Shabazz says women need more exposure

Trinidad and Tobago women’s football team coach Jamaal Shabazz has called for more international exposure for the senior and junior squads. Shabazz made this plea after the recent three-match series between the national teams (senior and Under-19) and the visiting Canadian Under-19 squad. “My aim is to try to convince the authorities that the women’s team and the women’s programme need more matches like these,” said Shabazz. “The time has come for them to see that the women need the kind of international exposure that is necessary. The potential is there but potential and ability can only go to the next level with international exposure,” he said.

The long-standing national women’s coach noted that the teams are extremely capable of competing at the CONCACAF level and called on the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) and the Ministry of Sport to form a partnership with the Football Federation (TTFF) to assist with the women’s game. “This women’s team have the potential to lift the spirit of the people of Trinidad and Tobago,” Shabazz stressed. “We need to nurture it and make the team into something that could really motivate the morale of the people and to do that we need the international exposure.”