Re­cent­ly I was asked to de­liv­er re­ports and pre­sen­ta­tions on the re­quire­ments of what it takes to be a mem­ber of a Na­tion­al Team Tech­ni­cal Staff. One of the re­quests came from a stu­dent pur­su­ing an MBA in Spain and sev­er­al oth­ers have come from lo­cal per­sons pur­su­ing a fu­ture in sports man­age­ment and in the process of com­plet­ing their re­spec­tive cours­es at a high­er lev­el of ed­u­ca­tion.

I’ve been at­tached to the Se­nior Men’s Team staff of Trinidad and To­ba­go since 2000 and have there­fore been for­tu­nate to have been through a wide ar­ray of ex­pe­ri­ences over two decades - highs and lows, dis­ap­point­ments, joys, suc­cess­es, and heartaches.

But more so, apart from be­ing the Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Man­ag­er or Me­dia Of­fi­cer for the team, I’ve been able to ob­serve, soak up, and many a time be part of what the oth­er mem­bers of staff ac­tive­ly en­gage in. From staffs head­ed by Leo Been­hakker, Fran­cis­co Mat­u­rana, Stephen Hart, Bertille St Clair, Rus­sell Lat­apy, Den­nis Lawrence, and now An­gus Eve, the spe­cif­ic ex­per­tise in each of these pe­ri­ods has been sub­stan­tial.

In my as­sess­ment, here's a break­down of what it takes to be a mem­ber of a na­tion­al team tech­ni­cal staff, en­com­pass­ing all the as­pects men­tioned. I of course took on the re­quest to sub­mit the pre­sen­ta­tion in light of the very de­mand­ing World Cup qual­i­fy­ing cam­paign ahead for 2026.

Phys­i­cal Fit­ness, Sta­mi­na, and En­durance are a must. Con­duct­ing and over­see­ing mul­ti­ple in­tense train­ing ses­sions dai­ly re­quires high en­er­gy lev­els and phys­i­cal re­silience. Match Days and days lead­ing up in­volve long hours, in­clud­ing pre-match prepa­ra­tions, the game it­self, and post-match analy­sis, which ne­ces­si­tate sus­tained sta­mi­na. Eve and Lawrence may have been for­mer play­ers but would need to keep their bod­ies and minds in­tact while at the helm. Coach­es and train­ers of­ten need to demon­strate drills and tech­niques, re­quir­ing agili­ty and flex­i­bil­i­ty. Doc­tors, phys­ios, and train­ers are re­quired to al­so meet these re­quire­ments.

Ac­tive En­gage­ment in­volves con­stant­ly mov­ing up and down the field to ob­serve play­ers and pro­vide re­al-time feed­back dur­ing train­ing ses­sions and match­es.

Men­tal and Emo­tion­al At­trib­ut­es with Knowl­edge of the Game with Tac­ti­cal Un­der­stand­ing. This in­volves deep com­pre­hen­sion of var­i­ous for­ma­tions, strate­gies, and tac­ti­cal ad­just­ments, as well as stay­ing in tune with what your avail­able play­ers have been do­ing in the pre­ced­ing pe­ri­ods with their clubs. Game Analy­sis is a big part of the abil­i­ty to an­a­lyze match­es, iden­ti­fy strengths and weak­ness­es, and de­vel­op counter-strate­gies. If you think the fan rips his hair out on this, just imag­ine what the coach and his staff go through while be­ing in the hot seat.

Lead­er­ship and Com­mu­ni­ca­tion are now a ma­jor part of the dy­nam­ic. Been­hakker demon­strat­ed this first-hand. Mo­ti­va­tion­al skills, in­spir­ing and mo­ti­vat­ing play­ers to per­form at their best is not just for the head coach but his trust­ed staff mem­bers around the set­up. Con­vey­ing com­plex tac­ti­cal in­struc­tions clear­ly and con­cise­ly to play­ers is al­so need­ed.

