The value of being seen

The fi­nal score from last Tues­day’s in­ter­na­tion­al friend­ly will tell you Rus­sia de­feat­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go 3-0 in Kalin­ingrad. His­to­ry books will record the re­sult.

But they will not ful­ly cap­ture what it meant for Trinidad and To­ba­go to be there.

Over the last week, as I moved around Kalin­ingrad with the na­tion­al team, I was again re­mind­ed that in­ter­na­tion­al foot­ball is about far more than nine­ty min­utes on a pitch. Of course, mem­o­ries don’t leave like peo­ple do, and they al­ways stay with you, whether they’ve been good or bad. What hap­pens next is of ut­most im­por­tance.

But sports and in­ter­na­tion­al ap­pear­ances are about vis­i­bil­i­ty. It is about re­la­tion­ships.

It is about putting your coun­try in places where it would not or­di­nar­i­ly ap­pear.

For sev­er­al days, Trinidad and To­ba­go was im­pos­si­ble to miss in this west­ern Russ­ian city.

Match posters were dis­played around the city cen­ter. Dig­i­tal ad­ver­tise­ments ap­peared on screens. Restau­rants, cof­fee shops around, and pub­lic spaces around the city car­ried pro­mo­tion­al ma­te­r­i­al for the in­ter­na­tion­al friend­ly. The red, white, and black col­ors of our na­tion were part of the land­scape lead­ing up to match day.

More than 27,000 spec­ta­tors filled the Kalin­ingrad Are­na, a FI­FA World Cup venue from 2018. Every men­tion of the fix­ture car­ried the name Trinidad and To­ba­go. Every graph­ic, tele­vi­sion in­tro­duc­tion, and so­cial me­dia post car­ried our flag.

And the au­di­ence stretched well be­yond the sta­di­um.

The match was shown na­tion­wide across Rus­sia on Match TV and Match Pre­mier, reach­ing au­di­ences in a coun­try of more than 140 mil­lion peo­ple.

Lo­cal au­di­ences fol­lowed cov­er­age through Scorch TV’s dig­i­tal plat­forms. In the Unit­ed States, the match was avail­able on FOX Soc­cer Plus and FuboTV. Cana­di­an au­di­ences watched through One­Soc­cer. FI­FA+ al­so car­ried the fix­ture to se­lect­ed ter­ri­to­ries around the world.

For a few hours, Trinidad and To­ba­go foot­ball was be­ing dis­cussed si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly across Eu­rope, North Amer­i­ca, the Caribbean, and parts of Asia and Latin Amer­i­ca.

That ex­po­sure has val­ue. Sure­ly lo­cal fans would ar­gue that there are risks with all of this ex­po­sure be­cause we lost 3-0 and did not per­haps put on a fa­vor­able dis­play. But there were pos­i­tives and some in­di­vid­ual bright spots. The Russ­ian me­dia asked more about goal­keep­ers Den­zil Smith, Mo­lik Khan, and Ryan Telfer af­ter the match and a cou­ple scouts have al­ready been in touch.

Two days be­fore the match, I ac­com­pa­nied mid­field­er Daniel Phillips on a me­dia en­gage­ment through the streets of Kalin­ingrad with a pro­duc­tion crew from Russ­ian stream­ing gi­ant Okko.

For many back home, Okko may not be a fa­mil­iar name. In Rus­sia, how­ev­er, it is one of the coun­try’s largest stream­ing and en­ter­tain­ment plat­forms, at­tract­ing tens of mil­lions of users every month and serv­ing as a ma­jor broad­cast­er of pre­mi­um sports con­tent.

As Daniel walked through the city cen­ter dis­cussing his ca­reer, T&T foot­ball, and life in Eng­land, it struck me that these mo­ments mat­ter.

That in­ter­view was not re­al­ly about one foot­baller. It was about in­tro­duc­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go to a new au­di­ence. It was an­oth­er op­por­tu­ni­ty for our coun­try to be seen.

That is some­thing small na­tions should nev­er un­der­es­ti­mate. Foot­ball re­mains one of the most pow­er­ful forms of soft diplo­ma­cy avail­able to any coun­try.

Through­out our stay, young Russ­ian sup­port­ers wait­ed out­side the team ho­tel hop­ing for au­to­graphs and pho­tographs. Play­ers ex­changed jer­seys af­ter the match. Lo­cal fans proud­ly posed with Trinidad and To­ba­go shirts and train­ing tops.

Those mo­ments may nev­er ap­pear on a score­sheet. Yet they help shape per­cep­tions.

Every in­ter­na­tion­al trip is ef­fec­tive­ly an op­por­tu­ni­ty to mar­ket our coun­try. Peo­ple form opin­ions based on what they see.

The pro­fes­sion­al­ism of a del­e­ga­tion. The con­duct of its play­ers. The friend­li­ness and ef­fi­cien­cy of its staff. The im­age was pro­ject­ed through so­cial me­dia and tele­vi­sion.

Of course, no­body trav­els halfway around the world hop­ing to lose. Re­sults and per­for­mances mat­ter. So does de­vel­op­ment.

How­ev­er, there is an­oth­er as­pect of the equa­tion that is fre­quent­ly ne­glect­ed.

When scouts, agents, clubs, and foot­ball of­fi­cials see Trinidad and To­ba­go com­pet­ing in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, doors can open.

Play­ers gain ex­po­sure. Re­la­tion­ships are formed and fu­ture op­por­tu­ni­ties emerge.

And that is why match­es like these still mat­ter. Be­cause long af­ter the fi­nal whis­tle, the im­ages re­main. The flag re­mains.

For a few days in Kalin­ingrad, Trinidad and To­ba­go was not just par­tic­i­pat­ing in an in­ter­na­tion­al foot­ball match. It was be­ing seen. And for a na­tion such as ours com­pet­ing in a vast world, there is val­ue in that.

Ed­i­tor’s note: Shaun Fuentes is the head of TTFA Com­mu­ni­ca­tions. 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 over 90 coun­tries dur­ing his jour­ney in sport. “Pro Look” is his week­ly col­umn on foot­ball, sports, cul­ture, and the hu­man side of the game. The views ex­pressed are sole­ly his and not a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of any or­ga­ni­za­tion. shaunfuentes@ya­hoo.com