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Football / Re: T&T go down in Fort-de-France.
« on: October 23, 2016, 12:58:55 PM »
27 years later, you lose to Martinique? Where is the progress?
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Well King, this has been the case from the inception of Concacaf, wether club or country. In th 70s when there was no money in the CCL, Caribbean teams, Robin Hood, Transvaal, TTDF, TTpolice, VioletsHaiti made the semis and final. Then when the US started pumping money into the tournament, things change. We can't compete. Our clubs can't match not even the Central American clubs when it come to getting money to run a pro clubs. People who have money not interested in pro football. If that was the case they would have formed their own team or get behind one of the struggling clubs in the pro league. Arthur Suite was one of the few men who seemed to have the passion, but eventually he bowed out for reasons, I don't know. Right now, DJW, is the man with the passion. I know many of this forum have issue with him. Right or wrong, he has the passion. I think the reason his team has not gone any further, has to do with coaching. connection has an Arsenal-Wenger scenario. I have no issue with the coach, but maybe they need some kind of change. Connection just static. Wonderful organization by TT standards, but like you said, when it come to the next level they not there.Deeks, you asked a question, when I answered your question, you tell me to shut up. You say nothing is stopping local teams from hiring foreign coaches but then you so eloquently explained what is stopping local teams from hiring foreign coaches. Then you are wondering if my pockets are long I should put up but if I am poor I should stay in my corner and shut up. That's something Jack Warner would say to people who are not as rich as he is or was. Then you want me to join a team, enter my own team in a dead league, support a team in a dead league or don't waste my time. All because you asked a question and I answered it. I didn't say what you wanted to hear so now you think I should shut up or put up.
Now, like I does say to all those who know better, that they should either form and enter their own team. Or back one of the other teams. You must have long pocket. If you don't, then don't waste you friggin time. Put up or shut up. The proleague is a de facto govt football league. If they pull the subventions, no pro league. Is back to super league football. Then what?
The league is not inactive for most of the year. I find it was too long for a ten team league. Too boring. And the issue of home fields not available for the home fans does not cater for areal home and away fixture. Yes the league "eh good" but TT teams does win the CFU champs on a regular basis. So what does that say about Caribbean football.It ain't worth sh#t. It's just a stepping stone to the CCL. CONCACAF says these CFU teams have to play in a tournament to qualify for the next level and that's the only reason for the CFU tournament, but, and what I am about to say here is gonna hurt some people, any team coming out of the CFU and calling themselves champion is a paper tiger. When the big boys in the CCL see a team from the CFU, they know that 85% of the time that all it is is just a good sweat, and 15% might be giving too much credit to that paper tiger, the big boys know that's 3 points in the bag for them unless they screw up and take them for granted and get slap with an "L".
http://www.socawarriors.net/forum/index.php?topic=146.0Funding, without a doubt, but you still need a real football developmental programme and not just ole talk, a proven technical director and not Dexter Skeene, real quality friendlies at every level aimed at preparing for tournaments, real qualified coaches with a proven track record and not recycled losers like Latapy and the other jokers before him so that that money is well spent.....
funding, funding, funding
NYCFC's Andrea Pirlo: MLS has too much running, too little play
BY ESPN STAFF
Former Italy midfielder Andrea Pirlo said that U.S. players are not taught technical skills at an early age and that ultimately affects the quality of play in Major League Soccer.
The 37-year-old, who is in his second season with New York City FC, said that more needs to be done at the youth level to bring professional soccer in the United States on par with Europe.
"It's a very hard league to play in. It's very physical, there's a lot of running. So there is a lot of physical work and to me, in my mind, too little play," Pirlo told Reuters at a MLS promotional event. "What I'm talking about is actually a system or culture. I don't mean that the level of technical skills are low. I just mean there is a cultural void that needs to be filled."
On Monday, Pirlo and Toronto FC midfielder Sebastian Giovinco, along with Mario Balotelli, were left off Italy coach Antonio Conte's 30-man squad for the second phase of preparations for Euro 2016.
Former AC Milan and Juventus midfielder Pirlo said that Americans who play soccer at college are already behind in terms of their development when compared with European peers. He stressed that youth training in Europe also includes technical skills.
"They pick them and they train them in much more than just running," he said. "They train them in stopping the ball. Here that doesn't happen.
"So when a young man becomes a professional in the United States he still has some gaps that need to be filled when playing on the field," he said.
Pirlo said he was pleased to see the progress made at NYCFC, which entered the MLS last year.
He praised the work of coach Patrick Vieira and his teammates, incluing Spanish striker David Villa and former English footballer Frank Lampard.
