A lit­tle un­der two weeks ago, we were im­mersed in the vi­brant cul­ture and his­toric sur­round­ings of San­ti­a­go, Cu­ba, prepar­ing for bat­tle on for­eign soil in the Con­ca­caf Na­tions League, which I wrote about last week in the T&T Guardian news­pa­pers. A week lat­er as we stepped on­to the serene shores of To­ba­go, the con­trast was strik­ing.

The warmth of the is­land, the ser­vice and com­fort at Mag­dale­na Grand, and the sup­port of our home crowd wel­come us with open arms. It was a per­fect set­ting to recharge, re­flect, and em­brace the jour­ney ahead.

But as na­tion­al team mem­bers, this respite is on­ly part of the sto­ry. Be­hind the calm of these sur­round­ings lies the con­stant pres­sure and emo­tion­al dri­ve to suc­ceed. Whether home or away, the weight of ex­pec­ta­tions is ever-present. We feel the pulse of the na­tion, the hope of our fans, and the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to de­liv­er, know­ing that each match is more than just a game—it’s a re­flec­tion of our ded­i­ca­tion to the sport and the pride of our coun­try.

Work­ing with­in a na­tion­al foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion is an in­tense and of­ten deeply chal­leng­ing ex­pe­ri­ence. Be­yond the day-to-day strains of foot­ball at the var­i­ous lev­els, na­tion­al foot­ball in­volves a lev­el of re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and pres­sure that can most times feel over­whelm­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly when you are rep­re­sent­ing not just a club but an en­tire coun­try.

One of the great­est pres­sures in work­ing for a na­tion­al foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion is the bur­den of na­tion­al ex­pec­ta­tions. Every match played by the na­tion­al team car­ries the weight of a na­tion’s hopes and dreams. Last Mon­day we had to win to stay in League A. Next March we must win again in a home and away se­ries to qual­i­fy for the 2025 Gold Cup. And soon af­ter the World Cup, qual­i­fi­ca­tion will be on the line. Foot­ball be­comes more than a game—it be­comes a sym­bol of pride and uni­ty.

For play­ers, this ex­pec­ta­tion can be sti­fling. Play­ing for a na­tion­al team is not just about in­di­vid­ual per­for­mance; it is about car­ry­ing the as­pi­ra­tions of thou­sands. The weight of a missed penal­ty in a cru­cial match or a de­fen­sive er­ror that costs a tour­na­ment can feel far heav­ier when it’s done on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage. Just ask Justin Gar­cia or Ross Rus­sell Jr. how they felt af­ter Cu­ba pulled a goal back last Mon­day.

These are the mo­ments that can de­fine ca­reers and team progress, for bet­ter or worse.

Coach­es and man­agers face the same scruti­ny. Man­ag­ing a na­tion­al team is one of the most cov­et­ed yet dif­fi­cult jobs in foot­ball. Re­sults are every­thing, and a string of bad per­for­mances can re­sult in wide­spread calls for res­ig­na­tion. There is lit­tle room for er­ror, and the sup­port of fans and of­fi­cials can be fick­le.

When the na­tion­al team los­es, it of­ten feels like the coun­try los­es, and the fall­out can be per­son­al and bru­tal.

Press of­fi­cers like my­self, too, must nav­i­gate this mine­field of na­tion­al ex­pec­ta­tions. Every loss and every con­tro­ver­sy be­comes a na­tion­al con­ver­sa­tion, and me­dia man­agers must re­spond swift­ly and care­ful­ly. Craft­ing the right nar­ra­tive to both calm the pub­lic and main­tain the morale of the team is a skill that re­quires pre­ci­sion. Es­pe­cial­ly when the ex­pec­ta­tions are mas­sive and the op­por­tu­ni­ty to rise doesn't come as of­ten as club com­pe­ti­tions or oth­er sport­ing events.

The fi­nan­cial and or­gan­i­sa­tion­al strug­gles

For many small­er or de­vel­op­ing foot­balling na­tions like T&T, the strain on a na­tion­al as­so­ci­a­tion is not just emo­tion­al but fi­nan­cial. Bud­get con­straints are a con­stant chal­lenge. Un­like the rich­er foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tions in Eu­rope or South Amer­i­ca, many small­er na­tions, in­clud­ing Caribbean coun­tries like Trinidad and To­ba­go and St Lu­cia, of­ten strug­gle to se­cure the fund­ing nec­es­sary to com­pete at the high­est lev­el. Spon­sor­ship deals are hard­er to come by, gov­ern­ment sup­port is cru­cial and con­sis­tent, and top-of-the line fa­cil­i­ties can be a chal­lenge.

This lack of re­sources can at times place im­mense pres­sure on the en­tire or­ga­ni­za­tion. Play­ers may not have ac­cess to top-tier train­ing fa­cil­i­ties, and coach­es may have to work with out­dat­ed tech­nol­o­gy or in­ad­e­quate staff. All of this means that while na­tion­al as­so­ci­a­tions are ex­pect­ed to de­liv­er suc­cess on the field, they are of­ten work­ing with few­er re­sources than their com­peti­tors.

