Newly appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Sport Company of T&T (SporTT) Adam Montserin wasted no time in tackling his new job and, as promised, provided funding to some of the Pro League teams, a day after meeting with representatives of the Club.
Montserin and executive managers of the SporTT Company sat with club officials, at the media room of the company’s head office in the National Cycling Velodrome in Couva on Thursday morning, to resolve funding and compliance issues that previously prevented the clubs to access their monthly budget subvention.
Present at the meeting were representatives of Central FC, Club Sando, Ma Pau Stars FC, Morvant Caledonia United, Point Fortin Civic FC, San Juan Jabloteh, St Ann’s Rangers and W Connection. The SporTT team provided guidance to the clubs on a wide range of issues including compliance with the Service Level Agreement (SLA) requirements and challenges faced by the clubs in earning revenue on a continuous basis.
Jamaal Shabazz, manager of Morvant Caledonia said, “We do not intend for the funding to be viewed as a social programme so we would like SporTT to assist us with funding compliance and generating income.”
Coming out of the discussions, seven of the eight Pro League teams represented received their funding, having provided the necessary documentation.
For the past two months, clubs have not received their $50,000 monthly Government subvention which was due to the current financial state as reported earlier this week, by the chairman of the SporTT Company, Michael Phillips. He said that one of the challenges of making the SporTT Company viable was its inability to collect money from the rental of the sporting facilities, for which they are responsible.
Earlier this year Minister of Sport, Darryl Smith, had assured clubs of the continuation of Government assistance through the SporTT Company until the end of the season, which is in February.
Montserin promised to continue the conversation in the New Year saying, “We would meet again in January to look at improving how we engage clubs and to further discuss the possibility of public-private partnerships to enable them to achieve their objectives.”
A former Fatima College student, Montserin, took over as CEO, replacing former acting CEO Adrian Raymond, some three months after Raymond’s contract was terminated on August 30, making it the seventh change in the position since former Prime Minister Patrick Manning established the institution in 2004.
The former CEO at iGovTT’s National Information and Communication Technology Company Limited will be operating out of the National Velodrome and the National Aquatic Centre in Balmain, Couva, where the headquarters of the SporTT Company was relocated.