T-League pre-season set for July

Yes­ter­day Guardian Me­dia Sports was re­li­ably in­formed the pre-sea­son tour­ney will be spon­sored by a for­eign com­pa­ny which sup­plies sports cloth­ing, gear and oth­er equip­ment.

The in­vestors are ex­pect­ed to pump a sub­stan­tial amount of mon­ey to­wards the com­pe­ti­tion, Guardian Me­dia Sports was told that the league sys­tem will be played in a round-robin for­mat in the dif­fer­ent tiers.

The 10 teams from the Tier 1- W Con­nec­tion, the 2018 League win­ners, North East Stars, Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers, Po­lice, Cen­tral FC, Point Fortin Civic, Club San­do, De­fence Force, Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed and San Juan Jabloteh are all sched­uled to be­gin bat­tle in the each-team-plays-each team com­pe­ti­tion, for a win­ning prize of $250, 000, and much need­ed prac­tice ahead of the com­ing sea­son which be­gins in Sep­tem­ber.

The sec­ond placed team in tier 1 will take home a hand­some $150, 000 while the third place team will walk away with $75, 000. How­ev­er, league or­gan­is­ers are still try­ing to arrange a prize struc­ture for tier 2 of the League, that will fea­ture ac­tion among 14 teams- FC San­ta Rosa, Queen's Park FC, Pris­ons FC, Cunu­pia FC, Guaya Unit­ed, Po­lice FC, Matu­ra Re-Unit­ed, the Uni­ver­si­ty of T&T (UTT), RSSR Foot­ball Acad­e­my, San Fer­nan­do Gi­ants, Pe­tit Val­ley/Diego Mar­tin Unit­ed, Bethel Unit­ed, Club San­do and Erin FC.

The of­fi­cial launch of the league is set to take place on a date to be an­nounced next week, but one or­gan­is­er who spoke on con­di­tions of anonymi­ty said the league is await­ing writ­ten ap­proval from the par­ent T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion which is be­ing head­ed by David John-Williams.

"We have re­ceived ver­bal ap­proval, but we are await­ing ap­proval in writ­ing be­fore the fix­tures can be drawn up. The tour­na­ment is be­ing held specif­i­cal­ly for the pur­pose of prepar­ing teams for the com­ing sea­son so it will be com­plet­ed in time in Sep­tem­ber," ex­plained the of­fi­cial who is closed to the lat­est de­vel­op­ments.

Mean­while, an of­fi­cial re­lease from the sev­en-man Com­mis­sion formed to guide the new T-League has con­firmed the teams for 2019 sea­son. Guardian Me­dia Sports was re­li­ably in­formed that a third-tier com­pe­ti­tion is be­ing lob­bied for by the T&T Su­per League clubs that did not play in the 2018 sea­son af­ter they were deemed non-com­pli­ant or could not pay the re­quired reg­is­tra­tion fee.

It un­der­stood the clubs are re­luc­tant to re­turn to Re­gion­al As­so­ci­a­tion foot­ball (North­ern FA, Souther FA, East­ern Coun­ties Foot­ball Union, Cen­tral FA, East­ern FA and the To­ba­go Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion.

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New T-League to start in Late August.
TTFA Media.

A total of 24 teams have been confirmed to participate in the T-League, which is a merger of the Pro League and the TT Super League.The T-League, which brings all clubs under one umbrella, is expected to kick-off in late August to early September and will come as a relief to many locally-based footballers who have been out of match-form since both leagues ended in December last year.

“The people who have been entrusted have been working overtime. The chairman of the commission, Mr Lindsay Gillette, really pushed that this come to fruition. There is a lot of infighting in football but this is something which all the clubs agreed with – which is something ain’t happen in a long while. The same characters that you hear (disagreeing) – the Keith Look Loys, the David John Williams – everybody worked together, and it shows that within all that’s happening people want to see the betterment of the sport,” said Brent Sancho who worked with the Commission of the new League.

The top tier (T1) will feature the ten Pro League clubs – W Connection, Terminix La Horquetta Rangers, Police, North East Stars, Central FC, Point Fortin Civic, Club Sando, Defence Force, Morvant Caledonia United and San Juan Jabloteh.Tier two (T2) will involve 14 clubs from the Super League – FC Santa Rosa, Queen’s Park, Prisons FC, Cunupia FC, Guaya United, Police, Matura Reunited, UTT, RSSR, San Fernando Giants, Petit Valley/Diego Martin United, Bethel United, Club Sando and Erin FC.In 2019 and 2020, one team will be promoted from Tier 2 to Tier 1, which will result in a 12-team T1 by 2021. “Meantime, normal promotion and relegation between T2 and the rest of local club football will continue in 2019,” the media release noted.

According to a tripartite memorandum of agreement (for the period of three years), between the TTFA (TT Football Association), Pro League and TT Super League, the T-League will have a league commission comprising no more than seven members – two apiece from the Pro League and Super League, two independent representatives and a TTFA representative.The competition will be organised and managed by the TTFA in conjunction with the league commission, while the TTFA will provide funding for the competition for the duration of the memorandum of agreement in an amount agreed upon and approved by the TTFA.The Pro League clubs have agreed to pledge their Government subvention monies towards the budget for the next three seasons.

Chairman of the Commission Lindsay Gillette spoke more on the new League at a press conference on Tuesday. See videos below for his statements

TTFA Press Conference - The T-League - New League Commission

Part 2 of T-League Commission Press Conference hosted by TTFA

Gillette praises TTFA Home of Football hotel - "It's Incredible"