Three men have openly declared their intention to run for the presidency of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA), but one of them is still hoping the field can be reduced.
Selby Browne says he’s leaving the door open for an accommodation with his potential rivals.
Next Wednesday is the deadline for all potential candidates for the April 13 TTFA elections to be nominated. And so far Browne, president of the Veteran Footballers Foundation of Trinidad and Tobago (VFFOTT), head of the Southern Football Association Dennis Latiff and Eastern Football Association president Kieron Edwards have declared their interest in being the next president.
However, since the election date was announced, attempts have been made between the three to have an accommodation without success. However, Browne has not given up on the idea.
“What I have told them, both Latiff and Kieron is that we should all come together and agree to have one entity and go to the election with one slate,” the VFFOTT president told the Express yesterday. “We don’t need an election to determine who will run the TTFA. Let us come together and do that...I have invited them to do that.”
Browne added: “It’s up to them to come back to me. I know one reached out on Sunday...but it is up to them to do it...It is still open to them.”
Latiff, however, said yesterday that he is pressing ahead with a slate of his own.
“Others have their own personal agenda,” he said. “I going with a national agenda, not a personal agenda. There is nothing personal in this for me to gain. I am coming with a new slate that I think could move football forward in Trinidad and Tobago.”
In the meantime, Browne expects to finalise his slate by the weekend.
“Whatever my veteran footballers decide Saturday morning 10 o’clock at the Barataria Sports Complex...(that’s) what our slate will be,” he said, adding: ”Our VFFOTT membership, we have had forums, we have brought people in, we have done consultations throughout all the zones-- Tobago, North, Central and we have come up with what is the plan for the restructuring and development of Trinidad and Tobago football. That is ten years of work, more than.”
Browne also said he expected another slate to come to the fore by the nomination deadline day. But he is keen to get the process finished because he said much time has been lost in preparing the national senior team for World Cup qualification.
“Clearly, the Normalisation Committee has missed the opportunity (to prepare) so what we are hoping and praying on is defeating Canada next month in Texas to go into the CONMEBOL, which if we do well in the CONMEBOL we will seed a place or we go into the World Cup qualifiers that start in June,” Browne claimed.
“That is where we are at today, knowing since 2020 that you have a World Cup in 2026 to be hosted in the CONCACAF with three countries already seeded and then the three-and-a-half places, and you haven’t had a team in training and preparation, living let us say in Panama or Mexico or the US and playing actively...We have wasted the opportunity. We are on a hope and a prayer right now.”
SOURCE: T&T Express