What is professional football?

[Tallman]

What is professional football?
By Andre Baptiste (i955fm.com)

Is it when players receive money for representing clubs or is it to do with the standard of football that is been displayed. If it is the latter then this Country's Professional Football League is going no where fast as the level of skill and technique demonstrated weekly suggest either Trinidad and Tobago does not have talent locally or any quality Coaches that can engineer some revival of Football.

If one is honest (a rear commodity for football in Trinidad) then one will clearly admit that in general it is the foreign based Professional Footballers that display a higher standard of Football than our local merchants, and I say merchant here intentionally because these pretenders that play football for various clubs in the league are not selling themselves properly and by inference their country even less.

The root cause of all this, is that this league has no identity in that there is no team which can truly say that it is based in a village or county in Trinidad, without this how can there be any loyalty, how can there be support both financially and humanly. We need to re-establish the teams in this league into a proper format along the lines of Counties or Villages with home-based players as much as possible, as well as some foreigners which would ensure a strong following for this, now fledging Professional Football League.

Naturally for all of this to materialize in a substantive form would require a lot of investment in both time and money by the rulers of Trinidad and Tobago Football, whether those big men can do that is left to be seen. At this moment there are not enough proper facilities in this Country to facilitate the establishment of residential-based teams.

On any one day at any one match if there is more than a sprinkling of about 100 to 150 people who do not include members of families of the teams on display then I would be surprised. This does not augur well for the league because despite the best marketing techniques if there is no people support for a team then how can corporate citizens be encouraged to put their mind into a sport where there is no interest.

One has to ask another question, which is whether or not a professional football league is financially viable or not, if it is not how has it survived so long, clearly there is an intended purpose in the formation of this football league, it could be because there is some FIFA requirements or because to stage a World Cup it there is a requirement for professional playing football in your Country or because to obtain funding from FIFA one needs to establish a Football League or it might just be that the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation believes a league such as this can only benefit Trinidad and Tobago. But , wait have TTFA any say in the Professional League? Or they instead involved with the Super League

In fact that is very true and I must admit that we need a Professional League if our Football is to rise up from the doldrums, but one has to say that the National Coach should be more involved in league football in Trinidad and Tobago. Therefore Russell Latapy needs to be allowed a major say in the way FOOTBALL is operating in this country, if we are to witness any improvement.

In concluding, disputes arise all the time, it is how you resolve disputes that set the standard for the upliftment of any organization; professionalism is paramount in this regard.

But who really cares about football in Trinidad and Tobago other than a few of us, who are obviously foolish.

[FF]

But who really cares about football in Trinidad and Tobago other than a few of us, who are obviously foolish.

Look like he speaking for heself right here...

edit.. just had to clarify

[Deeks]

I think it is right on time.

[weary1969]

But who really cares about football in Trinidad and Tobago other than a few of us, who are obviously foolish.

Look like he speaking for heself right here...

He correck how much peeps really care?

[freakazoid]

professional football is............ xavi to  messi..........goooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllll

[College]

Did he now come to this realization? This topic was discussed here over 2 years ago.

[Brownsugar]

Did he now come to this realization? This topic was discussed here over 2 years ago.

.....and therefore it should never be discussed ever again??...

[Bourbon]

Professional football in this country nowhere near where it should be. We all know this. But in my view it starts with the attitude of the players..who just seem to see it as a sweat. For me..when that improves.....you would have more leverage to get more members of the community out to support. It needs to be a multifaceted approach....and take a degree of planning and dedication.

[daryn]

But who really cares about football in Trinidad and Tobago other than a few of us, who are obviously foolish.

Look like he speaking for heself right here...

He correck how much peeps really care?

Enough.  People entitled to like or dislike as they please.

I not really sure what he trying to get at here.  Of course the foreign-based will be at a higher level in general.  After all they are precisely the players who used to be the best locally.

Locally based players for the most part will fall into 4 categories: youthmen with potential, men who had their time abroad, men who not good enough, and a few who fall through the cracks.  

[Rodney]

Did he now come to this realization? This topic was discussed here over 2 years ago.

.....and therefore it should never be discussed ever again??...

