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It seems like a case of déjà vu for the se­nior na­tion­al women foot­ballers. Four years ago, a few days be­fore the start of the CON­CA­CAF World Cup qual­i­fiers for the 2015 FI­FA World Cup in Cana­da, out of frus­tra­tion the then coach Randy Wal­drum plead­ed with the TTFA to show his play­ers re­spect. He tweet­ed “I need HELP! T&T sent a team here last night with $500 to­tal. No equip­ment such as balls, no trans­porta­tion from the air­port to the ho­tel, noth­ing.” Wal­drum's re­sponse/re­ac­tion or 'emo­tion­al dis­tur­bance' was brought about by ad­min­is­tra­tive blun­ders by the TTFA. The Hait­ian team pro­vid­ed tem­po­rary re­lief by do­nat­ing US$ 1300.00 to the na­tion­al team to meet ba­sic needs such as food and trans­porta­tion.

In 2018, fund­ing is an is­sue yet again with a break­down in com­mu­ni­ca­tion be­tween the team's man­ag­er and the TTFA in terms of ac­quir­ing fi­nan­cial sup­port from the Min­istry of Sport and Youth Af­fairs (MSYA).

In 2014, the team did not play any com­pet­i­tive match­es friend­ly in­ter­na­tion­al match­es be­tween the Caribbean Cup and the CON­CA­CAF qual­i­fiers. In 2018 the team has not played any com­pet­i­tive friend­ly in­ter­na­tion­als be­tween the Caribbean Cup and two weeks be­fore the start of the CON­CA­CAF qual­i­fiers against Pana­ma on Oc­to­ber 4th. The oth­er teams in their group are Mex­i­co and the USA. What does this say about their prepa­ra­tion? How se­ri­ous are the ad­min­is­tra­tors? What mes­sage is be­ing sent to the play­ers?

Un­like 2014, in 2018, with the start of the tour­na­ment on Oc­to­ber 4th, the po­si­tion of coach is shroud­ed in un­cer­tain­ty ow­ing in part to in­ter­nal wran­gling with­in the TTFA. The is­sue of the coach has con­tin­ued to be a prob­lem as Ital­ian Car­oli­na Morace and her three for­eign as­sis­tants who were ap­point­ed in Feb­ru­ary 2017 to launch the na­tion­al team women's pro­gramme have all de­part­ed.

The cur­rent prob­lems fac­ing the na­tion­al se­nior team is com­ing on the heels of the na­tion­al Un­der-15 team not par­tic­i­pat­ing in the CON­CA­CAF Un­der-15 tour­na­ment in Au­gust ow­ing to the late ap­pli­ca­tion for visas in­to the USA.

In 2014, the then TTFA pres­i­dent stat­ed that the 'gov­er­nance and struc­ture of the or­ga­ni­za­tion is faulty'. Is it the same rea­son for the re­peat sit­u­a­tion that the women team faces to­day or is it some­thing that on­ly ap­plies to the women's foot­ball? It is im­por­tant for the TTFA to re­store con­fi­dence in the pub­lic about its abil­i­ty to ef­fi­cient­ly, ef­fec­tive­ly and trans­par­ent­ly or­gan­ise foot­ball in the coun­try. These lessons have to reg­is­ter quick­ly as greater chal­lenges lay ahead. It can­not be busi­ness as usu­al.

"I don't feel it is nec­es­sary to know ex­act­ly what I am. The main in­ter­est in life and work is to be­come some­one else that you were not in the be­gin­ning." Michel Fou­cault.