Former Trinidad and Tobago representative Shaka Hislop lauded the move to keep Angus Eve at the helm of the senior men’s programme for an extended period, especially with the scheduling for what will be a busy 2024 campaign.

Eve's initial extension from September 2023 to March 2024, was merely to lead the Soca Warriors into Copa America playoff battle against Canada on March 23, but he was later awarded another contract, which will be for the duration of the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualification campaign.

Hislop, the decision to keep Eve beyond the Copa America playoff was a common sense one.

Eve guided the Soca Warriors through a fairly successful 2023 campaign in which they secured League A promotion in the Concacaf Nations League. Beyond that, Eve also saw the team to a memorable 2-1 victory over United States in Nations League second-leg quarter-finals action, which followed their second-place finish in the group stage, where Trinidad and Tobago toppled Curacao, El Salvador and Guatemala.

“It sets the stage for what is needed for a campaign in terms of the qualification for World Cup 2026,” Hislop said during an interview on the i95.5 Sports programme.

“It makes a lot of sense, given how thick and fast the games are coming. I am not sure there is any sort of opportunity for any change over, if a changeover was deemed necessary. So purely from a continuity perspective, it makes a lot of sense,” he added.

Though admitting that he knew little about the country’s football association’s financial status, Hislop also believes Eve’s extension made sense from a financial perspective, even as he distanced himself from the political aspects of things.

“I don’t have many thoughts on T&T football and the reason being I don’t feel we can advance; I don’t feel with the NC, that is in charge of T&T football, there is any sense of accountability. No one can say if they are doing a good or bad job,” Hislop argued.

“They are in place, in power because of a FIFA mandate. That is the only body that they have to account to. So we have a football leadership that doesn’t have to account to the stakeholders of T&T football, to the fans of T&T football. So our failing or our success, relative as they may be, are irrelevant until they have somebody to account to,” he opined.

On that note, Hislop pointed out that the upcoming TTFA elections were necessary to restore order in how the country’s football is handled.

“It is a step in the right direction in terms of regaining that sort of normalcy and who we are—in charge of our own affairs...It is important that we at least get back to that starting point. Otherwise, I just felt that we weren’t going anywhere,” he said.

“(The new members of the executive) have to appease the fans, the greater good of T&T football. Now your primary responsibility cannot be to those men who hold the greatest power in world football and so, again, the longer lasting impact, the stagnation of our football...we can only guess at. My belief is everybody that comes in will have to recognise who their primary responsibility is (to). It is no one on these shores,” Hislop ended.

After initially being given a contract to lead Trinidad and Tobago's senior men’s team into Copa America playoff battle against Canada in March, Angus Eve was granted an extension, and will now remain at the helm until 2025.

Eve's extension, which was recently announced by the country's Football Association, will be for the duration of the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualification campaign.