Han­dling crises has been an area where head coach­es, par­tic­u­lar­ly those in the T&T set up have had to en­dure a lot. Get­ting team co­he­sion right in­volves fos­ter­ing a pos­i­tive team en­vi­ron­ment and re­solv­ing con­flicts with de­ci­sion-mak­ing un­der pres­sure in­clud­ing In-Game Ad­just­ments.

Coach­ing Qual­i­fi­ca­tions Li­cens­es and Cer­ti­fi­ca­tions are of course part of it. At­tain­ing ad­vanced coach­ing li­cens­es in­volves rig­or­ous course­work and ex­am­i­na­tions. Con­tin­u­ous Ed­u­ca­tion means stay­ing up­dat­ed with the lat­est de­vel­op­ments in coach­ing meth­ods, sports sci­ence, and tech­nol­o­gy.

Tac­ti­cal Plan­ning and Game Plans: Craft­ing de­tailed plans for each match, con­sid­er­ing the team’s strengths and the op­po­nent’s weak­ness­es. Op­po­nent Analy­sis: Study­ing op­po­nent teams to an­tic­i­pate their strate­gies and de­vel­op coun­ter­mea­sures; Scout­ing and Re­cruit­ment Tal­ent Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion.

While most FA's now have per­son­nel out­side of the Se­nior Team staff re­spon­si­ble for play­er re­cruit­ment, the fi­nal call still comes down to the head coach and his as­sis­tants. This in­volves eval­u­at­ing and re­cruit­ing play­ers who fit the team’s style and needs.

In­jury Pre­ven­tion and Man­age­ment - Pre­ven­tive Mea­sures: Im­ple­ment­ing train­ing reg­i­mens to min­i­mize the risk of in­juries along with re­cov­ery pro­to­cols, is co­or­di­nat­ed by the head coach and his med­ical staff.

Per­son­al At­trib­ut­es and Pas­sion for the Sport are ab­solute­ly nec­es­sary. That ded­i­ca­tion with a deep-seat­ed love for foot­ball that dri­ves the com­mit­ment to long hours and re­lent­less ef­fort is top of the list.

Con­tin­u­ous Im­prove­ment: A de­sire to con­tin­u­al­ly learn and im­prove both per­son­al­ly and as a team. Re­silience for Han­dling Pres­sure and the abil­i­ty to cope with the im­mense pres­sure of high-stakes match­es and the scruti­ny that comes with na­tion­al-lev­el in­volve­ment.

Bounc­ing Back. This is an area that we at T&T know all too well about. His­to­ry shows that we have been bounc­ing back for as long as we can re­mem­ber. Re­cov­er­ing from set­backs, such as loss­es or crit­i­cism, and main­tain­ing fo­cus on long-term goals. Adapt­abil­i­ty and Flex­i­ble Think­ing: Ad­just­ing tac­tics and strate­gies based on the chang­ing dy­nam­ics of the game and team needs.Cul­tur­al Sen­si­tiv­i­ty: Un­der­stand­ing and re­spect­ing di­verse back­grounds and per­son­al­i­ties with­in the team.

In sum­ma­ry, be­ing a mem­ber of a na­tion­al team tech­ni­cal staff is an all-en­com­pass­ing role that de­mands a blend of phys­i­cal fit­ness, deep tac­ti­cal knowl­edge, ef­fec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tion, lead­er­ship skills, and a re­lent­less pas­sion for the sport. These at­trib­ut­es and skills en­able the tech­ni­cal staff to han­dle the pres­sures and re­spon­si­bil­i­ties of guid­ing a na­tion­al team to suc­cess. Some of the big­ger coun­tries in­clud­ing Con­ca­caf's US, Mex­i­co, and Cos­ta Ri­ca have staffs of 20 to 25 per­sons. Our T&T staff is cur­rent­ly at 15. Whether big or small, every team and coun­try has the same ob­jec­tive which is to win match­es and qual­i­fy for big tour­na­ments.

