Pro League gets $3M sponsor, T-League in trouble

Guardian Me­dia Sports was re­li­ably in­formed that the new­found spon­sor­ship, from a lo­cal or­ga­ni­za­tion, could lead to the aban­don­ment of the UE­FA/FI­FA-pro­posed T-League which has strug­gled to get the fund­ing from the Min­istry of Sports and Youth Af­fairs and the FI­FA For­ward Project.

It is un­cer­tain why monies from the Min­istry of Sports have not been forth­com­ing af­ter min­is­ter Sham­fa Cud­joe made it clear ap­proval has al­ready been giv­en for its re­lease to clubs.

Ac­cord­ing to the source, a meet­ing of the pro league clubs will be held to­day at 10 am at the of­fice of the Home of Foot­ball in Bal­main Cou­va, to de­cide if the pro league will pro­ceed on its own with some of the ini­tia­tives of the UE­FA and FI­FA.

The meet­ing will al­so seek to de­cide on the prize struc­ture for the Pro League, a new name for the league, the for­mat and a start­ing date.

If the Pro League gets go­ing, then a call will be made by pro league clubs for the aban­don­ment of the foot­ball com­mis­sion, which was cre­at­ed to steer T&T foot­ball in­to the new era of the T-League.

Ac­cord­ing to the source, the ma­jor­i­ty of the clubs are in favour of the Pro League go­ing it alone. They al­so be­lieve the time has come for the Pro League to have its own sec­ond di­vi­sion tour­na­ment, which could fit in­to the as­pi­ra­tions of the UE­FA and FI­FA rec­om­men­da­tions high­light­ed in the T-League.

Last week this news­pa­pers re­port­ed re­cent­ly that the T&T Su­per League clubs were lob­by­ing the or­gan­is­ers of the As­cen­sion In­vi­ta­tion­al Foot­ball League to play a sec­ond round of com­pe­ti­tion, as stat­ed by the spon­sors of the League at its launch two months ago.

How­ev­er, the source ex­plained that clubs are against this re­quest, as they be­lieve it was be­ing done by a group with an agen­da to desta­bi­lize the sport be­cause of its de­sire to seek gov­er­nance of the sport lat­er on this year.

"There is a heavy dis­trust for Su­per League clubs and its chair­man Kei­th Look Loy be­cause of a per­ceived agen­da ahead of the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion Elec­tions in No­vem­ber. If this group gets its way, then its mem­bers will make TTFA pres­i­dent David John-Williams and na­tion­al coach Den­nis Lawrence look bad, for them to look like sav­iours of lo­cal foot­ball," the source said.

The source la­belled the As­cen­sion League as a glo­ri­fied Mi­nor League, de­signed for Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers to win, say­ing the La Hor­quet­ta based club which took over the fran­chise of St Ann's Rangers just over a year ago, is the on­ly club that will play all its match­es at home.

From the 10 pro league clubs, Guardian Me­dia Sports un­der­stand that on­ly one team- Club San­do, has come out in sup­port of an ex­tend­ed round to the As­cen­sion League. How­ev­er, Pro League clubs have al­ready dis­cussed among them­selves, that Su­per League con­tenders Cunu­pia FC will be an ad­e­quate re­place­ment for Club San­do in the Pro League.