TTFA plans training camps for senior teams.
T&T Express Reports.
With the 2014 World Cup Finals presently in focus, the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association is moving ahead with plans to stage a home-based training camp for the men’s senior team in August and the women’s senior side in Houston next month.
These are among the items on a schedule being ironed out by TTFA president Raymond Tim Kee and general secretary Sheldon Phillips as discussions continue with the relevant technical personnel within the TTFA.
This, and other matters were discussed at the TTFA Executive Committee meeting at the head offices, Hasely Crawford Stadium on Wednesday.
Following the two matches against Argentina and Iran at which T&T received some favourable feedback, both Tim Kee and Phillips engaged in meetings with other international football stakeholders and officials at the FIFA and Concacaf Congress in Sao Paulo the week of the World Cup kick-off.
“We are quite aware that we must continue the momentum and this means that the planning and execution of our programmes, training camps and international matches must take priority and must remain this way throughout the year,” Tim Kee told TTFA Media.
T&T head coach Stephen Hart has requested a training camp involving home-based players and the FA is fielding offers from potential international opponents for a possible match in August.
Likewise, the women’s team is preparing for the Caribbean Football Union final round of World Cup qualification here in T&T in August. They will engage in a training camp in Houston from July 10 to August 10.
The team will be based at the University of Houston and T&T are scheduled to play Mexico and the Houston Dash of the WPSL and Dallas FC’s Under-23 team in a series of training matches during the camp.
Before that, T&T’s women will host Venezuela in two warm-up matches at the Mahaica Oval, Point Fortin and at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) ground. Dates will be confirmed this week.
On the men’s Under 17 side, the team, under coach Shawn Cooper, resumed training on June 21 as part of its preparation for the CFU qualifiers next month. Cooper has followed players participating in the Pro League Youth Divison and will announce his final squad a week before taking the team to the CFU tournament.
The men’s Under-20 technical team will be announced next week as T&T look ahead to the CFU qualifiers which will take place in T&T this September.
“As we continue to receive support from the Ministry of Sport and the Sportt Company, we are also engaged in promising discussions with the Ministry of National Security.
Minister Gary Griffth fully appreciates the role sport and more so football can play in alleviating crime and the FIFA international award won by Crown Trace FC of Enterprise at the Power of Football competition is a fine example of that shows such a story can be replicated across Trinidad and Tobago using football as a vehicle for hope and opportunity,” Tim Kee said.
“There is also some funding support to come from the world governing body which we intend to use on development and our coaches to ensure that the operations of the TTFA programmes remain on course.
Those that we owe and other matters that are outstanding remain high on our priority list and we have established a strategy to address the most pressing of these obligations which we unfortunately inherited,” Tim Kee added.
