For­mer na­tion­al women’s coach Richard Hood could not of­fer a so­lu­tion to the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion fac­ing the coun­try’s se­nior women’s team ahead of the World Cup Qual­i­fiers, which start next month; how­ev­er, he be­lieves that on­ly the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion can fix the is­sues fac­ing women’s foot­ball in the coun­try.

Mere weeks af­ter the team be­gan its prepa­ra­tion for the World Cup, a war of words be­tween two play­ers, which was played out on so­cial me­dia, threw the pro­gramme in­to dis­ar­ray, with re­cent­ly ap­point­ed coach An­gus Eve re­sign­ing in the midst. Guardian Me­dia Sports learnt that the coach, once fired from the se­nior men’s team, took of­fence to an al­leged de­ci­sion by team man­ag­er Maylee At­tin John­son and his as­sis­tant Den­sill Theobald to sus­pend strik­er Asha James against his ad­vice.

The TTFA named a na­tion­al team on Fri­day for an in­ter­na­tion­al friend­ly against Ja­maica on Tues­day at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um in Bal­main, Cou­va, con­firm­ing the omis­sion of James. Strik­er Ken­nya ‘Ya Ya’ Cord­ner, who was the sub­ject of James’ Face­book post, has been con­firmed as one of five strik­ers on the team, along­side school­girl Niki­ta Go­sine, Aaliyah Prince, Afiyah Corn­wall, and Tyeisha Grif­fith.

Fol­low­ing the Ja­maica match, the na­tion­al women will face Group F of the Qual­i­fiers, which fea­tures Hon­duras, El Sal­vador, and Bar­ba­dos.

Next year’s W Cham­pi­onship will serve as the Con­fed­er­a­tion’s qual­i­fi­er for both the 2027 FI­FA Women’s World Cup Brazil and the 2028 LA Sum­mer Olympics and is the first of three ma­jor cen­tralised tour­na­ments in the Con­fed­er­a­tion’s re­vamped women’s na­tion­al team cal­en­dar, un­veiled in Sep­tem­ber.

The 2025/26 Con­ca­caf W Qual­i­fiers will fea­ture 29 Mem­ber As­so­ci­a­tions — ex­clud­ing the re­gion’s two high­est-ranked na­tions — and will be played dur­ing the FI­FA Women’s In­ter­na­tion­al Match Win­dows in No­vem­ber 2025, Feb­ru­ary, and April 2026.

Hood told Guardian Me­dia Sports the struc­ture of the qual­i­fiers shows a pos­si­bil­i­ty for T&T to do well. “When you look at the for­mat of this par­tic­u­lar com­pe­ti­tion they’re go­ing in­to, there is a pos­si­bil­i­ty for suc­cess, be­cause they play a game next month against the weak­est team, Bar­ba­dos, and then they have two months to get in gear for the next as­sign­ment, so there is the pos­si­bil­i­ty of do­ing well,” Hood ex­plained.

Hood said dur­ing his tenure as women’s coach, he en­coun­tered the same is­sues the team is fac­ing now, say­ing, “For years, things have not been what they should be with the women’s pro­gramme. They have not been af­ford­ed the nec­es­sary re­sources or oth­er­wise to suc­ceed, so some­thing like that would have to be in place for me to even con­sid­er be­ing part of the women’s pro­gramme.”

“It comes down to fund­ing, it comes down to train­ing, it comes down to in­ter­na­tion­al games, it comes down to all these things. Con­sid­er, if you will, a team play­ing in a tour­na­ment to qual­i­fy for the Con­ca­caf Gold Cup and noth­ing for months, and then we come back to play in this tour­na­ment in Cu­ra­cao, with all these kids, and then noth­ing again af­ter that, so how is that go­ing to sus­tain a pro­gramme? ...how is that go­ing to de­vel­op a pro­gramme? Every­thing boils down to what the FA does,” Hood as­sured.

With Eve out as coach, as­sis­tant Den­sill Theobald is in charge of the team prepa­ra­tion; how­ev­er, Guardian Me­dia Sports learnt that the foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion held talks with Eve re­cent­ly to de­ter­mine whether he can be re­tained as the head coach or whether the search will be on for an­oth­er coach.

When quizzed whether he will con­sid­er the coach­ing job if ap­proached, Hood made it clear that many changes will have to be made first. “I would con­sid­er if the right cir­cum­stances were in place first, and it has al­ways been about that.”

Hood said, “Af­ter every tour­na­ment, you write a re­port, you make cer­tain sug­ges­tions and rec­om­men­da­tions, and then they are nev­er ad­hered to. This has been what has ex­ist­ed for years. I think every­body would have a fair idea of what is re­quired for the women’s team to suc­ceed. The women’s pro­gramme is very dif­fer­ent from the men’s. There is no pro­fes­sion­al foot­ball in T&T, so for the women to suc­ceed, they need to train at a par­tic­u­lar lev­el and play at a par­tic­u­lar lev­el con­sis­tent­ly, and on­ly the FA can af­ford that.”

“The clubs can’t do it; the league is not at a lev­el where it can sus­tain in­ter­na­tion­al foot­ball or pre­pare play­ers to play in­ter­na­tion­al foot­ball. It’s on­ly the FA that can do that, and if the teams are dor­mant for 18 months, then how is that pos­si­ble?” Hood con­clud­ed.

WOMEN’S TEAM

FOR­WARDS

Aaliyah Prince, Afiyah Corn­wall, Ken­nya Cord­ner, Niki­ta Go­sine, Tyeisha Grif­fith

MID­FIELD­ERS

Alex­cia Ali, Kait­lyn Dar­went, Maria-Frances Ser­rant, Naomie Guer­ra, She­nieka Paul, Shurel­la Mendez, Tori Paul

DE­FEND­ERS

Chel­cy Ralph, Chris­sy Mitchell, Jade Bekai, Ja­vana Moreno, Karyn Forbes, Kedie John­son, Shau­nalee Govia, Tama­ra Smart, Vic­to­ria Swift

GOAL­KEEP­ERS

Keri My­ers, Tene­sha Palmer, Nico­lette Craig