I would say he stating the obvious. We have known this for ages. But I guess is easier said than done in T&T. At present the main costs for most of the teams in the PFL are funding ah team salary and its running costs but to give it a local identity yuh have to have a local base i.e. ah home ground which means more money either building one from scratch or renovating an existing one in your community, once this is done maintenance costs come into the budget. Not to mention all the funds needed to promote the team in the said community and pay the resulting increased number of employees you would have. How many local businessmen willing to take that kind ah gamble in ah league with a minuscule average attendance and how many supporters would be willing to buy the tickets that would obviously be (initially) more expensive than now. Especially in this financial climate. It should have been done from the start of the PFL......IMHO this community integration would take years to successfully implement now and would need the kind of money and commitment that is simply not easy to come by in local football at the moment.

[Peter]

First things first, they can get many more people to attend the matches simply- by just having regularly in the newspapers the match dates, times, prices of tickets and how to get them. Do they expect me to take the trip down to the stadium to be told how much the match costs at the entrance? That's a lack of respect, simular to some supermarkets in Trinidad not putting the price on many items- you're just supposed to accept it and give up your hard earned money without question(who are you anyway?).

I'm telling you, up to this day I've NEVER seen ANYWHERE, not on the TTpro league website, nor in any ads, a clear presentation of the things I've mentioned, and I'm a person who actually actively looks for it. I seriously don't know how they expect ANYONE to attend, except the players' and staff's families. If I can't get clear info on these things, and I search them out, how the hell are the people who might have an interest in attending if they come across that info ever supposed to get it. I'm telling you, this league has the most pathetic marketing I've seen. All the ads and public relations suck and are very unclear and uninformative, besides building no excitement in the public. They should put me in charge of marketing or at least follow some of my recommendations, I guarantee attendance would at least double after 1 week, even with the substandard level of play overall.

With the lack of informative marketing, they probably deserve to have no one attending those games(besides family who get direct info and tickets) . That might sound harsh, but in general I'm fed up with how relevant information isn't presented clearly to the public in this country. It's like you're supposed to know everything intuitively. It's part of the culture, together with haphazardness. We have to break that.

[Deeks]

I think the PFL should build grounds closer to the teams home fans. These stadiums don't have to be massive structures. For instances, Jabloteh and AIA should be playing their home games in Aranguez. I don't see why they have to play games in Arima. The fans may quicker go to Aranquez than going to Larry Gomes. Is time them east people form a team from Arima/Dabadie to play in Larry gomes. And them central people form a team comprising Couva, Chaguanas, Caroni to play in Ato. I presume Police and Connection does play in the Ramjohn stadium. Petrotrin and South end have theirs. Everybody need to do some serious marketing or else that league will remain stagnant or worse yet, FOLD.

[Peter]

I think the PFL should build grounds closer to the teams home fans. These stadiums don't have to be massive structures. For instances, Jabloteh and AIA should be playing their home games in Aranguez. I don't see why they have to play games in Arima. The fans may quicker go to Aranquez than going to Larry Gomes. Is time them east people form a team from Arima/Dabadie to play in Larry gomes. And them central people form a team comprising Couva, Chaguanas, Caroni to play in Ato. I presume Police and Connection does play in the Ramjohn stadium. Petrotrin and South end have theirs. Everybody need to do some serious marketing or else that league will remain stagnant or worse yet, FOLD.

I agree with everything you said there.

[ZANDOLIE]

For a local orgainization the PFL is run well from a logisitics standpoint. But Skeene and the BOD biggest failure is the marketing of the league. That is the most pressing issue in the PFL for years now. They have tried a few things but they have goone as far as they can go. This problem will never be solved by Skeene and his friends.

But instead of putting the best interest of the league ahead of themselves by resigning and bringing in others who have the specific skills required to bring people to the stadium, they still hanging around and milking the league for all its worth. IMO the longer they stay the more they become like Anton Corneal, a setta users and loosers that sucking the life out of the system.

[pardners]

What is professional football?
By Andre Baptiste (i955fm.com)


One has to ask another question, which is whether or not a professional football league is financially viable or not, if it is not how has it survived so long, clearly there is an intended purpose in the formation of this football league, it could be because there is some FIFA requirements or because to stage a World Cup it there is a requirement for professional playing football in your Country or because to obtain funding from FIFA one needs to establish a Football League or it might just be that the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation believes a league such as this can only benefit Trinidad and Tobago. But , wait have TTFA any say in the Professional League? Or they instead involved with the Super League

That easy....because the Ministry pumping millions into it every year.

Peter...agree with you 100% with the marketing thing.
Zandolie...agree with yuh assessment of Skeene and them.  When your expertise run the limit, bring in the those who have more expertise.  You could still learn from them and skate them after tapping they brain.