The current lack of competitive football in Arima is worrying at least one football stalwart and enthusiast in the borough, and he is calling on someone to do something about it.
President of Football Club (FC) Santa Rosa, 71-year-old, Keith Look Loy who was once a Trinidad and Tobago Football Association board member and former T&T Super League president, told the Sunday Express during a telephone interview, that growing up in Arima he remembered there was a thriving and vibrant football league where every district had its team and hundreds of supporters were drawn to the Arima Savannah to follow the games.
“From my area, there was Cave Boys; from down by the Arima Old Road area where Arima North is and that whole area Mausica, there was Palace; from across by the race track you had Agents; heading out of Arima, heading East you had Hotspurs. From Malabar you had Glensdale, then you had Fulham Sports Club. From Bakery Street you had Creek; so, we had a lot of teams. Around by the Arima cemetery, which is Jonestown area now and the Native peoples centre, the Carib centre, you had RS United.”
Look-Loy said that the Arima League went on for decades until it died and was revived in the 1990s. He pointed out that he knew for certain that it was played during the 2010s era, “up until Covid killed it.”
He reiterated that since the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been no league football in Arima and added that all the traditional clubs from the past and the youth clubs of the 2000 period had been phased out. He noted that there were just a few clubs in the borough that were attempting to keep the youth football alive, including the club that he manages, FC Santa Rosa.
He said he was unaware of any senior teams representing Arima in the zonal league at present, “and there is certainly none in the new (T&T) Premier League.”
Look Loy described the current state of football in Arima as dormant and called on someone or an entity to take up the responsibility to resuscitate it in the borough. However, he feared whether anyone was willing to take up the mantle.
And he argued that if football had to thrive again in the borough, it was imperative that it be played in the Arima Velodrome because, “nobody in Arima goes to watch football in Larry Gomes Stadium. That just sits there. If you have a match in there, nobody coming to that. If you put the same match in the Velodrome, people coming. That is just Arima people. It is so we are.” However, Look Loy reckoned that it also had to do with the Velodrome’s central location, as compared to Larry Gomes Stadium.
“But somebody outside the Arima town administration has to go to them and ask permission to use the venue and revive it or somebody working in the administration has to revive it.”
Asked what help the business community gives to sports and in particular football in Arima, Look Loy stated that the assistance was non-existent from that sector.
Speaking further about his team, Look Loy noted that FC Santa Rosa had taken a decision after Covid-19 to return to their roots and re-focus exclusively on youth football, and for that reason, was not interested in Premier League or zonal football, despite winning the Super League title twice, in 2016 and 2018.
Despite his club’s isolated decision, Look Loy stressed that the overall lack of football in Arima was also a loss for the country since the borough has always been, “a fountain of talent for Trinidad and Tobago football.”
He highlighted a number of national players who came from the borough—past and present—and described the current void of domestic or zonal football in the borough as a national threat.
He said that currently, it was only Arima North in the secondary schools league that was representing the borough on a national level.
He rhetorically asked: “When the boys leave, which club in Arima they were going to play for?” Look Loy emphasised that, “there was none in men’s football, I mean at a certain level. Yes, they could find some fete match side to play with; some small side, that is for sure.” However, he reasoned that if a player goes into Arima Secondary and came out with a decent reputation at the secondary school level, “when he leaves the school, who is he going to play for in Arima? There is nobody. He will leave and go and play for someone else?”
Look-Loy lamented that for some people like himself that was a serious problem.
On Friday Trinidad and Tobago took on Honduras at the Estadio Nacional Chelato Ucles in Tegucigalpa, and three of the players representing the red, white and black outfit in that assignment began their youth careers at FC Santa Rosa—Andre Rampersad, Nathaniel James and Duane Muckette.
The current coach of the national football team, Derek King is an alderman of the Arima borough council and chairman of the sports committee.
When contacted, Arima Mayor Balliram Maharaj agreed that the Arima Velodrome was the better vicinity to attract spectators in the borough but highlighted that there were protocols that needed to be followed in order to address the concerns of the sporting community. When asked if there were plans to lay a track for the athletes at the Velodrome, Maharaj answered in the affirmative. He also said that they also wanted to restart the football tournament but admitted that at the time money posed a problem, when prize monies have to be allocated. He said the current chairman of the sports committee, King, “is all out for sport. He has the plans but the bottom line is we have to wait and see.” He added that “everything had to go through the local government first, and we are waiting on their approval of funds. They have been promising it and it seems like at this time the funds are low and we have to fall in line and wait.” Maharaj said.
SOURCE: T&T Express