Candidates Jordan, Latiff vie for SFA presidency
By Ian Prescott (T&T Express).
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.”
RELATED NEWS
‘Team Transformation’ promises youth development in South
T&T Newsday Reports.
SOUTHERN football is set to transition into a new administrative era as the general elections for the Southern Football Association executive committee are nigh upon all stakeholders involved.
Members of the southland's governing body will determine the future of football in the zone on April 27 when they march to the polls to cast their vote for this year’s new presidential candidate.
The elections will be contested by two teams – one led by the founder and organiser of the Next Level Consulting Limited (NLCL) Community Cup, Brian Jordan, and the other co-led by Tiger Tanks executives, Denis Latiff and Eddie Dean.
In 2022, both parties hosted youth tournaments which were considered successes by the respective organisers, investors and fans. Jordan spearheaded the NLCL Under-19 Community Cup and is currently managing the Under-15 version of the tournament. On the flip side, Latiff was the mastermind behind the Tiger Tanks Under-20 Invitational Tournament, which was won by Defence Force in June last year.
Nicknamed “Team Transformation”, Jordan declared that his party will be heavily focused on youth football and the improvement of football standards in the South Zone. Using his experience as a professional coach and former footballer, he believes that, if elected, the structure and organisation of the zone’s operations will be drastically improved.
In an interview with Newsday on Tuesday, he expressed that his youth tournaments sparked his desire to pursue the presidential position. “As many may know, the NLCL Under-19 tournament has been a blessing for youth development in the nation since 2019”, he said. “As a result, several stakeholders reached out and asked if there was anything that could be done in a similar nature in the south zone.”
“Grassroots and youth football are parts of a recipe that produced a generation of footballing talents in the zone in previous years. But now, we’ve lost that. We have to go back to producing talent through youth-focused development, and that is why I am running to be the new SFA president.
“We have to look at what has happened since TT qualified for the 2006 World Cup – there has been little to no progress in local football. The entire nation has been in a football stasis and, somehow, we need to find a way to change that.”
Jordan also addressed the lack of maintained grounds in the zone. He said that his team proposed a partnership with the regional corporation to ensure better field conditions and have more venues to facilitate matches. “Clearly, if we don’t have proper grounds, we can’t have proper development”, he claimed. “If we are to expand the opportunities for development – academy football, youth football, senior football, girls’ football and women’s football – we must have more facilities available and well maintained.”
The partnership will also provide employment opportunities as the unified SFA and Regional Corporation will staff ground maintenance crews.
If elected, Team Transformation will further boost the marketability of the league through engaging social media content, fan activities at matches and live broadcasting of select fixtures.
“We want to take the model of the pyramids in Egypt – build from the bottom and make the zone’s operations scalable and strong so that, no matter who comes into office in the future, there is a good base to work with and they can offshoot from there and initiate even more opportunities for football.”
Moreover, Jordan assured stakeholders that the senior SFA league will not clash with the TT Premier Football League (TTPFL). He said, “I believe that there can be an overlap (between leagues) particularly as there is currently no reserve league under the TTPFL. Therefore, younger players who are not first-team regulars at their Premier League club will be able to hone their craft and get playing time. We will not have senior players participating in both the Premier League and the zonal league.”
“However, with regards to the TTFA’s second-tier league, there is potential for South teams like Moruga FC, Erin FC and San Fernando Giants to be a part of it. We would be blessed to have them participate in both the second-tier and the SFA League. If scheduling allows it, those teams can be capable of competing on the two fronts. Sustainability for this will also be targeted so that teams will have full squads for every match day.”
Jordan also assured that his company, NLCL, will bring funds into the organisation, along with the financial assistance from sponsors, to ensure that the league, its teams and all other stakeholders can operate at their full capacity and produce the results that the Committee set out to achieve.
Additionally, he stated that match officials will receive benefits such as more training opportunities, equipment stipends and an increase in match fees. With the Match Officials Committee led by former FIFA referee Jaghernath Goolcharan, referees in the zone are almost certain to elevate to a higher level as the footballing standard increases.
He concluded by stating, “I’m proud to say this: once we get two or three years into our tenure, every zone will see our operations and seek to replicate it. When we started the NLCL Community Cup, no one gave it a chance. But, because of the strength of the team, we ensured that everything that was put to paper came to pass. Likewise, as the SFA Executive, things will happen.”
Along with Jordan, Team Transformation consists of Kirwin Weston (first vice president/iInformation technology enhancements), Jefferson George (second vice president and technical director), Jaghernath Goolcharan (board of management rep for match officials and PRO), Anita Sennon (board representative or administration), Andy Smith (board representative for health, safety and security) and Rucine Baker (board representative for women’s and girls’ football).