PRESIDENT of the TT Super League, Keith Look Loy, is dismayed over the move by the Pro League to start their 2019-2020 season, hence cancelling any hopes for the inaugural T-League, which was supposed to be a combination of the Pro League and Super League.
On Wednesday, the Pro League decided to start the 2019-2020 season on October 4, since there seemed little hope that the T-League will get going this year.
And Look Loy is blaming both the TTFA (TT Football Association) and the Pro League for this latest move.
“The Super League is being victimised by the TTFA and the Pro League,” said Look Loy yesterday. “We have remained faithful to the idea of one league. The TTFA has failed to deliver on what it promised in the memorandum of agreement that we signed, and the Pro League has walked away from it without even consulting us.
“(The Pro League) has decided that they’re going to start their league,” he continued. “Where (interim Pro League chairman) Brent Sancho was saying that October 4 would have been the kick-off of T-League, it turns out now that they were talking about October 4 for the Pro League.”
The outspoken Look Loy, who is also a TTFA director, revealed he and the Super League board had doubts over the proposed T-League getting started this year.
“We are not surprised that this has turned out the way (it did),” he said. “Our advice to them, from the very start of the discussions, was that 2019 should be used to plan the 2020 launch of the T-League. They decided that they know better and we tried to make the best of it. As it turns out, we were right. It wasn’t possible to do it.”
Look Loy commented on the Super League’s agreement last Sunday for a continuation of the Ascension Invitational Tournament.
“We, recognising what was going on, passed a motion for another round of the Ascension League,” said Look Loy. “I always like to have a Plan B and C so we had already put in motion planning and budgeting for our own tournament to run from October to December.
“We are in the process of looking for a sponsor. We’re going to have a tournament for our clubs to keep them active till December.”
Reflecting on the failure of the T-League to get going, the Super League president said, “The TTFA never delivered on the monies that they were supposed to have and delivered on from FIFA Forward Programme and the Pro League has fallen short because the Minister of Sport is on record, more than once, saying that the monies are available but the Pro League clubs are not compliant. That is why I’m saying we feel tremendously victimised.”
Does he think that the T-League will ever come into fruition?
He replied, “For many years I have been articulating the need for one elite league. We cannot maintain the status quo of a stagnant pool of Pro League clubs that other clubs cannot (join), unless they want to pay exorbitant sums of money to enter a league that has a failed model. They cannot function without Government subsidy. We need to scrap that and come with something new. We have to go back to the drawing board.
“We have a (TTFA) election coming up in November and I am committing myself to pushing for one elite league under a new administration. It’s a matter of planning it properly.”