Pro League changes Board structure

Rid­ing on the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Union of Eu­ro­pean Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tions (UE­FA) to re­view the Board's com­po­si­tion and in­clude in­de­pen­dent per­son­nel, the League has agreed to change its cur­rent Board for­mat to in­clude rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the top three clubs; reps from a fourth team to be de­cid­ed; a mem­ber of the par­ent T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion and two in­de­pen­dent rep­re­sen­ta­tives, of which one is ex­pect­ed to be from gov­ern­ment.

It will re­place the ex­ist­ing for­mat that sees a mem­ber from each team in the pro league mak­ing up the Board of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

Richard Fakoory, Chair­man of the T&T Pro League said a de­ci­sion has al­ready been made to fol­low the UE­FA for­mat, and he not­ed there is un­like­ly to be any squab­ble from com­pet­ing clubs, as UE­FA-run com­pe­ti­tions are the most suc­cess­ful run in the world.

Ue­fa of­fi­cials are set to re­turn to T&T next Wednes­day fol­low­ing their ini­tial vis­it in Sep­tem­ber last year, and they will re­ceive, in doc­u­ment­ed form, ev­i­dence the new pro league for­mat will be put in place.

With the change, how­ev­er, the pro league could po­ten­tial­ly see a new board of rep­re­sen­ta­tives each year, as it is un­like­ly that the top three clubs would fin­ish in that or­der con­sis­tent­ly. Yes­ter­day Fakoory told Guardian Me­dia Sports "Change in the League is need­ed and I am forsee some­thing very pos­i­tive. I can ad­mit that in the cur­rent sys­tem, we have club reps at­tend­ing meet­ings with their own agen­da and this pre­vent­ed a pos­i­tive way for­ward some­times, so we will try the new sys­tem and see how it will work out."

Ue­fa's rec­om­men­da­tions al­so in­clud­ed a new foot­ball struc­ture that will im­pact com­pet­i­tive foot­ball in every league in the coun­try, such as the pro league, T&T Su­per League, the Re­gion­al As­so­ci­a­tion leagues and oth­er com­pe­ti­tions.

Ja­maal Shabazz, founder and man­ag­er of pro league cam­paign­er Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed said he is ex­cit­ed about this change as the lev­el of com­pe­ti­tion in all the leagues across T&T will be en­hanced.

Oth­er changes rec­om­mend­ed by the UE­FA in­clude- Unit­ing the foot­ball fam­i­ly in T&T: Al­low­ing TTFA to ac­tive­ly as­sist the run­ning of the pro league: Ten­der process for new sea­son match venue: De­ci­sion on whether the pro league will sit un­der the TTFA or stay as a sep­a­rate en­ti­ty: TTFA to cen­tralise and lead foot­ball in T&T: and Re­cruit­ment of full-time staff in the sport.

It al­so rec­om­mend­ed- Ver­i­fy­ing that all clubs are com­pli­ant with the FI­FA: The im­ple­men­ta­tion of a dig­i­tal foot­ball reg­is­tra­tion sys­tem by the TTFA: and De­sign­ing and cre­at­ing new pro league brand and mar­ket­ing cam­paign.

Fakoory said his Board is still to hold dis­cus­sions on some of the oth­er rec­om­men­da­tions, but he will not favour the pro league be­ing man­aged by the foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion. "We can take ad­vise from them as we are ac­cus­tomed but I do not be­lieve we should al­low the TTFA to run our af­fairs in the pro league," the St Ann's Rangers boss ex­plained.

The pro league is set to kick off in ear­ly April, but it is un­sure of how many clubs will be par­tic­i­pat­ing as clubs are still strug­gling to make the $130, 000 reg­is­tra­tion fee for en­try. Fakoory said when the clubs are de­cid­ed they league will choose its board. He not­ed the board will al­so deal with the for­ma­tion of com­mit­tees rec­om­mend­ed by the UE­FA for ar­eas such as mar­ket­ing, fi­nance and fix­tures etc.

SOURCE: T&T Guardian