The unexpected hiring of the Trinidad & Tobago men’s futsal coach Constantine Konstin as the interim head coach of the senior women’s football team came as a surprise to many in the local football fraternity.
The Unified Football Coaches of Trinidad and Tobago (UFCTT) were bothered by the decision and described the situation as ‘absurd’. The Coaches Committee was ratified and admitted to the Trinidad & Tobago Football Association (TTFA)at the recently held Emergency General Meeting. They are led by former national goalkeeper and coach Jefferson George until April next year.
A statement released by the UFCTT said, “The Normalization Committee (NC) and anyone else responsible for this appointment has demonstrated ineptitude far beyond technical matters. The appointment defies simple logic. You will not go to a doctor to do a root canal or a dentist to do a heart surgery, why then hire a Futsal coach with no experience in 11 v 11 to coach your senior women’s team? Hopefully asking those questions are the answers in itself.”
Konstin who is mostly known as an international futsal coach will lead his new team in two friendly matches on October 21 and 25 against Panama at the Ato Boldon Stadium. The American Konstin will be replacing Welshman James Thomas who held the top position for the last five months.
The UFCTT asked some more pertinent questions in the prelease. “What is the objective and intention behind this appointment? With two friendly games just weeks away, what does the coach bring to the women’s program? Also, this will certainly be another devastating blow to the moral of the coaches of Trinidad and Tobago.”
The UFCTT is calling on the NC to appoint a technical committee to allow such matters so that the NC will focus solely on the administration and repaying the debts of the organization.
The release concluded, “The growing concern for the UFCTT is the shortcomings of the NC in terms of their lack of ability to make rational decisions based on logic. How are we also to have confidence in them in solving the debt of TTFA? The area in which they are supposedly experts with little or nothing to show to date.”
