Battle for ‘Southern’ supremacy
IT is a South final and takes place tomorrow, at Manny Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella, from 7 p.m. The big prize though is the presidency of the Southern Football Association (SFA).
By Friday, the SFA will have a new president and executive to run its affairs, following its Annual General Meeting (AGM) when the membership vote to elect a new Executive to serve a four-year term.
Two heavyweight candidates, businessmen Brian K Jordan and Denis Latiff, are vying for the presidency, vacated by Richard Quan Chan, who is stepping down having fulfilled the two-term maximum any president can serve. “I will support whoever the general council select as their president,” immediate past president Quan Chan announced. “I am staying out of the election. If they call me, I will advise, I will give direction. But to say I am supporting one side over the other...no.”
Candidate Jordan, 48, is a Point Fortin-born business owner, licensed football coach and founder of the NLCL Community Cup, an island wide youth football tournament, which benefits many of the at-risk youth footballers across T&T. His opponent Latiff is associated with Tiger Tanks Club Sando and also general manager of Tigers Tanks Limited, sponsors of the T&T Secondary Schools Football League and Tiger Tanks Under-20 tournament.
Jordan’s slate includes Jefferson George, the Princess Town-based former national youth team and W Connection goalkeeper, who fills a dual role as president of the Unified Coaches of Trinidad and Tobago. George is vying for the role of SFA second vice-president and technical director.
Also on the Jordan’s slate are Kirwin Weston (first vice-president), Jaggernath Goolcharan (PRO), Anita Sennon (Administration) and Andy Smith (Health, Safety and Security).
Latiff, 63, is from San Fernando, and his team includes Aldwin Ferguson Jr, who runs for first vice-president; Edison Dean of Club Sando, who runs for second vice-president; Michael Maurice, the former Trinidad and Tobago national team goalkeeper; Clayton Williams, who currently serves as SFA assistant-secretary of operations; and PRO Joey Rooplal. If the slate is successful, former United States-based youth coach Dwight De Leon will come in as general-secretary.
Jordan, coach of Union Hall United, hopes to begin the overhaul of South football starting with Youth football. Jordan outlined his plans for the South Zone. “We want to get in there. We want to organise. We want to bring resources, like we have been bringing resources to the zone in the NLCL,” he said.
Jordan indicated that youth development is big on his agenda and he intends to implement youth and women’s competitions in the South Zone. “We will start from the Academy leagues. We will implement a girls/women’s league. We will implement a boys youth league, all of which do not exist today.”
Once a league with several divisions, SFA football was contested last year by just 11 clubs, broken up into two groups.
‘Youth development’ high on the agenda
Latiff is also talking “youth development”, including structuring an academy for the best, young South footballers. But he thinks the biggest problem with the South Zone is lack of good management and a disconnect with cubs.
“My vision is to get the SFA back on its feet and get it back to the glory days that we had before,” said Latiff. “Not much has been done with development as should have been done.” He hopes to quickly have functioning committees with properly trained personal and, once restructured, to have SFA games televised on YouTube etc.
“The goal is to use the people in the area to get that (Committees) going. I am going to have oversight on it, but they are the ones that know what they want,” stated Latiff. “Most of them say it’s the first time somebody come. First time they see a manifesto. I’m going to work with all. There are some teams that have no structure. We will help structure them.”
Jordan stated: “We believe the clubs are ready for change. The clubs are saying all the right things which indicate we will get their support,” stated Jordan.
“But we are humble and respectful of the process.” He believes he has the know-how to bring financial resources to South football as well. “NLCL is our company. So, we will be bringing some of our own resources to the table and, secondly, we have not had a problem with (getting) sponsors at the NLCL,” explained Jordan.
As a businessman and a former coach at both St Benedict’s College and Presentation College, Jordan pointed out that he also has vast experience of successfully dealing with the business community. “Business people have a way that we communicate and we have been saying to them we can provide value. That is all they want. They want standards and value,” Jordan concluded.
Latiff says his track record speaks for itself. “I am a doer. I’m going to make it happen. At Tiger tanks that is our motto,” noted Latiff. “We held the Tiger Tanks U-20 football tournament last year with the TTFA. I did almost everything for that single-handedly. The way it was structured, TV coverage, all that. The TTFA helped me with getting the grounds.”
He added: “The same thing we did with SSFL (Secondary Schools Football League)...I sponsored the SSFL last year. It is the first time that anybody ever got both Sportmax and Flow Sport to work together.”