A T&T Football Association five-man delegation led by senior men’s national coach Angus Eve arrived in Miami yesterday for the CONMEBOL three-day Copa America 2024 seminar and official draw at the James L Knight Entertainment and Convention Complex in downtown Miami, part of the Hyatt Regency Miami.
Accompanying Eve is team manager Richard Piper, head of the medical department and team doctor Akash Dhanai, Director of Media and Communications Shaun Fuentes, and Head of Security Major Basil Thompson.
CONMEBOL invited officials from each of the Member Associations from defending champions Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, USA, Mexico, Jamaica, and Panama, as well as those that will be participating in the Play-Ins in March to the workshop.
The first activity will be a Teams Seminar today, facilitated by CONMEBOL's Director of Competitions and Operations Frederico Nantes, and Concacaf’s Chief Football Officer Carlos Fernandez.
There will be seminars on Security, Medical Services and Anti-Doping, Marketing and Commercial, Broadcast/Digital Communications and Press Operations, Transportation and Accommodation, Team Services, Protocol, Ethics, and Compliance, all facilitated by the head of the respective areas in CONMEBOL.
There will also be a meeting of all head coaches tomorrow. This is the first Teams Workshop and Seminar for a major world competition that T&T has appeared at since the 2006 World Cup Teams Workshop held in Dusseldorf, Germany in March 2005.
This morning, there will be bilateral meetings among the Member Associations of each of the countries involved followed by the official Dinner and Draw on Thursday night.
Part of the activities this week also include a Legends match at the DRV PNK Stadium on Tuesday night, which will involve some of the biggest past players from both confederations. The two teams will be led by head coaches Jose Pekerman of Argentina and former Colombia and T&Thead coach Francisco Maturana.
Among the former stars set to play include Ronaldinho, Lucio, Dida of Brazil; Sergio Aguero, Maximiliano Rodriguez, Javier Zanetti and Gonzalo Higuain of Argentina; Mexico’s Jorge Campos and Luis Hernandez, Carlos Salcido; Uruguay’s Diego Forlán, Colombia’s Carlos Valderrama Chile’s duo of Ivan Zamorano and Marcelo Salas. Jamaican Olympic hero Usain Bolt will also appear.