Pirlo said Vieira, the former Premier League star and World Cup champion for France, has made a significant difference to the team's performance this season.
"We are very happy with what he is doing. We are working hard every day, and he is bringing in new things that we are learning," said Pirlo. "There is a lot of hard work, both tactically and technically, as well as things that haven't been done before. The team is really improving and seeing excellent results."
Tim Kee’s plea: Don’t send football back 20 years.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).
Outgoing president of the T&T Football Association (T&TFA) Raymond Tim Kee is pleading with his successor David John-Williams to not interfere with the new constitution which was approved and praised by the world governing body for football, FIFA.
His call comes a day after John-Williams, in his victory speech after his elevation to the top post on Sunday, said he will have to review the constitution and make some changes. This infuriated Tim Kee as he described this as a backward step that would send T&T football back some 20 years when one administration led for many years.
“I am begging for goodness sake, leave the constitution alone. I have fought very hard to make these changes and make this happen for the betterment of the sport, why do you want to change it now,” Tim Kee asked.
John-Williams triumphed 25-19 after the second round of voting to Tim Kee, after the first round saw Williams earn 18 votes, Tim Kee 13, Clynt Taylor 8 and the others two candidates Selby Browne and Ramesh Ramdhan eliminated by virtue of each receiving just three votes.
Tim Kee, who was seeking a second term in office, reminded John-Williams that it was the same constitutional changes for which he fought, that allowed him (John-Williams) the advantage of ten TT Pro League votes and eight Superleague votes to win.
“I was at a disadvantage but I accepted it because it was what the FIFA ordered. This is the system being used by all football nations around the world and to change it now could spell danger for T&T football,” Tim Kee explained. The Mayor of Port of Spain said he felt that John-Williams’ elevation was nothing but a misnomer, sentiments that he had expressed in a radio programme before the elections.
“He is a campaigner in the TT Pro League which is totally dependent on the Government’s subventions to stay alive but he is now saying that he can change things in the same league,” Tim Kee said.
Of major disappointment also for Tim Kee was the exclusion of Colin Murray, the Carib Brewery’s events manager and Trotters owner John Sabga. They both perished to the overwhelming support by John-Williams’ slate, losing out to Ewing Davis for the position of first vice president.
Davis received 15 votes while second vice president Joanne Salazar got 23 and Allan Warner collected 20 votes for the post of third vice president for John-Williams’ team.
“Colin Murray and John Sabga would have been able to attract corporate T&T which is critical to rebuilding football in T&T,” Tim Kee said.
Jack: I'll go broke.
T&TFA executive lose confidence in Tim Kee.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).
In spite of positive results on the field of play, members of the executive of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) have agreed to take a stance against the administration of the sport.
Vice presidents Lennox Watson, Rudolph Thomas and Krishendath Kuarsingh as well as other executive members Roland Forde, Neville Ferguson and Richard Kwan Chan, in a penned letter to the media, stated that they have lost confidence in president Raymond Tim Kee.
They described the administration of the sport over the past three years as the lowest it has ever been due to presidential incompetence and lack of consultation with executive committee members and/or the Emergency Committee of the T&T Football Association on critical issues.
The executive members also highlighted a number critical decisions made by the embattled football association president that derailed their confidence in him.
These include:
Alleged payment to the president’s son for providing a TTFA website without consultation and agreement of the executive committee and or the emergency committee;
Illegal and unconstitutional dismissal of the general secretary of the TTFA;
Taking unilateral decisions with regards to matters pertinent to the TTFA and in such circumstances, failure of the president to convene one single meeting of the Emergency Committee, of which he is the chairman to address such matters.
The decisions also included;
Failure of the president to convene one single meeting of the Finance and Marketing Committee and/or the Fundraising Committee of the TTFA;
Failure of the president to ensure Audited Financial statements for the last three years, taking into consideration possible strategies to do so, as advised by Robert Reis of KPMG;
Failure of the president to ensure a strategic plan for the development of football in Trinidad and Tobago over a ten year period is produced;
Not providing relevant, timely and appropriate Financial statements over the last three years leading to the uncertainty surrounding the indebtedness of the Association, to the extent that the association may be bankrupt;
Under Tim Kee the Standing Committees system has failed to function; Not addressing in a timely manner a threat by the FIFA to institute disciplinary charges against the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association for failure to adhere to a FIFA mandate to pay former National Women’s coach Even Pellerud.
Watson said the decision by the executive is a bold move to save the sport of football from a certain suspension by the world governing body- FIFA. This letter was sent out to all stakeholders of football in T&T, as well as the FIFA. “We must understand that we are in a crisis situation and it is critical that the FIFA knows so that extreme measures are not taken against us” Watson explained yesterday.
