An­ton Corneal, tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor of T&T foot­ball, was sacked yes­ter­day, end­ing three years of de­vel­op­ment work in lo­cal foot­ball.

His fir­ing lat­er led to the im­me­di­ate res­ig­na­tion of his as­sis­tant, Ra­jesh Latchoo.

Corneal, con­sid­ered one of lo­cal foot­ball’s most tech­ni­cal per­son­nel/coach­es, was told by the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTFA) of its de­ci­sion to go in a dif­fer­ent di­rec­tion, and there­fore had agreed to part ways, Guardian Me­dia Sports was in­formed by Latchoo and con­firmed by a high-rank­ing mem­ber of the TTFA.

In a re­lease is­sued Thurs­day af­ter­noon, the TTFA said, "The Ex­ec­u­tive of the TTFA wish­es to ad­vise that it has tak­en the de­ci­sion to part ways with Tech­ni­cal Di­rec­tor Mr An­ton Corneal. The TTFA ex­tends its sin­cere grat­i­tude to Mr Corneal for his years of ser­vice, com­mit­ment, and ded­i­ca­tion to the de­vel­op­ment of foot­ball in T&T, par­tic­u­lar­ly his sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions in the area of coach ed­u­ca­tion. His work has pos­i­tive­ly im­pact­ed many in the lo­cal game, and the As­so­ci­a­tion ac­knowl­edges the role he has played in shap­ing path­ways for play­ers and coach­es alike.

"As the TTFA con­tin­ues to evolve, the As­so­ci­a­tion is chart­ing a new di­rec­tion in its tech­ni­cal and de­vel­op­men­tal pro­grammes. This step is part of a broad­er ef­fort to strength­en the struc­ture of foot­ball in the coun­try and en­sure sus­tain­able growth at all lev­els. Fur­ther up­dates on the TTFA’s tech­ni­cal lead­er­ship and fu­ture plans will be com­mu­ni­cat­ed in due course."

Latchoo is a for­mer head coach for the Do­mini­ca se­nior men’s na­tion­al team who al­so worked as a tech­ni­cal ex­pert with­in CON­CA­CAF’s Coach Ed­u­ca­tion Pro­gramme. He earned the ap­point­ment as Head of Coach Ed­u­ca­tion and Youth Foot­ball Di­rec­tor for the TTFA in 2022.

When con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Latchoo said, “The TTFA re­leased An­ton, say­ing that they are go­ing in a dif­fer­ent di­rec­tion, de­spite the work An­ton has done for the coun­try and re­gion. I be­lieve in the vi­sion he has for the de­vel­op­ment of the coun­try and re­gion, so I felt it best for me to step aside al­so.”

Latchoo has al­so been a Coach Ed­u­ca­tor with­in the TTFA pro­gramme since 2011, re­spon­si­ble for de­vel­op­ing and im­ple­ment­ing course con­tent that is play­er-cen­tred and re­al­i­ty-based, along with un­der­stand­ing adult learn­ing prin­ci­ples. Latchoo was al­so as­sis­tant coach for the T&T women’s se­nior team from March 2012 to April 2014, and head coach of Joe Pub­lic Foot­ball Club in 2011, guid­ing the club to the TT Pro League Dig­i­tal Cup in 2010/2011.

Guardian Me­dia reached out to both Kieron Ed­wards, pres­i­dent of the foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion, and Corneal for more in­for­ma­tion on the de­vel­op­ment, but calls to their mo­bile phones went unan­swered.

Corneal was hired as the TTFA tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor on an ini­tial two-year term in Feb­ru­ary 2022 un­der the then chair­man of the FI­FA-in­stalled Nor­mal­i­sa­tion Com­mit­tee, Robert Hadad. He re­placed Dion La Fou­cade, whose con­tract had come to an end.

Be­fore his ap­point­ment in 2022, Corneal pre­vi­ous­ly held the TTFA tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor po­si­tion for dif­fer­ent pe­ri­ods for some ten years.

He is a for­mer na­tion­al foot­baller who holds oth­er ti­tles as a cer­ti­fied coach ed­u­ca­tor and works with FI­FA as a FI­FA tech­ni­cal ex­pert, men­tor­ing tech­ni­cal di­rec­tors and con­duct­ing FI­FA tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor lead­er­ship work­shops both on­line and in per­son. Corneal is al­so a CON­CA­CAF tech­ni­cal con­sul­tant, con­duct­ing coach li­cens­ing in the re­gion, and sits on the CON­CA­CAF coach­ing pan­el, as­sist­ing with the stan­dard­i­s­a­tion of coach ed­u­ca­tion with­in the re­gion.

An ex­ec­u­tive of the TTFA, who di­rect­ed all ques­tions to pres­i­dent Ed­wards, said he could on­ly say that part of the de­part­ing agree­ment be­tween the par­ties was a three-month pay­ment pe­ri­od for salaries. It is un­clear who will be the re­place­ments for the two.