TTFA to decide on Yorke’s future by March

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

Within the next two months the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) will make a decision as to whether Dwight Yorke will stay on as head coach of the men’s senior team.

This was revealed by Director of Media Communications at the TTFA, Shaun Fuentes, who said both parties had been in discussions on the way forward.

Yorke was hired in November 2024 and given the mandate to help T&T qualify for the 2026 World Cup. However, he failed to meet those lofty expectations with T&T crashing out in the Concacaf World Cup Qualifiers.

Speculation has been swirling since the end of the campaign, with many suggesting that the 54-year-old Yorke would be sacked.

However, in an interview on Isports on i95.5 FM on Thursday, Fuentes said a head coach would have to be in place in the next few months.

“Clearly, it has to come before the window in March ... I know there has been some level of dialogue between the TTFA and Dwight in terms of the next steps. The president did come out on Boxing Day and say that he had all intention of hopefully continuing this programme with Dwight’s involvement, but it is left to be seen what can be facilitated.

“We have to be honest about it. This is not a World Cup cycle for the next two years and there are going to be some changes that may need to be made, but anyone who knows how football occurs at the elite level, at that FIFA level; if you want to stay in the top 100 or you want to be in the top 50, there has to be a level of some maintenance across the board,” Fuentes said.

“Obviously Nations League will take place this year around September. We have the FIFA series and then we obviously we will try to hope to get a couple friendlies around the World Cup period because teams are always looking for opposition, but we need to start focusing from now if it is we really want to give ourselves a chance of qualifying for another World Cup.”

Fuentes maintained that money would be a deciding factor on whether Yorke stayed on.

He said the TTFA needed to source additional sponsorship which would allow it to invest heavily in the team.

“It has to be one of the biggest concerns and not just for Dwight and his staff. We’re talking about having proper training camps, flying players in from different parts of the world, being able to pay players a decent match wage, being able to host them in proper hotels and of course run the other national teams, so it really is a bit of a strain on the TTFA now.

“The hope would have been that qualifying for the World Cup would have taken care of a lot of these bills and where we faltered there now, we have to revisit our discussions with corporate T&T,” Fuentes said.