1. The ranking that the British home office uses is an average of our ranking in the last 2 years. Obviously falling to 91 doesn't help, but its not as dramatic as you make it sound Also the ranking is not the only criteria that determines if the work permits are given or not, which is why men like scotland who should be in the scottish premiership playin first division...
2. At this stage, playing more internationals would not necessarily help us, at least not when they're friendlies, and defiitely not if we lost them. The main problem is us getting to host the Digicell Cup. I think if we had to qualify (and did) we would be somewhere in the 50s or so, definitely not lower than the 60s
I agree it is not the only criteria but for a country like T&T unfortunately it is as dramatic as I make it sound. The first criteria for RENEWALS of work permits is club appearances (I did mention this). And it is 75% of appearances over the DURATION of their expiring contract. The guys I mentioned will have had to go to appeal, if, as I said their contracts were up for renewal TODAY!. The two year rankings average is used for players who are new to UK football, have no noted pro experience for the panel to refer to and their teams current ranking is below 70. Other than maybe Silvio Spann, I doubt any other T&T local based pro would have an easy ride getting a permit. This is what I mean. If your ranking is higher than 70 and you have played in 75% or more of your countries internationals in the past two years you will get a permit...any disparity with this and it has to go to appeal.
Unless like Yorkie, yuh is ah bigtime pro anyhow.
I see mih error. nuff respect for the correction. In your initial post you had stated 75% of their clubs appearances and i took 'club' to mean the english team...
Apologies,midnight...I think I confused you, you did read it correctly. Last post on this topic I promise.
A). National rankings and national appearances are of great significance for Non-EC Players that have never played in the UK before. It is the first judging criteria. Your playing CV comes second. For those that have played in the UK before or are changing UK teams, the criteria are reversed. As the T&T pro league isn't really considered a significant league by Britain...National team ranking and appearances would be the first and only criteria for players like Hardest, Whitely and the majority of local based pro's. The two year ranking thing does not help T&T as we have not yo-yo'd up and down the rankings but rather, steadily slipped down them over the past 24 months. I would assume the panel would currently consider T&T a team that is useless without its foreign based players therefore someone like Josh Johnson was a lucky guy (probably had an EC relative) I'm sure his application went to appeal. I doubt he would have got a permit for a contract with Wrexham if he had applied right now as he currently fails in all criteria.
B). Permits issued for contract renewals is all about club appearances. If you ain't appeared in 75% or more of your team's (team begin the club employing you not your country!) games over the duration of your old contract and don't have a good reason why (injury, international appearances etc) you in trouble. Kenwyne Jones may be making regular appearances now, but over his full contract he has played in only about 45-50% of Southamptons games. He would most likely get it renewed as he is a regular this season but only on appeal! Jason Scotland lost his Dundee Utd contract on this criteria but got a contract with St Johnston as his situation reverted to point A). a Non-EC national that had played in the UK before. He had recently played in a higher division (good CV) and was a national team player of a country ranked above 70. If he had tried to play for another Premiership team he would have been blanked as he had strugglled to even make the bench for a struggling fellow Premiership team during his contract.
Hope I clarified, apologies if I confused you.
The moral of the story is T&T players should take some advice from guys like Errol Mcfarlane, Peter Prosper, Silvio Spann, kevaughn Connell, Latas, leonson etc forget about England/Scotland. They is not the only places on the planet where a good baller could get paid and it a hell of ah lot easier to get a work permit elsewhere.
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