Na­tion­al team ad­min­is­tra­tors are con­stant­ly fight­ing to se­cure fund­ing, bal­ance tight bud­gets, and en­sure that the team can con­tin­ue to op­er­ate at a pro­fes­sion­al lev­el. Team man­ag­er Richard Piper, along with Basil Thomp­son and my­self, have pulled to­geth­er to en­sure our squad ex­pe­ri­enced a lev­el of com­fort in the past win­dow, but there is room for more. Our abil­i­ty to sign off on a part­ner­ship with Magde­le­na Grand Re­sorts a cou­ple weeks ago came at the right time. For those work­ing in com­mu­ni­ca­tions or press man­age­ment, this of­ten in­volves tak­ing on the ad­di­tion­al bur­den of pro­mot­ing the team and at­tract­ing spon­sor­ships, all while man­ag­ing pub­lic re­la­tions. It’s a job that re­quires cre­ativ­i­ty, re­silience, and an un­der­stand­ing of both the foot­balling world and the com­plex dy­nam­ics of na­tion­al pride.

Pub­lic crit­i­cism and per­son­al sac­ri­fice

An­oth­er sig­nif­i­cant strain on those work­ing with­in a na­tion­al foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion is the ever-present scruti­ny and judge­ment of the pub­lic. Foot­ball is a pas­sion for many, and fans feel deeply con­nect­ed to their na­tion­al team. We signed up for this. But this means that fail­ures on the pitch are rarely viewed in iso­la­tion. In some cas­es, the crit­i­cism ex­tends far be­yond the game it­self, be­com­ing a re­flec­tion of broad­er na­tion­al frus­tra­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly in coun­tries like T&T where foot­ball is close­ly tied to na­tion­al iden­ti­ty. There's crick­et, and then there's foot­ball and more foot­ball.

For play­ers, this means con­stant­ly be­ing judged on their per­for­mance.The slight­est mis­take can lead to pub­lic back­lash, and in the era of so­cial me­dia, this crit­i­cism can be in­stant and un­re­lent­ing. Many play­ers must deal with di­rect mes­sages and com­ments on­line that at­tack them per­son­al­ly, some­times even threat­en­ing their fam­i­lies or ques­tion­ing their loy­al­ty to the coun­try.

Coach­es and staff mem­bers are not ex­empt from this crit­i­cism. Even when suc­cess is achieved, there is of­ten an un­der­cur­rent of “what could have been done bet­ter.”

Be­hind the scenes, press of­fi­cers must man­age this whirl­wind of pub­lic opin­ion. Af­ter the dis­ap­point­ing 2-2 draw in Cu­ba, it was not easy to get play­ers to speak to the cam­eras af­ter. Jo­evin Jones opt­ed not to speak un­til the two games were over. He de­liv­ered on the pitch in both af­fairs. Me­dia man­agers are tasked with pro­tect­ing the im­age of the play­ers and coach­ing staff, man­ag­ing me­dia re­la­tions, and try­ing to con­trol the nar­ra­tive sur­round­ing the team. The job is par­tic­u­lar­ly chal­leng­ing when re­sults are poor, as press man­agers must find a way to com­mu­ni­cate with a dis­ap­point­ed and of­ten an­gry fan­base while main­tain­ing pos­i­tiv­i­ty with­in the or­ga­ni­za­tion. They are con­stant­ly walk­ing a tightrope be­tween pub­lic trans­paren­cy and pro­tect­ing the team’s morale.

The emo­tion­al toll of the roller­coast­er

Per­haps the most dif­fi­cult as­pect of work­ing for a na­tion­al foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion is the emo­tion­al toll of the con­stant ups and downs. One mo­ment, a team can be fly­ing high with a sig­nif­i­cant vic­to­ry that unites the na­tion, and in the next, they can crash down with a heart­break­ing de­feat. For those who work in na­tion­al foot­ball, this see­saw of emo­tions is re­lent­less. There is rarely time to rest or re­flect; the next chal­lenge is al­ways around the cor­ner.

Play­ers must learn to cope with these rapid emo­tion­al shifts, but it can be men­tal­ly ex­haust­ing. And for press of­fi­cers and ad­min­is­tra­tors, the emo­tion­al toll comes from be­ing caught in the mid­dle—hav­ing to main­tain a brave face to the pub­lic while deal­ing with the in­ter­nal stress and dis­ap­point­ment of a strug­gling team.

Work­ing with­in a na­tion­al foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion is not for the faint of heart. It re­quires not on­ly a love of the game but al­so the men­tal for­ti­tude to with­stand in­tense pub­lic scruti­ny, con­stant fi­nan­cial pres­sures, and emo­tion­al ups and downs.

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 trav­elled to 88 coun­tries dur­ing his jour­ney in sport. The views ex­pressed are sole­ly his and not a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of any or­gan­i­sa­tion. shaunfuentes@ya­hoo.com