Will someone help save our football?
This is a question which I have heard asked by numerous supporters of the great sport. Their request though is not designed to castigate the persons who may have been responsible for the complicated state of the sport and competitions themselves.
Because of the limited space, I have to work with, it makes no sense for me to start from the beginning of the fiasco and send the game into a further confused state for which it is already in.
What I am certain about is that from the commencement of the Ascension Invitational Football League, which brought attachment to the Pro League and the Super League, reports have indicated that it has run into financial problems even before its initial match-schedule is completed.
For those, who have any degree of knowledge concerning the official guidance which is being followed and by whom has the authority to make decisions regarding the competition, then provide some assistance, it is needed.
Honestly, I believe that the time is ripe for the Sports Company of T&T (SporTT), the Ministry of Sports and the clubs, which have been engaged with any type of football tournament previously controlled by the T&T Football Association (TTFA), to get involved.
All we are hearing from members of the T League is for the government to fund the League, a league which is unable to explain what funding has been utilised by the committee to date.
The Ascension League matches are given good media coverage for the effort to expand its interest that will help lure the fans to matches. However, fans are not flocking the various venues which means that that fundraising aspect of the project seems to have failed because the information which has been passed to the media has not enticed the people who support football to travel to the various matches in great numbers.
From a general standpoint, the problems of football and competitions need a group of chosen personnel whose knowledge in sports management (planning, fundraising, accounting, marketing) and most of all, those who need to express the importance of involving the presence of communities as the foundation for any event to get involved to formulate a plan which would change the current direction of football and football management in the country.
If the present administrators are not capable of doing as stated above, please give others an opportunity before our football reaches a state where it is unrepairable like has been the cases in Zimbabwe and Egypt where they are now literally begging the FIFA to intervene to solve problems which will help their football change its course of direction and improve their competition blueprint.