THE Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) face the prospect of being dragged before the courts yet again this time by former assistant coach, youth development officer and technical director Anton Corneal.It is expected to be a case of what has come to be the usual problem for the TTFA as the coach will seek to recover salary owed.
Corneal served as Under-17 coach and youth development officer between 2004-2006 and youth development officer and assistant coach to German coach Otto Pfister for the period 2009- 2011.
He took up a post as technical director of local football in 2012 that is until he quit the job in 2014 due to a non-payment of salaries.
It isn’t just salary that Corneal, who is quick to point out that he did not arrive at the decision easily, will be hoping to recover as he claims addition investment was made in various teams during the period.
“About two and a half years ago, the TT team went to Miami to face Canada and the association had no money to pay stipends to the players and I had to dip into my pocket to pay the stipends,” Corneal told the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian.
“It amounted to approximately $20,000 but I did it because I wanted to see the football progress,” Corneal added.
Two former coaches have already been successful in receiving payment via court ruling, Russell Latapy and more recently Dutchman Whelmut ‘Wim’ Rijsbergen. Corneal believes sadly that might be his best option at this point.
“This tells me that I was being, either ignored or that the association just did not care about me. It seemed to me that only way to get your money from the association was by taking them to court.”