President of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF), Lennox Watson, has professed that the TTFF will continue to function as per their original job description but he has refused to state where their financial strength will come from.
This follows the raid of their headquarters by ex-players, after the TTFF’s non-compliance to pay the footballers a $4.2 million interim payment ordered by the court to the players for the 2006 World Cup campaign.
“We (TTFF) are functioning. The footballers are within their rights and they took from the headquarters the materials they felt would hinder our operations, but on that given day, the day after, and...we will be doing bit by bit to maintain our status quo. We will be operating as usual. It will not be easy but we will,” claimed Watson.
He was adamant that the TTFF would not crumble and fold as many believe but he refused to indicate where they would receive funds from. He relayed that sponsorship would be essential to their running but would not shed light on the impact the levy has had on their sponsorship.
“The TTFF is not a profit or loss carrier. We are responsible for developing football and sanctioning teams and games; abroad or local, for the development of national football. We must get the funds to develop the sport and sponsors have the right to invest or stop investing as they see fit.
It’s up to them, some come and some go but I will not state how we will be getting funds to operate or from who, in the wake of the recent events,” he stated as he incessantly made it clear he would not provide any sponsorship details to the media.
“We are responsible for looking after thousands of players under our watch and as these fall under our jurisdiction, it can be seen we are key to domestic and regional football. We are hopeful our sponsors will stay on but our finances are something I am not discussing at the moment,” concluded Watson.