Harford: Good time for TTFF to fix football
By Kern De Freitas
Not all that bad.
That's how sports promoter/broadcaster Anthony Harford sees the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF).
During his contribution at yesterday's National Consultation on Football at Movie Towne's Banquet and Conference Centre at Invaders Bay, Harford acceded there were a number of issues rightly flung at the feet of the Federation, currently led by acting president Lennox Watson.
The Federation was knocked by a number of organisations and individuals, who either presented or simply submitted recommendations on the way forward for T&T football, given the slump of the national team which saw Trinidad and Tobago drop out of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup at the first hurdle, after losing to both Bermuda and Guyana.
Harford, though, said part of the problem is that one man–Works Minister and former TTFF special adviser Jack Warner–had been allowed to control football for more than three decades.
He further suggested that non-qualification for the 2014 World Cup second round qualifiers might be a blessing in disguise, giving T&T football the chance to improve some of their operating procedures.
He defended the TTFF, however, over calls for a wholesale change of officials.
"There are people (in the TTFF) who need to say 'it's time for me to go, I've served my time'," Harford told the gathering, which included former national players, coaches, fans, officials, referees and T&T Pro League representatives.
"There are people who need to say that, but not the whole organisation. Because there are some good and honest people there," claimed the All Sport Promotions managing director.
Harford also revealed that in conversation with one TTFF auditor, he learned that the problem with the financial audits submitted by the Federation to the courts during the ongoing 'Soca Warriors' legal action against them is not that account, but the fact that parallel accounts were also set up.
And the seasoned broadcaster also said that while some presenters had proposed showing national matches, broadcasters needed to pay for the rights to do so, and he added that the Caribbean Football Union had long ago sold T&T's rights up until 2014, so that the TTFF "have nothing to get".
In another interesting and lively contribution, Pro League chairman Larry Romany described the process of changing T&T football as a "complex" one.
Romany, who is also president of the T&T Olympic Committee, estimated that approximately 300,000 Trinidadians follow football at some level, more than half the following of cricket, which is also significantly more than that for the third choice sport in T&T, track and field.
Officials need to invest most heavily into development from the primary school level, Romany said, in order to ensure long term sustainability for football.
He criticised what he called Trinidad and Tobago's "seasonal" approach to football, adding that citizens need to "understand the importance of development of sport in a sustainable manner that will make us proud".
Other contributions came from the T&T Referees Association and the socawarriors.net website, along with other local teams, while TTFF vice-president Rudolph Thomas spoke very briefly, thanking the Ministry of Sport for their initiative in hosting the event, in hopes of charting a new way forward for T&T football.
"We are in dire straits in the TTFF" Thomas said, "and only if we pool our office and ideas we will be able to move forward. So the TTFF is indeed grateful for this opportunity to share with the stakeholders in football the kinds of possible solutions that would make going forward meaningful (the) need to engage stakeholders in football..."
In his feature speech, Minister of Sport Anil Roberts said Trinidad and Tobago football is currently in a "nightmare".
He added that yesterday's event was not an attempt by the Ministry to "interfere" with the autonomy of any sporting body, but felt it was a good way to begin healthy dialogue in the interest of football.
Roberts insisted that T&T must "get over the tabanca" and focus on rebuilding the football and annouced that within a year at least 65 recreation grounds in Trinidad and Tobago will be upgraded, so that local football can return to the communities in hopes of regaining crowd support.
He also divulged the Ministry's hard-line stance on what he called the "fraudulent attempts" by some sporting bodies that inflate their budgets and keep a portion of the money to themselves.
"We in sport cannot continue to waste money," Roberts stated, saying that money that goes to sport from Cabinet means less money in other areas for hospital beds, MRI machines and other important things such as roads and bridges and other infrastructure.
