The T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTFA) has agreed to terms with for­mer Re­al Madrid coach, Leo Been­hakker and for­mer Cana­da men's na­tion­al coach and tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor, Stephen Hart, to join its ranks in time for the Con­ca­caf Gold Cup.Been­hakker will serve as the TTFA's di­rec­tor of foot­ball, and Hart, the head coach of the T&T men's se­nior team.As di­rec­tor, Been­hakker will help shape the brand of TTFA na­tion­al team pro­grams, as well as men­tor and ad­vise T&T na­tion­al team coach­es, and pro­vide a long-term struc­ture in the way TTFA na­tion­al teams op­er­ate.Been­hakker will ar­rive in T&T to ob­serve the Gold Cup pool and even­tu­al squad at the train­ing camp and ac­com­pa­ny the team to the US as part of the T&T del­e­ga­tion.

Mean­while, Hart, who has been high­ly rec­om­mend­ed by Been­hakker to fill the role as head coach, is a San Fer­nan­do, Trinidad na­tive who be­gan his play­ing ca­reer in T&T and built his post-play­ing ca­reer in Cana­da through the Cana­di­an Soc­cer As­so­ci­a­tion with­in the coach­ing and de­vel­op­ment ranks.Hart earned praise for tak­ing an un­her­ald­ed Cana­da team to the semi­fi­nal round in the 2011 Gold Cup and in 45 match­es as Cana­da's coach, he com­piled a record of 20 wins, 10 draws, and 15 loss­es. In­clud­ed in his record are wins against T&T's up­com­ing Gold Cup first round op­po­nents, El Sal­vador, Haiti, and Hon­duras.Hart will be con­tract­ed for two years and the TTFA is still en­gaged with Been­hakker in fi­nal­is­ing the length of his ser­vice, which will be longer than the two months pe­ri­od re­port­ed in ear­li­er ac­counts by var­i­ous out­lets.

Hart has ex­pressed a de­sire to re­tain for­mer head coach Hut­son Charles, as well as a num­ber of oth­er cur­rent staff mem­bers and will meet with now for­mer tech­ni­cal staff up­on his ar­rival in T&T.Hart al­so spoke of his ap­point­ment: "I would like to make the tran­si­tion as smooth as pos­si­ble es­pe­cial­ly this close to the Gold Cup. I've had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to speak with Hut­son and we are of the same ac­cord in our ap­proach to how the up­com­ing train­ing camp will be or­gan­ised."Cur­rent plans are for Hart to ar­rive in T&T be­fore the June 23 train­ing camp re­port date while Been­hakker will ar­rive in Trinidad a week lat­er and trav­el with the team to the Gold Cup.Been­hakker was al­so reached for com­ment by TTFA me­dia."The ap­proach tak­en by the TTFA es­tab­lish­es a long-term and sub­stan­tive strat­e­gy that will pos­i­tive­ly im­pact the struc­ture of the na­tion­al pro­grams while at the same time es­tab­lish­es an ex­cel­lent head coach in Mr Hart for some time to come," said the new di­rec­tor of foot­ball.