, their commitment, and natural talent which may not have been recognised during their club activity.
Of course, the guidelines to be followed by all the stakeholders, must be clearly documented and adhered to by all. There have been too many incidents in the past which have affected the smooth running of our team preparation and these must be eliminated or minimised from the very start.
There must be a stipulated contractual arrangement between the TTFF and the selected players as to the financial aspect of each player and coach, with full understanding that the acceptance of these contracts will be with full knowledge of the repercussions of fines and suspensions on either side, if there are not followed.
All parties must be aware that this is now a business transaction and it must stand the test of transparency for the benefit of clarity towards Brazil 2014.
A smart Federation will even appoint a small committee to pay close attention to every detail, especially finance, along the way, to ensure that nothing is derailed and neither side is allowed to make changes without collective agreement of both sides.
Yes, its may appear complicated, but it will surely eliminate all the previous ugly pictures which have shown themselves over the past four years. We should all keep our eyes open.