But none of this that I've spo­ken about is at­tain­able with­out the prop­er back­ing of the leader of the or­ga­ni­za­tion, in this case, the Pres­i­dent and his ex­ec­u­tive. The Pres­i­dent cer­tain­ly has a lot on his plate and the courage to take the po­si­tion de­serves cred­it.

The Pres­i­dent leads the or­ga­ni­za­tion with a strate­gic vi­sion, over­see­ing the de­vel­op­ment of the sport at all lev­els. His or her re­spon­si­bil­i­ties in­clude man­ag­ing fi­nances, en­sur­ing com­pli­ance with reg­u­la­tions, pro­mot­ing grass­roots pro­grams, and se­cur­ing spon­sor­ships. This role de­mands lead­er­ship, fi­nan­cial acu­men, com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills, and a deep un­der­stand­ing of foot­ball, bal­anc­ing the in­ter­ests of var­i­ous stake­hold­ers to fos­ter the sport's de­vel­op­ment and suc­cess.

The fol­low­ing is a break­down of what this en­tails:

Key Re­spon­si­bil­i­ties - Strate­gic Lead­er­shipVi­sion and Goals: Set­ting the over­all vi­sion, goals, and strate­gic di­rec­tion for the as­so­ci­a­tion. Pol­i­cy Mak­ing: De­vel­op­ing and im­ple­ment­ing poli­cies to im­prove the stan­dard of foot­ball. Gov­er­nance Reg­u­la­tions: En­sur­ing com­pli­ance with na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al foot­ball reg­u­la­tions, in­clud­ing those set by FI­FA and re­gion­al gov­ern­ing bod­ies.

In­tegri­ty: Up­hold­ing the in­tegri­ty of the sport, in­clud­ing man­ag­ing is­sues re­lat­ed to fair play, ethics, and an­ti-cor­rup­tion.

Fi­nan­cial Man­age­ment - Bud­get­ing: Man­ag­ing the as­so­ci­a­tion’s bud­get, en­sur­ing fi­nan­cial sus­tain­abil­i­ty. Spon­sor­ship and Rev­enue: Se­cur­ing spon­sor­ship deals and oth­er rev­enue streams to fund the as­so­ci­a­tion’s ac­tiv­i­ties. Pub­lic Re­la­tions and Me­dia Re­la­tions: Act­ing as the pub­lic face of the as­so­ci­a­tion, en­gag­ing with the me­dia, and mak­ing pub­lic state­ments.

Stake­hold­er En­gage­ment: Build­ing and main­tain­ing re­la­tion­ships with key stake­hold­ers, in­clud­ing gov­ern­ment bod­ies, spon­sors, and the com­mu­ni­ty. Cri­sis Man­age­ment - Han­dling Is­sues: Ad­dress­ing crises such as scan­dals, fi­nan­cial prob­lems, or con­tro­ver­sies in­volv­ing play­ers or of­fi­cials. De­ci­sion Mak­ing: Mak­ing high-stakes de­ci­sions in times of cri­sis to pro­tect the in­tegri­ty and rep­u­ta­tion of the as­so­ci­a­tion. Skills and At­trib­ut­es with Lead­er­ship and Vi­sion- Strate­gic Think­ing: Abil­i­ty to set long-term goals and de­vise strate­gies to achieve them.

In­spi­ra­tion: In­spir­ing con­fi­dence and com­mit­ment among staff, play­ers, and stake­hold­ers. Ne­go­ti­a­tions: Skilled in ne­go­ti­at­ing deals with spon­sors, part­ners, and oth­er or­ga­ni­za­tions.Fi­nan­cial Acu­men and Bud­get Man­age­ment: Com­pe­tence in man­ag­ing large bud­gets and en­sur­ing fi­nan­cial health.

Rev­enue Gen­er­a­tion: Iden­ti­fy­ing and se­cur­ing fund­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties. In­ter­per­son­al Skills and Re­la­tion­ship Build­ing: Es­tab­lish­ing and main­tain­ing strong re­la­tion­ships with a wide range of stake­hold­ers. Diplo­ma­cy: Han­dling sen­si­tive is­sues with tact and diplo­ma­cy.

