The call for greater support for women's football is growing louder...
And National Under-17 Women's Coach Ayana Russell is urging more attention on bridging the gap between junior and senior levels...
Russell says the current system isn't doing enough to keep young female footballers engaged and motivated to continue into the senior ranks... and insists that needs to change...
00:00Trinidad and Tobago's under-17 coach Ayanna Russell believes more should be done to bridge the gap between junior and senior women's football.
00:10At present, she said there is a developing structure at the junior level, but feels it's not sustained at the senior level.
00:17As a player who was in the 2014 team that almost was one point away from making a World Cup, it's really difficult to see where women's football is at, especially at the senior team level.
00:32I think in terms of the youth, we have the high-performance program in place, and you see where we are making some strides in developing talent.
00:41At the senior team level, there's a gap.
00:43She believes respect is lacking in women's football, and professional footballers who devote their careers to the sport are feeling it the most.
00:52I know that the TFA, I believe they are looking for a senior team coach, but I think in the future, that is something that we definitely need to address and show a little more respect to women's football, especially players like Asha herself, who's playing professionally.
01:07She believes a professional football league will go a long way in solving the gap in women's football.
01:12I remember in 2015, we had the WPL, which is a professional league, and I think that is what is missing the transition from youth football to senior football.
01:21We don't really have a competitive league, per se, where a coach, even if we had a coach right now, could go and select players for a senior team that's ready to play.
01:31So I think it's just in the future something that we need to improve on.
01:35For now, the Wolf League takes precedence, and Russell says they have some options there to select the national team.
01:42I think, well, Wolf League right now, that's the league.
01:46It's not the most competitive league, but the top teams, you have Club Sando, Defence Force, UTT, which UTT is, I coach UTT, and it's relatively a U23 team.
01:57So I think based on probably top three or four teams, that is really where we may have to build with some of the foreigners in terms of Katie Johnson and players like that, I take it, bring it into the squad.
02:10In response, president of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association, Kyron Edwards, indicated that they do have intentions of putting focus on women's football.
02:19And I continue to give the commitment that we would revamp our women's program.
02:24So we had a discussion around forming a professional league in Trinidad and Tobago, where we could engage and touch on the top players in the Caribbean.
02:35I think that it's important for us to look at professionalizing the women's game.
02:40It's a fast-growing sport in terms of the women's side of things.
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