Individual contracts, among them that of senior men’s national coach Terry Fenwick, are still being perused. However, most regular national team technical staff members can expect to be paid outstanding salaries soon.
A commitment was given to pay the regular coaching staff following Wednesday’s meeting between national football teams technical staff members and the FIFA-appointed normalisation committee, which world football’s governing body FIFA installed in March to run football in Trinidad and Tobago.
“In the meeting, which was facilitated virtually, the normalisation committee outlined proposals for the settlement of outstanding payments to technical staff members. The proposal was generally satisfactory. However, nuances in some individual contracts require further engagement,” a release from the National Coaches Steering Committee said.
“We believe there is good reason to be optimistic of this process being completed within the time frame suggested by the normalisation committee. This optimism is borne out of the productive and transparent nature of the meetings between both parties thus far,” the release added.
Wayne Sheppard, a member of the Steering Committee, related to Trinidad Express his satisfaction with the process and relief that coaches and other staff would be paid for services for the first time this year. Payment will be made by direct deposit to individual bank accounts.
“They gave a commitment to pay the staff members,” Sheppard said.
“The senior staff, however, they each have individual contracts. So they each had to go into meetings. In discussion, the points they had reached differed based on the individuals and their contracts,” Sheppard explained.
“There is still some discussion going on with the contracts of the senior staff members and some of the head coaches. They need to clarify one or two things because the contracts are individual. So some conversions still had,” Sheppard explained, “As far as the other members of the technical staff, it is more or less ironed out already.”
Many of the regular contracts ended in August. However, Sheppard revealed that no discussion was made about continuing the contract of these coaches.
“It was hinted that changes were to be made,” Sheppard said, “We yet to understand what would be the method used to make these changes. They have proven that they are qualified. So what is the determination that these coaches will not be given the opportunity to continue?”