FORMER NATIONAL player Shaka Hislop is in agreement with the contract extension awarded to Trinidad and Tobago’s senior men’s football team head coach Angus Eve.
On Thursday, Eve got another contract extension when the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association TTFA as the Normalisation Committee (NC) announced that Eve will be in the job until at least December 31, 2025.
Eve’s latest extension means that he will continue to lead the Soca Warriors when they begin their qualification campaign for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in June and throughout the 2024/2025 CONCACAF Nations League tournament.
For Hislop, that decision was a common sense one. “It sets the stage for what is needed for a campaign in terms of the qualification for World Cup 2026,” Hislop said on the i95.5 Sports programme on I95.5FM.
“It makes a lot of sense, given how thick and fast the games are coming. I am not sure there is any sort of opportunity for any change over, if a change over was deemed necessary. So purely from a continuity perspective, it makes a lot of sense.”
Hislop added that it also made sense from a financial perspective. While he admitted to not knowing intimately the financial status of the TTFA, he inferred from media reports that the TTFA would be better served by not being burdened by having to pay a massive salary to staff.
Asked about his thoughts on T&T football, Hislop said he has distanced himself from the political aspect of the local game, adding that the need for the return of the administration of the game to elected officials is important for accountability.
“I don’t have many thoughts on T&T football and the reason being I don’t feel we can advance; I don’t feel with the NC, that is in charge of T&T football, there is any sense of accountability,” said Hislop.
“No one can say if they are doing a good or bad job. They are in place, in power because of a FIFA mandate. That is the only body that they have to account to.
“So we have a football leadership that doesn’t have to account to the stakeholders of T&T football, to the fans of T&T football. So our failing or our success, relative as they may be, are irrelevant until they have somebody to account to.”
Hislop added the upcoming TTFA elections were necessary for order to be restored in the running of the local game.
“It is a step in the right direction in terms of regaining that sort of normalcy and who we are—in charge of our own affairs...It is important that we at least get back to that starting point. Otherwise, I just felt that we weren’t going anywhere,” added Hislop.
“(The new members of the executive)...have to appease the fans, the greater good of T&T football. Now your primary responsibility cannot be to those men who hold the greatest power in world football and so, again, the longer lasting impact, the stagnation of our football...we can only guess at.
“My belief is everybody that comes in will have to recognise who their primary responsibility is (to). It is no one on these shores.”
SOURCE: T&T Express