Speid hails T&T’s Corneal
Published:Wednesday | January 1, 2025 | 12:10 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
Technical committee chairman of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), Rudolph Speid, has lauded Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) Football Association Technical Director, Anton Corneal. The Trinidadian was among the batch of graduates from the first edition of the FIFA Technical Leadership Diploma.
Anton Corneal completed the 18-month-long course, which concluded with a series of assessment presentations and a graduation ceremony at the FIFA museum in Zurich, December 5-6.
The FIFA Technical Leadership Diploma programme started in May 2023, and Anton Corneal visited Brazil, Japan, the Netherlands, and Switzerland as part of course which aims to become the “globally recognised qualification” for technical leaders working in the game.
According to Speid, Anton Corneal who has played a very important role in developing coaches at different levels across Jamaica, is highly regarded locally and he believes the Trinidadian, who also works as a coach educator with Concacaf, will help to push the development of football in the region to new levels.
“He (Anton Corneal) has been very instrumental in the development of coaches and coach educators in Jamaica.
“He has been key in guiding the curriculum given to the coach educators in Jamaica and this has helped local coaches to improve their qualifications,” he commented.
He said Anton Corneal has proven his competence in helping to uplift the coaching standards in Jamaica. He highlighted Arnett Gardens’ victory in the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Club Shield, Cavalier’s success in the Concacaf Caribbean Cup, the national under-14s triumph in the Caribbean Football Union U14 Challenger Series and the under-20 Girlz success in the Jewel of the Caribbean U20 Women’s tournament.
“With these achievements it is clear that Jamaican coaches have been taking full advantage of Anton Corneal’s knowledge to improve themselves over the past couple of years,” Speid noted.
Anton Corneal, in a recent interview, said the course was quite insightful and interesting in how different nations structure and fuse their cultures with the development of the game.
“So the diploma gave us the opportunity to not only see what happens in other regions but to continuously reflect on our own. To see what’s the reality in your region and what you can take from another region and implement them,” he said.
He added that he is looking to start at home, but intends to share the information with all the nations of the region, especially Jamaica with whom he has a very good relationship.
“We (Trinidad and Tobago) really engage in a very in-depth coach education programme, starting from our D licence all the way up to our A licence.
“We have had persons coming in from the Caribbean to take part in our A licence and then we have a really good relationship with Jamaica where we started the A licence and we have two groups.
“Because of the opportunity I have to travel through Concacaf. I am able to assist Caribbean countries with their coaching, especially the higher level coach education, and in those meetings and courses I have been able to speak to general secretaries, heads of coach education and technical directors. And I am able to share some of the information knowing the type of challenges we have in each country.
“So this opportunity, once it arises, I am able to help, once countries are willing to think about how can we do it in a better way. So that information has been shared with Guyana, Grenada, Barbados, St Lucia, St Vincent, Dominica Antigua and other countries,” Anton Corneal said.