St Clair to take over tomorrow

BERTILLE ST CLAIR is expected to be named tomorrow as the new technical director of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF). This development comes four years after he was sacked as head coach of the national men’s senior team. The Tobago-born St Clair is expected to take over from St Lucian Stuart Charles-Fevrier. According to a source close to the TTFF, Charles-Fevrier will be in charge of the TT men’s Under-23 team for the CONCACAF Olympic qualifiers in Mexico from February 2-12, following which he will be appointed as the National Under-20 coach. Last December, Ron La Forest was named as the Under-20 coach but sources indicate that the present Joe Public coach will serve as the assistant to St Clair. But no word has been made on the long-term position of Brian Williams and Ross Russell, who are the current assistants to Charles-Fevrier.

However, two things are clear — the 20-member Under-23 team will be announced after a training session at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Balmain, Couva tomorrow. And the TTFF, who have been tight-lipped about the entire scenario since it broke on Monday, will issue a media statement to clarify the issue, which has sent ripples throughout the footballing fraternity. Under the mandate “Project 2006 — The Way Forward,” Charles-Fevrier was appointed as coach in May 2003 and handed a three-year contract with the aim of qualification for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. St Clair, known as an authoritative and stern disciplinarian, will have his third stint as a national team coach. The long-standing coach of Signal Hill Senior and the St Clair Coaching School became the first coach to guide an English-speaking Caribbean team to a World Cup when he took the national Under-20 team to the 1991 World Youth Cup in Portugal.

But he was dismissed after the team lost all three matches in the tournament, conceeding ten goals and scoring none. He returned to the fray in 1997, this time with the senior team, but was fired in February 2000 after Trinidad and Tobago were beaten 1-0 by Canada in the semifinal round of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. La Forest replaced Zoran Vranes as coach of Joe Public a year ago, after he guided St Anthony’s to the treble (North Zone, “Big 5” and Intercol) during the 2002 Secondary Schools League. Also a no-nonsense boss, La Forest has had a distinguished career as player and coach at the local school and club level.