"Tallest" fired as TT men's team coach

Dennis Lawrence barks instructions during TT's 2-0 loss to USA in Colorado on June 8, 2017.  -
Dennis Lawrence barks instructions during TT's 2-0 loss to USA in Colorado on June 8, 2017. -

ANDREW GIOANNETTI and JOEL BAILEY

WITH just one month until his three-year anniversary on the job, Dennis "Tallest" Lawrence has been fired as TT men’s football team coach.

According to a media release from the TT Football Association (TTFA) on Sunday, “The services of Lawrence as national team coach were terminated with immediate effect following a majority decision by the board.”

The TTFA had a nine-hour board meeting on Saturday at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva with its elected officers (president William Wallace, vice-presidents Clynt Taylor, Susan Warrick and Joseph Sam Phillip) and eight of 12 member delegates from Central FA, Eastern FA, Northern FA, Southern FA, TT Pro League, TT Referees Association, TT Super League and Women’s League Football (WOLF).

The media release noted, “Immediately following the decision of the board, Wallace contacted Lawrence via telephone to inform him of the decision and wished him well in his personal and professional life, while also thanking him for his services to the men’s team.

“The TTFA president and Lawrence’s representative(s) will meet to discuss the terms of separation,” the TTFA media release continued. “Lawrence’s replacement will be announced shortly.”

Lawrence’s time at the helm, his first job as a head coach, came to an end with a particularly poor series of performances.

He won just once this year, against Anguilla, the lowest-ranked FIFA football nation or territory, drew four matches and lost 10 times, making it, statistically, TT’s worst year in football. Overall, his record was six wins, eight draws and 21 losses – arguably one of the worst-ever for a TT coach.

He recently came in for heavy criticism from fans, results aside, because of his lack of communication, or specifically, his decision not make public his starting teams before kick-off in either competition or friendly matches, as is customary.

Lawrence repeatedly tinkered with his line-ups, and also was at odds with enigmatic defender/midfielder Joevin Jones, who recently stated his desire to decline team selection after differences with the ex-Soca Warriors central defender.

If not an exhibition fixture before, the next test for Lawrence’s replacement will be a two-legged play off for the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup, either against Guyana or Barbados, next June.

Former TTFA president David John-Williams, in a Newsday interview last month, said, “Unfortunately, we live in a society of instant gratification and (are) results-oriented. And we live in a society where we see in the English Premiership, where a man loses five games and they buss he throat.

“Because in the morning, you know what? I could go and pick up a coach in the morning. And that same coach who get he throat buss could go to a next team and get nine wins on a trot. But we don’t live in a country where we could pick up a men’s national team coach like that.

“We don’t have the money to fire Dennis Lawrence in the morning.”

Lawrence had the ignominy of a 14-game win-less run, until a record 15-0 win over Anguilla at the Ato Boldon Stadium on November 10, before his final game at the helm, a 4-0 loss to Honduras on November 17.

By that time, public confidence in Lawrence was such that only a mere 500 fans turned up to watch the 'specially-arranged' game, primarily to give the TT players, particularly the attacking ones, 'target' practice before the Honduras clash.

Upon his return home from the 2019 Gold Cup, which featured a 6-0 loss to the United States (TT's biggest defeat to the US), Lawrence turned his ire on Keith Look Loy, president of the TT Super League and an outspoken critic of both Lawrence and John-Williams.

Lawrence even threatened to take legal action against Look Loy, to which Look Loy replied, "If it is that he believes he has been held up to ‘disrepute, odium and ridicule’, not by his disastrous record as head coach but by my opinions and the facts, then I do apologise for hurting his feelings and for exposing his reputation to said ridicule.”

Saturday’s meeting also saw major changes to the administrative and sporting side of the game. Among them, retired World Cup referee Ramesh Ramdhan was named the TTFA’s new general secretary; the appointment of a technical committee and emergency committee was established; and a decision not to sanction the League of Champions football tournament, created by the former administration led by John-Williams.

An emergency committee has been appointed for a four-year term (2019 to 2023), with chairpersons and/or members were to committees of club licensing, competitions, finance, legal, player status, and sports medicine.

The technical committee was appointed under the chairmanship of Look Loy.

The media release noted: “This committee will supervise a new technical and management structure for TTFA national teams and technical programmes. A North American scouting programme, under the supervision of the technical committee, was also approved.”

The technical committee, the release added, will review the structure, personnel and finances of the elite youth programme and make recommendations to the board in January 2020.

Discussions on the TT women’s youth teams continued and decisions will be disclosed “in due course” ahead of the U-17 and U-20 Concacaf Women’s Championships in February and March.

Meanwhile, any progress with the League of Champions, a creation of the John-Williams regime, was halted in its stride at the board meeting, reportedly because several of the supposedly participating clubs were ineligible due to non-compliance.

“(The) TTFA will not sanction the League of Champions created by the previous administration as it includes a majority of clubs that are suspended by the TTFA’s general meeting and/or their league."

The media release also announced the body’s solicitation of an engineer to provide a “comprehensive report” on the controversial Home of Football, “which remain (sic) closed to the public, while several approvals including Fire Service and the Certificate of Completion remain outstanding.”

The board meeting also apparently saw an agreement between members to engage former general secretary Sheldon Phillips, who had a matter with the TTFA, in the Industrial Court for wrongful dismissal, for a potential settlement. He was fired by former TTFA president Raymond Tim Kee, in October 2015.

And Lawrence's teammate at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, ex-goalkeeper and ESPN analyst Shaka Hislop, has been named as a TTFA Ambassador.

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""Tallest" fired as TT men’s team coach"

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