T&T Football Federation (T&TFF) press officer, Shaun Fuentes has denied claims that this country’s senior footballers will meet India later this year in a three-match series.
On Friday, it was reported in the India Telegraph newspaper, the senior Indian football team could travel to T&T in September for a three-match series, according to All India Football Federation (AIFF) sources.
While the tour of T&T would come after the World Cup qualifiers against United Arab Emirates (UAE), two more matches have been arranged as preparations before the UAE tie.
But reached for comment yesterday, Fuentes said no member of the T&TFF had made any contact with the AIFF with regards to arranging any friendly matches later this year.
Fuentes added, “As far as the Soca Warriors technical department knows, no matches have been planned with India and no contact has been made between both federations.”
Meanwhile, new Soca Warriors coach, German-born Otto Pfister is likely to see his new team in action for the first time on August 10 against an un-named Concacaf opponent.
Pfister’s team had been in talks over a friendly match against European opposition Armenia but that has not materialised and the local federation is now awaiting feed back from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, all of whom participated in the recently concluded Concacaf Gold Cup in the USA.
An approach was also made to Canada but the one time Gold Cup champion through head coach Stephen Hart have since said they are unavailable while Jamaica is a possible opponent but outside of the FIFA international window.
“We have some oppositions from Concacaf that we have approached and we are currently awaiting feedback from them regarding the next FIFA date on August 10,” technical adviser Keith Look Loy said.
Pfister has also met with some of T&T’s European-based players over the past couple weeks including Stoke City striker Kenwyne Jones.
So far European-based players Khaleem Hyland, Lester Peltier, Darryl Roberts, Carlos Edwards, Collin Samuel and Jason Scotland have been part of the training sessions at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva.
Striker Stern John has also been part of Pfister’s sessions as he continues to work on his fitness and is currently in talks leading towards a new deal ahead of the coming season.
However, the English-based trio of Andre Boucaud, Jake Thomson and Jlloyd Samuel were excused from the sessions this month, due to personal reasons. Samuel, who was on a short-team loan deal at Championship Division club, Cardiff City is likely to complete a new transfer after being released by Premiership club, Bolton Wanderers.
Through an English-based agent, talks have also been held with defender Justin Hoyte and goalkeeper Anthony Warner, the latter having already played for T&T.
The 26-year-old Hoyte, who began his career at Arsenal, is currently attached to Championship Division club Middlesbrough since 2008 where he has made 68 appearances.
He was capped 18 times for the England Under-21 level and played all four matches at the 2007 UEFA U-21 Championship, including the epic semi-final shootout against host Netherlands, missing his first but scoring his second penalty as England lost 13–12. His younger brother Gavin Hoyte plays for Arsenal in the reserve team and turned down T&T a few years ago at the U-17 level.