Trinidad and Tobago is officially rubbish

“Trinidad and Tobago is officially rubbish!” this was the sentiment voiced on ESPN yesterday by a commentator during the Brazil-Egypt game.  Under different circumstances, I would take offence, but the current state of affairs is different.  It is a reality not an opinion.  From the glowing example of Caribbean football that held off some of the world’s top teams in the World Cup in 2006 to a team that struggles to even qualify (which they didn’t) for the Gold Cup.

We all know of the infighting that ensued after the World Cup and the blacklisting of certain players. We were all witness to the implosion of that talented squad. That was the point when the Soca Warriors were doomed. From then on we have struggled to find the right balance between young talented footballers and experienced talented mentors on the team. There was no handing over of the baton, so to speak, just a bunch of failed experiments that kept the Soca Warrior faithful feeling cheated and abused.

The current crop of players that boasts such international stars as Kenwyne Jones (Sunderland FC), Chris Burchall (LA Galaxy), Carlos Edwards (Ipswich Town) as well as a couple household names and the washed up Stern John (who refuses to accept that his time has been up) went on to represent this country for this WC qualifying campaign. Initially they were being coached by local legend Russell Latapy, maybe the TTFF didn’t get the memo that not all player turn coaches are good because even after a failed qualifying campaign for the Gold Cup they held on to Latapy. Eventually good sense prevailed and Otto Pfister was appointed to the role. He faced the arduous task of making a team out of this bunch of misfits. With limited resources and a misfiring professional league, he faced the insurmountable challenge of completing the campaign with the current crop of players. Many an international friendly break came and went and the Soca Warriors either played no one or played negligible opposition like India (no disrespect to the Indians). But our main rivals were playing teams like Columbia and Honduras on a far more regular basis. Mind you I am in no way blaming the coach for this; this is a shortcoming of the TTFF to attract quality opposition for the boys.

There needs to be a total overhauling of the systems in this country if our football is to make any sort of improvement. The entire TTFF board needs to be changed to competent persons capable of doing what needs to be done. The team ideally needs to be scrapped, and rebuilt from scratch. I suggest we have island wide screenings for fresh players hungry for the chance to represent their country. There are a lot of players that are not affiliated with any professional clubs in this country that are technically and mentally light years ahead of the present ‘Soca Warriors’. This needs to be done at all age groups and have the right development programs in place to get the chosen to the levels of being competitive.  We also need someone as accomplished and internationally experienced as the current coach.

We have 7 years before the 2018 World Cup, we need to start these programs now. The reality is that we have lost our stuttering godfather in FIFA so we can no longer thrive on mediocrity. We need to do better.