Anil Roberts, the Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs, has promised to assist the Eddie Hart Football League for the next six seasons.
Roberts made this disclosure in a recent interview, in which he stated that Government will fund the competition from 2010 to 2015.
“He has been running a league for 44 years, while all other leagues have crumbled or gone away, over the years,” said Roberts. “This year, you’re talking about 80 teams, involving thousands of young people, in Trinidad and Tobago. I cannot see and I cannot fathom that anyone would not want to support this.
“So the Government and the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs, will support over the next six seasons, starting with this 2010 season, and going straight until 2015, will fully fund the Eddie Hart League,” declared Sports Minister Roberts.
“Eddie Hart is a former national footballer, past Parliamentarian, pan-man, a culture man, a national hero and an icon. And this league represents everything that the Government of Trinidad and Tobago thinks is positive and we shall support it fully.
“Furthermore, we shall upgrade the Eddie Hart Ground,” Roberts revealed. “The previous administration had it in Phase Two of development, which means it was not a priority. We have moved it, at the head of the list, for top priority, to Phase One.
“I am going to have discussions with the committee of the Eddie Hart League to see what they will like,” he said. “We want to make the grounds more amenable to the competitors, so the athletes can be more comfortable. We’re going to push for that and get it into the budget, but it will be 100 percent for Eddie Hart and the Eddie Hart League. What Eddie wants, Eddie gets,” Roberts said.
The Sports Minister was recently in South Africa for the final week of action in the FIFA World Cup, and he described his trip as “fantastic.”
“I was very impressed with the organisation by the South Africans, the infrastructure, the highways, the roadways, the bus networks, the railway systems, the hotels,” he said.
“The stadia were incredible. I hope that they have a plan to keep them sustainable and make them viable. I know they’re going to twin the stadia usage with culture, with big mega-concerts and so on, which is what we’re going to do here in Trinidad and Tobago also,” Roberts emphasised.
“Sport and culture will co-exist so all of our soca stars, our chutney stars, our musicians, our pan-men will be able to utilise the sporting facilities. We will protect our tracks and our football fields with proper world-class floors but culture and sport will exist in all of the Ministry of Sport facilities,” he said.
Roberts also took the opportunity to hold discussions with a number of persons in South Africa, including the Ministers of Sport from Russia and the United Kingdom.
“I also met with the Crown Prince of Qatar and the former (South African) President Thabo Mbeke,” he said. “We are making some great connections and linkages with cricket. It was very fruitful, very tiring but things are looking good,” Roberts said.
He touched on the recent controversy involving the National Basketball Federation of Trinidad and Tobago (NBFTT), concerning funding for the CentroBasket competition in the Dominican Republic.
“It is clear, as illustrated by the executive of the National Basketball Federation (of TT), that every statement made by Mr Brian Manning was proven not to be true, even the fact that he had a press conference as the ‘president’ of basketball,” the Sports Minister stressed.
“I will tell you that the Ministry of Sport assisted and funded the basketball men’s and women’s teams to Centrobasket to the tune of $800,000.
“On top of that, we also were in the position that the Basketball Federation, under Mr Brian Manning, did not follow normal procedures, rules and guidelines set out by the ministry,” Roberts revealed. “Their budgets for this tournament, and their subventions for the year 2009/2010 was never received.
“Therefore, there was really no money for basketball because of the inability or the incompetence of the Federation in getting in their subventions came in on May 28 2010.
“However, despite that, myself and the ministry officials bent over backwards to allow and assist our basketballers to get funding. We paid for all the tickets, the airfare to get to Mexico and the Dominican Republic for everyone and the training camps down in Mayaro.
“We paid for all the tickets for the foreign based players to come down. Unfortunately, when we are speaking, we must speak the truth and we must speak factually,” he said.
Roberts noted that the ministry also provided funding for the national cricket team, for the inaugural Caribbean Twenty20 tournament (which bowled-off yesterday in Barbados).
“The team has been funded from before. The Cricket Board is very efficient. They asked for their subvention and, within that subvention, was funding for the preparation of this (Twenty20) team,” said Roberts. “However, I think this cricket team brings great inspiration to Trinidad and Tobago.
“We look forward to Trinidad and Tobago winning the T20. I hope that the rain eases up. I’ve told the WICB that they must have alternate days and I think they’ve put that in, especially for the final. I want Trinidad and Tobago to do us proud so we can go to the Airtel Champions League once again and put Trinidad and Tobago on the map,” Roberts said.
The final issue Roberts touched on was the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup, which will be staged in this twin-island republic from September 5 to 25.
“We’re going to meet in Cabinet to decide what sort of support is there,” Roberts stated. “We’ve tentatively agreed to all the FIFA waivers, for all the media and the technicals, the Sunset Legislation and so on.
“But our stadia are in disrepair, not necessarily because of the World Cup but, since 2008, a lot of maintenance was not done. Our stadia have been neglected.”