Just under a year ago this country’s football hit a new low when it crashed out of the qualification campaign for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. As it turns out, we have one more opportunity to ensure that we do not have a repeat of the past, that being a 16-year wait before demonstrating to the world our capabilities on the football stage with our near qualifications and then subsequent success at reaching Germany 2006.

Sixteen years elapsed since the 1973 campaign when we narrowly missed out, before 1989 came, and then another 16 years later we finally got there via the win in Bahrain. By the time 2018 comes around, only 12 years would have passed. Can we break that 16-year cycle? Why not? Easier said than done some may argue as we live in a society where we tend to spend more effort and energy discussing exactly what's wrong with something instead of finding solutions and then actually fixing the problems.

T&T-born head coach Stephen Hart resigned as head coach of Canada following their disastrous exit from the 2014 campaign by way of an 8-1 defeat to Honduras last week. While there is a massive difference in size and population, there may be similarities in the challenges both countries face in football. Frankly speaking, and this could be applied to all sporting disciplines even though I believe football is in most need, there simply needs to be drastic measures taken, and as a nation, more from the masses need to get involved and shoulder the responsibilities to see us rise again.

This, of course, if we intend to ever get near to experiencing the joy and pride similar to what we felt in 2005/2006 and other similar moments when our current Minister of National Security boasted that it brought the crime rate to among its lowest. Most critically, with everything from the lowest-level of club football, particularly youth leagues, schools leagues and the national club levels, almost all are talking about how to improve their own chances to win small victories rather than trying to set the country up for long-term success. Most crucially, we need to move on from all the failures over the years, from all the petty fights like the recent ones between bodies and officials. We need to shift the focus to the potential we possess to get it right from that of harping on what we’ve done wrong.

To take a page out of Canada’s current attempt to move forward, there needs to be an environment where every player wants the opportunity to play for the national team and every fan wants to be part of the occasion, an environment where coaches and administrators at every level want to do what's best for the country as a whole, an environment where T&T football is a hot bandwagon for fans and media to jump on board with, not one where people are shamed into supporting it. How do we do that?

Well, it's not easy; it requires thinking big at every level, having a cohesive strategy, and being able to implement it. Right now, T&T’s football is looked at as anything but successful. Most players train to play and fans show up just for the sake of it but really don’t care. Let’s be honest, most times we as a people simply don’t give a damn and then we bemoan the athletes lack of success at major events. That perception can change for football and other sports.

There must be a lobby for individuals, corporate bodies and government at every level to get involved, from funding the national team to building better local fields to sponsoring coaching clinics. Coaches and clubs must shift their focus from solely winning trophies to developing players for the long haul. Let’s make stars out of T&T players, not villains. Supporting is not something we should feel obligated to do but rather excited. It’s the same on the sponsorship front, on the coaching front.

This is an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a huge Red, White and Black sporting movement, and it should be sold as such, not something anyone feels like they have to do halfheartedly. Instead of focusing on how little we’ve done, how about we get excited about what we could do? In closing, let’s take a look at view recently expressed by Robert Skidelsky, a Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at Warwick University and a member of the British House of Lords.

He spoke on why a country concentrates on winning at the expense of other desirable goods. An economist would probably argue that money spent on education and housing brings more “welfare” than money spent in the quest for sporting success. However, sports is entertainment; the others are necessities. But that argument ignores the effect of sporting success on national morale, an intangible factor in a country’s success in other, more “serious,” spheres of endeavor. A country that can succeed in one sphere of peaceful competition is encouraged to feel that it can do well in others.

-Shawn Fuentes

Source: www.guardian.co.tt