Major coaching decisions are expected to be made today with regards to the coaching set up of the T&T Football Federation. This as its executive committee meets this afternoon to discuss the way forward for local football ahead of the Fifa 2014 World Cup in Brazil. A major topic of discussion at the meeting being held at the federation's headquarters, Dundonald Street, Port-of-Spain from 9 am will be the future of under fire 'Soca Warriors' coach, Russell Latapy.
Only on Friday, Latapy along with T&TFF Technical Director Lincoln "Tiger" Phillips and team manager David Muhammad submitted their technical report on the failed Digicel Caribbean Cup Finals campaign in Martinique to the federation and the senior team's progress during the 2009/2010 season. According to a source, the reports submitted by the three men outline a number of failed commitments on behalf of the T&TFF which assisted in the team's failure in Martinique and other dismal performances during their time at the helm.
Expected to attend the meeting are Oliver Camps, president of the local federation and Fifa vice-president and Concacaf boss, Jack Warner. While the future of Latapy, a former national captain and World Cup midfielder is uncertain now, fewer than 12 international coaches -none of which are local- have applied for the job to coach the Soca Warriors. Most of the applications have come in from Brazil and Holland. Surprisingly, no English coaches have applied for the post. Latapy's tenure has come under heavy criticism after T&T's dismal showing at the Digicel Caribbean Cup Finals in Martinique earlier this month, where it failed to reach the semifinals, also missing out on qualifying for the Concacaf Gold Cup in the USA next year.
His record as coach for 23 games reads nine wins, 11 defeats and three draws. Contacted for comment, Camps said it was to premature to determine what will take place at the meeting. "As I said there is a process of first discussing the reports from the manager, coach and Technical Advisor, and whatever comes out of that meeting will be further discussed. Look Loy added, "The full procedure of the T&TFF in selecting a coach will be followed if that is the agreement at the end on the meeting."
"Once a decision has been agreed by all parties involved then the selection process similar to the one undertaken for national women's Technical Director, Norwegian Even Pellerud will take place.
"So far we have a number of persons who have stated their interest and we are open to more making themselves available as we see no urgent need to make the appointment of a senior team coach."
Look Loy added, "The national team does not have a Fifa international match until sometime in February, and while we all want to give the new coach- if appointed - maximum time to work with his players we don't see the urgent to rush into naming a coach at the moment, because our next major assignment will be World Cup 2014 qualification.