A group of selected persons with a mandate to put the National Football League initiative into operation is expected to be appointed soon.
The initiative could cost an estimated $10 million annually, with investments from to come from the FIFA Forward Project, the corporate sector, government and owners of the clubs, this according to a source close to the developments who spoke to Guardian Media Sports yesterday on the condition of anonymity.
The source said that for the League to be a success, there must be the involvement of television, via live matches or recorded packages that can reach a wide audience, or else it will not make to much sense.
Last week, the Minister of Sports and Community Development, Shamfa Cudjoe said that her government will await a proposal from the information coming out of the meetings before they can decide between whether or not to support the football league.
This latest development followed a stakeholders meeting on Friday that involved the T&T Pro League, the T&T Super League and the administrators of T&T football, the FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee which met virtually to further discussions on the way forward for T&T football.
In December, the Robert Hadad, the chairman of the Normalisation Committee (NC) held meetings with the Pro League and Super League to map out a plan to move the sport forward.
The new group to be formed will be similar to the football commission that was formed to restructure T&T football back in 2018, on the advice of the sport's world governing body FIFA, UEFA and CONCACAF.
Like the commission, a marketing and human resource professional will be recruited, as well as an operations person to do fixtures etc, Guardian Media Sports understands.
Before the conclusion of the meeting, which comprised Pro League representatives Colin Wharfe of Club Sando, David John-Williams of W Connection and Brent Sancho, the acting Pro League chairman; while the Super League was led by its new president Clayton Morris and vice president Jameson Riques and Eddie Dean Club Sando, while the TTFA was represented by Dion LaFoucade, the TTFA Technical Director, Richard Piper, Ameil Mohammed and Hadad.
Guardian Media Sports was also reliably informed that while it was unanimously agreed for a new National League, there was no agreement whether or not it will be called the 'T-League' and what form the structure and intention of the League will be.
The source said: "I don't know if it would be a joint venture of the Pro League and Super League which will be extremely difficult, or if both the Pro League and the Super League will be run separately as Tier 1 and Tier 2, with a third league as Tier 3."
The source explained: "The discussions were framed around starting the tournament to be a supplier to the country's national teams, which is not what should happen. While national teams will benefit from the formation of these Leagues, they are all really run as a business. This is essentially what FIFA is looking for and to ultimatly have it aligned to the other big leagues around the world. Also, because FIFA has plans of running a FIFA Club World Cup in the near future. This could bring a team from every country into action."