A reliable source, however, told the T&T Guardian that there are attempts to ensure that the November 29 elections do not come off as expected. And if this happens it can spell danger for T&T as its executive members are to be compliant with the FIFA if they are to be allowed to vote at the FIFA Congress.
According to the source if they do not vote it would mean an immediate ban for the executives from the FIFA which would lead to no representation for T&T at the FIFA level.
The Guardian questioned Watson about the time frame given to the TTFA to be compliant and he said “TTFA executives have been given a certain period of tyime to be compliant by the FIFA and that time is November 30. If we are not compliant by then, we will be given another 18 months before the FIFA will intervene and throw us out as members.
Now after watching the game on Friday night I am sure that the TTFA being thrown out will hurt all the players who played and all other players throughout T&T and therefore what we are trying to do now is to do damage control before it becomes worse” Watson said.
Meanwhile, Watson added also that the world governing body for football had ordered the TTFA to make payment of well over $200, 000 to Pellerud- the United States coach who was at the helm of the TT women’s team for the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup in 2010 from September 5- 25. That order was not adhered to.
The T&TFA vice president has made it quite clear he will want nothing to do with T&T football after the coming annual general meeting (AGM) and Election of Officer on November 29 because of the destruction to the sport by Tim Kee.
Contacted Tim Kee said he was not surprised by the actions of his executives. “They are the ones who have criticised me when I took up office in 2012 and therefore they have been very consistent. I can tell you though that they are the ones from the Jack Warner era who are oppose to change and who do not want the sport to progress” Tim Kee said.
Not with team, Waldrum in limbo as T&T coach
By Jeff Kassouf (equalizersoccer.com)
When Trinidad and Tobago’s women’s national team takes the field on Friday as part of the 2016 Olympic qualification process, Randy Waldrum won’t be there.
Waldrum, who has coached Trinidad and Tobago for over a year on a voluntary basis, is back in Houston, Texas. Anthony Creece is the interim coach for Trinidad and Tobago for games against St. Lucia on Friday and Sunday — at the very least.
“To me, it just got to the point where I’m looking at it going, ‘they have to make some sort of commitment to the women’s program and make some sort of commitment to me,'” Waldrum told The Equalizer.
Recounting a long story of how he got this point, Waldrum explains that the bigger picture is the issue. Communication between the federation and the team’s coach has been irregular and unproductive, Waldrum said Friday. He was supposed to return to Trinidad to train the team in September, but that got pushed back to late October.
Waldrum went to Trinidad and faced logistical and travel issues while there due to changes within the federation. TTFA president Raymond Tim Kee fired general secretary Sheldon Phillips, but Phillips is back now — at least, for now — since Kee fired him without authority. This all went on while Waldrum tried to train a team which never had more than eight players at a single practice, he says.
The struggles are similar to the ones highly publicized last year before World Cup qualifying. Trinidad and Tobago came agonizingly close to making the Women’s World Cup for the first time, losing an intercontinental playoff to Ecuador in stoppage time of the second leg of the series in Trinidad.
Waldrum has worked for free through what he calls “a handshake agreement” with the TTFA. He says he isn’t even asking for money, just the authority to properly implement a plan for the next four years to get Trinidad and Tobago into the 2019 World Cup.
According to Waldrum, the federation sent him a plane ticket back to Trinidad on Monday at 11 p.m. Houston time. The flight was for Tuesday morning. And the kicker? Waldrum’s last name was spelled wrong (not the first time there has been an error on the plane ticket, he says).
Seeing the issue as never-ending and the scenario as a microcosm for bigger issues, Waldrum said he wasn’t going to come without getting something in writing that he is the team’s coach and he has some authority over to implement plans for staff and players.
But as of now, things are at a standstill with the federation. Players have been texting him wondering when he will come back, he said. And Trinidad and Tobago still has to get through a series of matches just to get to the final round of Olympic qualifying in February. Qualifying will be a longshot with only two spots available from CONCACAF.
Assuming Trinidad and Tobago beats St. Lucia this weekend, Guyana, Puerto Rico and a dangerous Jamaica team await later in the month. And T&T has a pair of games against the United States in December which could end up being very ugly if things don’t improve.
“I would’ve left a long time ago last year if it weren’t for the players,” Waldrum said. He wants to see the program move forward. He knows there is enough talent there to make Trinidad and Tobago more relevant regionally and nationally. But for now, there isn’t enough organization. Waldrum hasn’t heard back from Kee in days, as of Friday morning.
“Right now, I can’t even tell you what’s going on in camp. I’ve had no input.”