Trinidad and Tobago's Anton Corneal: The importance of stakeholder relationships

• How stakeholder relationships can help Technical Directors achieve their strategic goals

• Using both formal and informal communication to develop relationships 

• The benefits of sharing your vision and long-term development plan with key stakeholders 

Strong stakeholder relationships helped Trinidad and Tobago enjoy their best ever performance at men’s international youth team level, says Technical Director, Anton Corneal. 

“For a very small country in football terms, we were fairly successful in developing a programme in 2004 that saw us qualify for the men’s U17 and U20 World Cups,” explains Corneal, who is also a FIFA Technical Leadership Expert. 

“It happened with a lot of support from the government, the executive, and all the stakeholders, including the schools and the league. You have to recognise that each different stakeholder plays an important part - and it does not matter how small that part is - but they do play a crucial part. As a result, we saw a certain level of success coming out of that programme.” 

Access to training facilities, additional financial support, as well as more contact time with players were all achieved through stakeholder relationships, explains Corneal, who is in his third spell as Technical Director of Trinidad and Tobago. 

“The government was prepared to say ‘what's important to this team at this time?’” he explains. “So, they allowed us to use some of the training facilities in one of the oil companies. It meant we had weekend training camps that we were never charged for. The kids came in on a Friday and we trained Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning. We had two or three of those camps and it was a big thing to get the players like that.

“We also got support to take the players on tours and get exposure - not necessarily against national teams - but against good competition. The opposition gave us enough of a challenge to help us know where we had to grow.”

Assistance from the private sector and school football

In addition to governmental support, there was also assistance from the private sector and a positive co-operation with school football, says Corneal. 

“A few players needed financial support to travel to practice. So, we had people stepping up from local companies to help two or three players from their area. 

“We also worked closely together with the school system,” adds Corneal. “Between September and December, all of the players play in the school league. But the organisers said to us, you can still have them twice a week for training. Before that, there were times when the players were not allowed to play for us. So, I think with the stakeholders we covered a lot of little areas that added up to a big impact.”

The national association also empowered those involved in regional football to help with talent identification for the national youth squads, says Corneal. “As a country we are divided into six zones and we gave each zone the opportunity to put forward who they considered to be their best players.

“We kept that going so it was a revolving door where other players could come in,” adds Corneal. “It meant we allowed those external to the squad to dream to be part of it. We were never locked into one set of players and so we had ‘late bloomers’ who came in. So, again, that's why I believe you've got to take into consideration other stakeholders around the players.”

Using formal and informal communication to share a vision and long-term development plan

Formal presentations as well informal chats over coffee all play an important role in developing better stakeholder relationships, believes Corneal.  “We used formal presentations when we needed to, but also sat down and spoke with people individually so you could discuss one or two things. 

“We really focused on developing relationships one person at a time,” adds Corneal. “So that might have been coffee with the president, or coffee with the vice president, and we shared what the ‘bigger picture’ looks like and what long-term development can possibly do. 

“We didn’t only talk about on the pitch aims, but also off the pitch because not every player was going to be a professional. We talked about holistic development and hopefully over the years you gathered enough respect that people would listen.”

Sharing a vision and a long-term development plan was also a strategy used with the media, explains Corneal.  “We brought in the media and showed them our long-term development plan and let them ask questions about what we were doing and how it would benefit us. We believed the more they learned about it, the more difficult it was to not write positive things. So, I thought the media was also important when it comes to the development of the game and stakeholder relationships.”

• Dedicate time and effort into creating, maintaining and developing effective relationships with key stakeholders 

• Use both formal and informal methods to communicate with stakeholders 

• Share your vision and long-term development plan with stakeholders and identify areas where they can contribute and support 

•  How much time do you dedicate to creating, maintaining and developing relationships with stakeholders? 

• What balance of formal versus informal communication do you use when speaking with stakeholders? What do you think the impact is of your approach?

• Can you clearly and concisely communicate your vision and long-term development plan? If not, what do you need to do, to do so?