National Senior team head coach Leo Beenhakker will await feedback on FIFA as to whether it will consider a call from the various head coaches of the FIFA 2006 World Cup nations to push back its deadline date of May 15 for the submission of final teams for the tournament.
Beenhakker, along with several other head coaches as England’s Sven Eriksson, Marco Van Basten (Holland), Carlos Alberto Parreira (Brazil), Luiz Felipe Scolari (Portugal) and Italy's Marcello Lippi and others were all part of the technical study group and interpretations of the laws of the game meetings where several issues were discussed including the requests for the deadline date to be pushed back.
It was reported that Van Basten openly asked the FIFA to deal with some of the major issues at hand rather than some of the things that seemed to be taking up most of the meeting and he was highlighted in the media on Wednesday for doing so. Beenhakker’s name was also flashed across the Sports front page of the Telegraph Newspaper in Dusseldorf as he and other coaches commented on the need for FIFA to deal with some of the urgent matters.
Beenhakker was quoted as saying that there were no technical reasons why FIFA would not push back the deadline date and it was felt by the batch of coaches that FIFA wanted the teams submitted no later than May 15 due to commercial matters.
At the moment Beenhakker will finalize a 28-man provision squad for the World Cup and will play against Peru on May 10, his only international outing before May 15. The T&T team then has further internationals against Wales (May 27), Slovenia (May 31) and Czech Republic on June 3. During that final stretch before the World Cup begins, several other teams including T&T’s first match opponents Sweden all get together around the middle of May for their build ups for the tournament.
There were also other issues raised including the request to have more than six substitutes used in the training matches in May leading up to the World Cup, for teams to be allowed more in their quota of team personnel on the pitch during games (on account of the expansion of medical teams).
“It raised a lot of eyebrows the way Van Basten questioned the FIFA but it seemed the coaches agreed with his points,” T&T Team liaison officer Mark Bos told TTFF Media. “Leo Beenhakker and the other coaches raised their points in the media today and they will all await to see how FIFA handles it but at the moment it stands at May 15 being the deadline for the submission of the teams. Generally the workshop turned out well and there were no other unsettled terms as such. Over the next few weeks leading up to the World Cup, FIFA and the LOC will continue to liaise with the different teams to ensure things are fully understood and in place,” Bos added.
It was revealed that shortly before the start of the tournament, the T&T coaching staff, like the other 31 teams, will be contacted to arrange a visit to the team base by the FIFA technical study group to discuss the team’s long term and short term preparations, training sessions and the matches. The technical study group will also view the training sessions at convenient times to both the group and the coaching staff. FIFA has intentions of producing various videos and DVDS of the T&T team and the other competing teams to use at development courses. The videos will include match scenes and impressions at training sessions. Of course all of this will be strictly confidential and not used until after the World Cup.
Meantime, Team Doctor Terrence Babwah was also involved in the medical meetings where there was a joint declaration by all those present to commit to the fight against doping. The delegates also discussed in detail a host of other medical issues relevant to tournament such as the effects the high summer temperatures could have on the players, methods of counteracting time zone differences, and even the dietary requirements of the different delegations.
Some of the delegations began making their way out of Dusseldorf as Wednesday brought the close of the workshop which dealt with several issues on how the FIFA World Cup is staged - from the official protocol to be followed during each match, by way of financial and marketing matters, right through to the application of Fair Play, security and how the media personnel will do their jobs at the tournament among other things.
“It definitely was a fully worthwhile exercise not just for us as newcomers but for the other teams as you may have well heard the reactions from some of the other teams which are considered regulars at the World Cup,” T&T team manager Bruce Aanensen told TTFF Media. “We have received an outline as to the general picture of our build up to and participation in the World Cup . While there are still some matters that we will have to deal with as an organization, it seems that this time that we shall definitely be no strangers at our first appearance on the big stage.”
The T&T delegation returns home via London on Thursday.