Pay the amateur football coaches

“A concerned coach” who wished to remain anonymous, called for local coaches to be paid for the role they play in preparing players for national teams.

According to the “concerned coach,” the local coaches have been the ones to do the job of preparing national players before they are selected by club teams and national coaches and get absolutely no recognition for their efforts.

He said further, for the recent World Cup football tournament in Germany, the Dutch contingent which was led by Leo Beenhakker, basically benefited from the work of the local coaches, after receiving a ready-made team.

“All the Dutch contingent worked on in my view was a tactical structure which prevented the team from receiving many goals,” he said.

He is urging the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) to treat local coaches with respect.

He noted that local coaches have been doing a good job in producing players such as Stern John, Densil Theobald, Dwight Yorke, Kelvin Jack, Dennis Lawrence and midfielder Evans Wise, and therefore they should be paid just as the international coaches are given handsome salaries.

Meanwhile, the “concerned coach” also made a call for a new technical staff for the national women team.

“For far too long now the present coaching staff has been operating without success at CONCACAF and international level, and therefore the time has come for other coaches to be appointed,” he said.

He pointed out there are other coaches out there with new ideas and vision, who can bring more success to the national women footballers.

“We are not getting the right outcome from our national women footballers because they can only strive at regional level,” he said.

He said the time has come for CONCACAF president and TTFF Special Advisor Jack Austin Warner to start looking at coaches who have been successful at secondary school football and club levels.