TTFA boss names coaching candidates for national women's team

VETERAN Serbian coach Zoran Vranes and experienced local coaches Richard Hood and Ross Russell are among the candidates who are vying to be the next coach of TT women's football team. This was revealed by TT Football Association (TTFA) president Kieron Edwards, who said the governing body for local football has received over 20 applications for the vacant position.

Hood, the team's most recent coach, saw his contract expire at the end of June 2024. Vranes is, of course, a familiar name on the local football circuit as he has coached several teams in the local professional league, to go along with stints with TT's junior and senior men's teams. Russell, who currently serves as the goalkeeper coach for TT's men's football team, also had a stint as the women's coach a decade ago.

With the next Fifa Women's World Cup scheduled for June 24-July 25, 2027 in Brazil, the TT women's football team will be back in action in roughly three months when the 2025-26 Concacaf Women's Qualifiers are held. These qualifiers will be held during the Fifa Women's International match windows of October and November 2025 and February and April 2026. The teams will be drawn into six groups of five, with the six group winners advancing to meet the region's top two-ranked teams at the Concacaf Women's Championship, which will be played in November 2026.

The top four teams at the Concacaf Women's Championship will advance to the World Cup, with two other teams progressing to an inter-confederation playoff tournament.

Speaking to Newsday on July 17, Edwards said the search is well and truly on for the next coach of the TT women's team and assured the process is not a rushed one.

"(The process) to finding the new national women's coach is going well. Several resumes have come in and several people are interested in taking over the role," Edwards said.

Just last month, national midfielder Asha James raised alarms concerning the inactivity of the TT women's team and said enough was not being done to ensure full preparedness for the upcoming Concacaf Women's Qualifiers.

"We're practically in July and nothing has changed," James said via a social media post. "No head coach, no friendly, no matches, no local training pool – it's as if we don't exist."

A TT women's team, or at least a TTFA president's XI will be involved in the Defence Force's Women Warriors Wellness invitational tourney which will be held from August 4-10 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo.

Edwards was asked about the possible composition of that president's XI team and whether or not a full-time coach would be appointed by then.

"The process is the process," he said. "It would be ideal for someone to be in charge of that team whether on an interim or permanent basis."

He couldn't be pinned down to a date for the confirmation of the new coach, but said it will be done with ample time to prepare for Concacaf competition.

The TTFA president said the TT team for the Women Warriors Wellness tourney will be a mixture of junior and senior players and would also include players returning from schools abroad. He suggested the TTFA may even implement a selection panel to manage and recommend the players who would feature in the invitational tournament.

The TTFA president's XI aside, the teams set to feature in the Women Warriors Wellness tourney are: TT Defence Force; Grenada; Guyana Defence Force; UTT and defending champs Club Sando.