TTFA's gimmick league - United TTFA

The tour­na­ment was launched on Mon­day morn­ing, mere hours be­fore pres­i­dent David John-Williams re­vealed that fi­nan­cial com­mit­ment pur­port­ed to have been giv­en by the Ju­nior Sam­my Group of Com­pa­nies to the Unit­ed TTFA group, was a fake.

Yes­ter­day the Unit­ed TTFA, in its third re­lease in less than a week, said the League of Cham­pi­ons was a move to cre­ate an im­pres­sion that the John-Williams ad­min­is­tra­tion was do­ing some­thing for lo­cal club foot­ball.

on Wednes­day the Unit­ed TTFA said that the League was al­so de­signed to un­der­mine the T&T Su­per League, as the gen­er­al pol­i­cy of Unit­ed TTFA is to pro­mote foot­ball in T&T, and with­in that, to fos­ter the de­vel­op­ment of club foot­ball.

Wal­lace, who heads the slate along­side his vice pres­i­dents- Clynt Tay­lor (CFA), Sam Phillips and Su­san Joseph-War­rick, said "Unit­ed TTFA con­demns the use of our club foot­ball as a mere tool in the po­lit­i­cal ar­se­nal of the David John-Williams ad­min­is­tra­tion, and as cheap gim­micky ahead of the 24 No­vem­ber TTFA an­nu­al gen­er­al meet­ing (AGM) for the elec­tion of of­fi­cers.

Unit­ed TTFA promis­es the TTFA elec­torate and the peo­ple of T&T that it will adopt the nec­es­sary mea­sures to es­tab­lish a prop­er elite league in 2020, the ground­work for which has al­ready been laid."

They not­ed the group drew its con­clu­sion based on (1): A pro­pos­al for the for­ma­tion of the league has not been sub­mit­ted for ap­proval to the TTFA Board of Di­rec­tors, 2:The clear ab­sence of ob­jec­tive cri­te­ria in the se­lec­tion of the league's mem­ber­ship. Specif­i­cal­ly, we point to a) the fact that of the four­teen pro­posed mem­bers on­ly three are 2018 cham­pi­ons (of CFA, SFA and NFA), b) the in­clu­sion of two clubs that have not par­tic­i­pat­ed in re­gion­al or any oth­er TTFA-af­fil­i­at­ed foot­ball since 2017, and c) the in­clu­sion of sev­er­al clubs that have been le­git­i­mate­ly sus­pend­ed by the TT Su­per League.

3. Unit­ed TTFA al­so notes: a) TTFA web­site in­for­ma­tion on this league in­cludes a "Na­tion­al Un­der-20 team", which is a clear hoax as the TTFA Board of Di­rec­tors has not au­tho­rized the for­ma­tion of, nor ap­point­ed a staff to, any such na­tion­al team to par­tic­i­pate in this league, and b) TTFA web­site in­for­ma­tion al­so in­cludes ref­er­ence to two TT Su­per League clubs - Pris­ons FC and Pe­tit Val­ley/Diego Mar­tin Unit­ed FC - which are not par­tic­i­pat­ing in this so-called TTFA League of Cham­pi­ons, while fix­tures in­clude the for­mer:

4. The David John-Williams ad­min­is­tra­tion has not met with the TTFA Ref­er­ee Com­mit­tee to dis­cuss and or­ga­nize match of­fi­cials for this league. This is dis­re­spect­ful and un­pro­fes­sion­al.

5. Unit­ed TTFA is alarmed at the fact that the David John-Williams ad­min­is­tra­tion is pre­pared to spend ap­prox­i­mate­ly one mil­lion dol­lars (TTD 1M) on a pick up league when it con­sis­tent­ly main­tained it did not have fund­ing for the pro­posed T-League that was agreed to un­der a Mem­o­ran­dum of Agree­ment signed by TTFA, the TT Pro League and the TTF Su­per League. Unit­ed TTFA calls for dis­clo­sure of the source of fund­ing for this league.

SOURCE: T&T Guardian

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League of Champions no election gimmick.
By Jelani Beckles (Newsday).

United TTFA questions timing of new league but DJW says,

IT continues to be a war of words between the president of the TT Football Association (TTFA) David John-Williams and the United TTFA leading up to the TTFA elections on November 24.

A press conference was held, on Monday, to announce that the newly formed TTFA League of Champions tournament will be played from Sunday to April 12.

Defence Force, Police, Matura ReUnited, Guaya United, Miscellaneous Laventille United, Moruga FC, Harlem Strikers, Central Soccer World and Marabella Family Crisis Centre and the Tobago-based pair of Youth Stars United and Tobago Phoenix are among the participating teams.

A press release issued yesterday by The United TTFA questioned the timing of the new league as it comes less than three weeks before elections.

“The general policy of United TTFA is to promote football in TT, and within that to foster the development of club football. Nonetheless, United TTFA holds the view that the new league to be launched by the David John-Williams administration on 10 November – the so-called TTFA League of Champions – is a political gimmick intended to create the impression that TTFA is doing something for local club football and to undermine the TT Super League.”

The release added that it has based this conclusion on a number of factors including the TTFA not meeting with the TTFA Referee Committee to discuss and organise match officials for this league. According to the United TTFA this is disrespectful and unprofessional. The United TTFA is also questioning the FA’s source of funding to start the league after continuously complaining about a shortage of funds.

United TTFA promised the TTFA electorate and the people of TT that it will adopt the necessary measures to establish a proper elite league in 2020.

In response to the release by United TTFA, John-Williams told Newsday the TTFA tried to unify football in TT months ago by creating a two-tier league involving Pro League teams in the first tier and Super League teams in the second tier.

The teams in the second tier would have tried to earn promotion to the second tier, but that proposal was blanked by the TT Super League. The president of the TT Super League is Keith Look Loy, who is part of the United TTFA.

John-Williams said the TTFA League of Champions tournament is for the interest of football and not about politics.

“The TTFA is responsible for football in this country and it is not a political gimmick because if it was a political gimmick it would have been teams who (were) involved with delegates would have playing in the league. None of those clubs could vote.”

John-Williams, the president of local club W Connection said he knows the value of club football. “The football is the football and the politics is the politics. I am a person who grew up in the football, I did not grow up in the politics. I was accustom running my club in a particular way and you never hear my club being political. For some reason, people felt I was important to run the football affairs of this country and I do it as a national service. I know about players, I know about running a club, I know how players feel, I know the importance of club football. That is another attempt to distract what is right.”