South American, European coach eye ‘Warriors’
By Walter Alibey (Newsday).
An executive committee meeting of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation on Tuesday will decide the future of Russell Latapy as coach of the “Soca Warriors.”
TTFF technical committee chairman Keith Look Loy hinted this yesterday.
But he explained he knew nothing about the possible appointment of either Frenchman Jean Tigana or Holland’s Ruud Gullit as a replacement for Latapy. Look Loy who is also a FIFA Youth Development Officer said, that according to FIFA, there were interests from top international coaches around the world to take charge of the “Soca Warriors.” even while Latapy was in the job for the past few months.
“We are recognised around the world. We have qualified for the World Cup and therefore there are lots of coaches around the world with their eyes on us. Coaches kept on expressing their interests but I was firmly of the view that no coach should be chosen to replace another while he is still in the job,” Look Loy said.
He said while he was reluctant to reveal the names of the coaches and the country they are from, he could only say that they were from Europe and South America. And yesterday he made it clear that from the interests the football federation received, none of them were from Gullit or Tigana.
According to Look Loy, “While I am of the firm view that Latapy should not be allowed to carry on as coach of the national team because his results and performances were not what the country needed, I am not in favour of either Tigana or Gullit coaching Trinidad and Tobago.”
Look Loy said it is his humble opinion that the time has come for TT to chart a new way forward without Latapy at the helm. There were concerns for Latapy’s future as national coach after a string of poor performances, particularly at the recent Digicel Caribbean Cup which saw the “Soca Warriors” booted out early.