Knowl­edge of foot­ball ex­per­tise with a deep un­der­stand­ing of the game's best prac­tices and de­vel­op­ment In­sights.

Meet­ings and Brief­in­gs, Strate­gic Meet­ings with oth­er key stake­hold­ers to dis­cuss strat­e­gy and pol­i­cy, and Reg­u­lar brief­in­gs with de­part­ment heads to over­see on­go­ing projects and ini­tia­tives.

Stake­hold­er Re­la­tions En­gage­ment: Meet­ing with gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials, spon­sors, and oth­er stake­hold­er lead­ers to dis­cuss part­ner­ships and sup­port for ini­tia­tives. Chal­lenges, Bal­anc­ing In­ter­ests and Com­pet­ing Pri­or­i­ties re­quires bal­anc­ing the needs and in­ter­ests of var­i­ous stake­hold­ers, in­clud­ing clubs, play­ers, fans, and spon­sors.

Po­lit­i­cal Nav­i­ga­tion: Deal­ing with in­ter­nal pol­i­tics and ex­ter­nal pres­sures. Main­tain­ing In­tegri­ty and Ethics: En­sur­ing fair play and eth­i­cal be­hav­ior with­in the or­ga­ni­za­tion and across the sport.Trans­paren­cy: Pro­mot­ing trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty in all op­er­a­tions. Adapt­ing to Change and In­no­va­tion.

In sum­ma­ry, the life of the pres­i­dent of a foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion is ex­treme­ly dy­nam­ic and with the right sup­port staff around him, these ex­pec­ta­tions can be met.

So yes we get to ex­pe­ri­ence every­thing first­hand on home soil and away from home. Be­ing a mem­ber of a na­tion­al team's tech­ni­cal staff is of­ten per­ceived as glam­orous, but the re­al­i­ty is far from it.

In­tense Work­load and Long Hours; Trav­el De­mands with fre­quent trav­el for away games, train­ing camps, and scout­ing can be ex­haust­ing and dis­rup­tive to per­son­al life. High Pres­sure and Per­for­mance Ex­pec­ta­tions: Con­stant pres­sure to de­liv­er re­sults, im­prove team per­for­mance, and win match­es.Scruti­ny: Con­tin­u­ous scruti­ny from fans, me­dia, and man­age­ment, with every de­ci­sion an­a­lyzed and cri­tiqued. Stress­ful En­vi­ron­ment Man­ag­ing con­flicts with­in the team, han­dling crises, and mak­ing quick de­ci­sions un­der pres­sure.

There is the case of lim­it­ed Recog­ni­tion of be­hind-the-scenes roles and Job Se­cu­ri­ty. There are high turnover rates and job in­se­cu­ri­ty due to the per­for­mance-based na­ture of foot­ball. Deep emo­tion­al in­volve­ment with the team can lead to sig­nif­i­cant stress, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing tough times. Per­son­al Sac­ri­fices: Bal­anc­ing per­son­al life and ca­reer can be chal­leng­ing, of­ten re­quir­ing sig­nif­i­cant per­son­al sac­ri­fices.

De­spite the ex­cite­ment of be­ing close to the game, the role de­mands re­lent­less ef­fort, ded­i­ca­tion, and re­silience, mak­ing it far from all glitz and glam­our.

Next week I will ven­ture in­to the de­mands in the area of com­mu­ni­ca­tions and me­dia.

Ed­i­tor's note

Shaun Fuentes is the head of TTFA Me­dia. He was a FI­FA Me­dia Of­fi­cer at the 2010 FI­FA World Cup in South Africa and the 2013 FI­FA U-20 World Cup in Turkey. He has trav­eled to 88 coun­tries dur­ing his jour­ney in sport. The views ex­pressed are sole­ly his and not a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of any or­ga­ni­za­tion. shaunfuentes@ya­hoo.com