ONE OF THE Caribbean’s highest qualified coaches is still hoping to become the first local Technical Director of football in Barbados.
The Executive Council of the Barbados Football Association (BFA) was scheduled to meet last night to discuss Keith Griffith’s application for the vacant post as well as the hiring of a full-time paid general secretary as mandated by the world governing body, FIFA.
“It would only be fitting to close out my career by helping Barbados to develop the players who would be ready for the next World Cup campaign and the Digicel Caribbean Cup.
A two-year contract would be nice. I’ve applied for the job since February but is yet to receive a reply,” Griffith told NATIONSport yesterday.“If we don’t make the right decision now, football in Barbados won’t progress. I was deeply hurt when Dominica beat us twice at home this year and we failed to qualify for the Digicel finals for the first time in many years,” said Griffith, who celebrated his 66th birthday and 50 years in football earlier this month.
Griffith, who previously had coaching training stints at three of England’s top Premiership clubs, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspurs, as well as at Southampton and Queen’s Park Rangers, holds an English FA International A licence certificate and badge, which he gained in 1987 from Lilleshall Academy.
He last served as a technical advisor to the senior team between 2006 and 2008 when Barbados reached its highest ever FIFA ranking of 93rd in the world, climbing ahead of Trinidad and Tobago then following a six-match unbeaten run in the Digicel Caribbean Cup when they won first and second-round groups in Antigua and Barbados.
But after enjoying his first and only World Cup assignment when Barbados advanced to the second round with a 1-0 victory over Dominica at Kensington Oval following a goalless draw in Roseau, the contracts of Griffith and head coach Eyre Sealy were not renewed despite redeeming themselves with a narrow 1-0 home leg loss after a 8-0 blanking to the United States in Los Angeles.
“In my opinion, we travelled to LA with a very underprepared team with some players joining the team only three days to meet CONCACAF giants USA and we were totally outclassed. But in the return game at home, when we had Emmerson Boyce, we gave a very good display at Kensington Oval, losing only 1-0 and we had a goal from John Parris disallowed,” Griffith recalled.
Before that, Griffith, who has been awarded a Barbados Service Star by government in this year’s Independence honours, guided the country to its highest position of second in the 1985 Caribbean Football Union’s Cup (now Digicel Caribbean Cup) when the team played unbeaten in the finals at the National Stadium with Martinique emerging as champions.
In 1994, he again coached Barbados to the Shell Cup finals in Trinidad, only losing to the hosts in the final match, drawing with both Dominica (1-1) and Guadeloupe (2-2) but afterwards wasn’t involved in coaching at the national level for the next 12 years
. “It is ironic that we brought in two foreign technical directors, who worked unsuccessfully, so it would only be fair to give me the opportunity to be the first local technical director so that I can put programmes in place to develop football, along with a cadre of coaches such as Thomas Jordan, Asquith Hamlett-Howell, Tony Jarvis, Kenville Layne and Gregory Goodridge,” Griffith said.
He also worked as technical director in Antigua, Anguilla, the US Virgin Islands and with Trinidadian professional side, Joe Public as well as being sports instructor in Cayman Brac, Cayman Islands. (ES)