O’Connor plans more football double-headers

Efforts are being made to stage another international football double-header involving Trinidad and Tobago’s Senior and Olympic teams next year. Both teams are preparing for their respective 2006 World Cup and 2004 Olympic qualifying matches.

This was hinted by Peter O’Connor, recently appointed marketing manager of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation. O’Connor, a former president of the TTFF from 1985 to 1991, took over the role as marketing chief in September and has been taking measures to make local football more attractive to the fans here. His first major assignment was last Wednesday’s double-header. It was not a bad start which brought victories for both the Senior and Olympic teams. “Obviously the performance of the teams plays a major part in getting the fans back to the stadiums to see them in action,” he said. “Wednesday’s matches brought a breath of fresh air and coming out of it were two victories in one evening for Trinidad and Tobago. That left us with a good feeling especially the performance of the Under-23s who looked positive. “When this match was scheduled there was a need for the senior team to also play as well. So I made the suggestion that we look to teams that would not cost too much at this point but would also compete with us.

“Cuba was the obvious choice as they are pretty on par with us and the opportunity to present a double-header of two good TT teams was realised,” O’Connor said on Friday. “Definitely I know the talent is there but it’s just a matter of getting the players performing and with a few more experienced players coming back from England to play an important role in the off-season,” he said. O’Connor also hopes to get corporate TT more involved. “Getting corporate Trinidad and Tobago and the government to see the value of us qualifying out of Mexico with the Olympic team and making a good run for the 2006 World Cup is also high on the agenda. “We also need to have more matches played which is not an easy task now because more matches cost a lot more money. “I would like to get corporate TT to assist more in this area and get Mr Warner liberated from being the sole financier of football in this country,” he added.