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FORMER national footballer and chairman of the Caribbean Football Trust Limited (CFTL), Chris Anderson, wants to help improve the standard of local football by giving more than half a million dollars to the Trinidad and Tobago Super League (TTSL), for the forthcoming season.

The CFTL will give $200,000 to the League Cup starting in September, which will involve all 20 teams in the Super League. A further $350,000 will be handed over to the Power Eight tournament kicking off in January 2018, a post-season tournament featuring the top eight teams in the Super League First Division.

Speaking at a media conference at the former Trinidad and Tobago Football Association office at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo yesterday, Anderson said his passion for T&T football has not wavered and he wants to help with the growth of the sport.

“As a former Trinidad and Tobago player, my passion is always for Trinidad and Tobago football,” stated Anderson. “For the past 15 to 20 years I have seen our football decline in a way where it is totally dilapidated.

“When I saw Mr Look Loy, with the passion and the commitment to implement such an independent operation, I felt it was my duty to intervene and I made the first call to him and offered my assistance.” Anderson said the agreement between the CFTL and the TTSL can be the start of a long relationship between the two organisations.

“This is the beginning.

I anticipate that we will venture into greater things as we go along. I could see our company committing to bigger cash amounts to help elevate this Super League to the next level which I envision.” Keith Look Loy, interim president of the TTSL, was elated with the new partnership. Look Loy said, “We are very, very happy that Caribbean Football Trust has come on board. This is not only a vote of confidence, but it gives incentives to the clubs and to the players.

There is prize money to be played for, and it gives us creditability that an international sponsor recognises what we are trying to do.” Look Loy says the gap between the TT Pro League and the TTSL is small, and believes the Power Eight tournament will be of a high standard.

“This is going to be a good tournament. The top eight clubs in the Super League, it is going to be a high level tournament.

“The gap that is supposed to exist between Pro League clubs as the top tier of local football and Super League clubs as the second tier of local football is increasingly becoming imaginary. I believe that the top clubs in the Super League could match any club in the TT Pro League,” Look Loy ended.

RELATED NEWS

CFTL pumps $550,000 into TTSL.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).


The new T&T Super League kicks off on Sunday and the Caribbean Football Trust Limited (CFTL), an international football group being chaired by Chris Anderson, has agreed to fund the T&TSL’s League Cup and a Power Eight tournament to the tune of $550,000.

Yesterday, interim president Keith Look Loy said the CFTL Group has agreed to pump a whopping $200,000 into the League Cup competition which will go toward prize monies and will also donate another $350,000 Power Eight tournament. That amount will go towards prize monies, marketing and administration. However the TTSL is still to get an overall sponsor of the league.

Look Loy, the president of last year’s Premier Division champion team FC Santa Rosa said they are on the search for a title sponsor and calls on government or corporate T&T to come on board. The TTSL has already committed itself to covering inter-island funding to the tune of $500,000.

The league will be played in two divisions as it did in previous years, but it will be called League 1 and League 2 instead of Championship and Premier Divisions. It gets going on Sunday with defending Premier Division champion FC Santa Rosa taking on Cunupia FC at the Larry Gomes Stadium, Malabar Arima from 3:30pm. The game will be one of six scheduled to be played on the the opening round at different venues across T&T.

Apart from that match, Defence Force the dethrone champions will have a date with Siparia Spurs at the Hasely Crawford Stadium frtom 6pm and Guaya United will take on Club Sando Moruga from 4:30pm at the Guayaguarare Recreation Ground.

In other games Bethel United will come up against Queen’s Park at the Mt Gomery Recreation Ground and 1976 Phoenix FC will take on Police at the Canaan Bon Accord Recreation Ground. UTT will complete the day’s fixtures with a clash against WASA FC at O’Meara Campus Ground from 6pm.