A future for football?
By Peter O’Connor (Newsday).
This is a continuation of last week’s commentary “No Soca in Sao Paulo”. I had looked briefly at our World Cup history and then questioned our “national character”, and asked whether we, not just our football, could sustain excellence.
Over the years, “the administration” has been criticised as the greatest hindrance to Football’s progress. I was part of that administration from 1973 through 1991, the last five years as president. Then in 2003 I returned, to help organise all the home matches of the Journey to Germany, and the Caribbean Youth Cups, 2004 and 2005.
I acknowledge the problems and the successes and am aware, more than most commentators, of the difficulties of any administration working as a team in our society. As in every other aspect of our lives “competing interests” always override the overall good or goal. That is a reality which existed in the 1970s, today, and will continue in the future.
But, yes, the administration must bear responsibility for failing to resolve disputes, for often taking inexplicable actions or reactions, and for appearing “non-transparent” much of the time.
But most of the “development” criticism is unfair. Much is said about the lack of steady development, but we forget easily. Early in the 1980s Dutch Coach Jan Zwartkryus told us that we could only develop internationally by competing seriously at the youth levels.
And we did this. We competed in every CFU and CONCACAF competition through the 1980s and beyond. Our CFU U-14’s went on to CONCACAF U-16’s and then U-19’s. We hosted several of those tournaments. But we were roundly attacked for this. “Stop wasting time and money on youth and concentrate on World Cups” read one editorial.
The results, by names: Dwight Yorke, Russell Latapy, Shaka Hislop, Stern John, Leonson Lewis, Jerren Nixon, Angus Eve, Clayton Ince, and many others. The Strike Squad of 1989 was made up totally of players who had represented TT at Youth level.
The culmination of that programme, was our appearance at the FIFA U-20 Finals in Portugal 1991. The programme fell apart in the 1990s, for want of commitment and funding, and although we entered every qualification stage, and hosted the 2001 FIFA U-17 (enter Kenwyne Jones!), we never “developed”.
Jack Warner introduced the Caribbean Youth Cup in 2004, and with this thrust we qualified for a FIFA U-17 and U-20 Final tournament.
So, if we are producing youngsters like (Hayden) Tinto and (Kevin) Molino and (Akeem) Adams and others who competed with Italy on the world stage, who will we put to coach them? The discussion does not revolve around individuals, but on “Foreign or Local”.
With all respect to our patriotism, the argument is invalid. We need a coach. A person, a leader who can do the job required. And the job required right now is to rebuild our national senior team, with some of the excellent players we still have available. Right now that task is in the capable hands of Angus Eve, in St Kitts with our U-23 Team. But I mean no disrespect when I say that Angus may not be the one to take us forward at the senior level.
We produce very few genuine “Leaders”, anywhere in our society.
Coaching is leadership, and then strategy and tactics. I have only seen one Trinidadian/Tobagonian who showed any leadership, imposed any discipline and elicited any respect from our players. And that was, and is, Gally Cummings. But, in that same period, I only saw one foreigner who had those qualities, and that was Leo Beenhacker.
Gally had one overseas player in his squad and that was David Nakhid. There were serious problems between Gally and David, and while the media and the public were for Nakhid, the TTFA stood with Cummings.
Our history between Gally and Leo, all 15 years of it, was fraught with the issues of senior players joining the teams when they wanted, staying in separate hotels, and arriving late, in their own cars, to practice and at matches! And this with both local and foreign coaches. Would those overseas professionals have toed the line with Gally?
And finally, on coaching; while players from Guyana or Grenada might respect and respond to a TT Coach, I do not know that our own players will show the same respect to that coach. What do you think?
The argument that “we should only use the locally-based players” should be a no-brainer, particularly among football cognoscenti. Spain, France, Brazil, and every African country select their best players, especially those playing overseas. And so must we!
Finally, I agree with those who call for a new administration at this time. But a new administration, coming from the pool of talent that is Trinidad and Tobago, will be hard pressed to development the commitment needed to succeed.
