TTFA reclaims Super League.

[Flex]

TTFA reclaims Super League.
By Ian Prescott (Express).

THE Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) will take over the running of the bmobile National Super League in 2014, after 11 years of its existence under All Sports Promotions (ASP), a sports marketing company.

ASP owner Anthony Harford has written the TTFA, indicating an interest in relinquishing the last two years of his contract which runs until 2015.

I informed the TTFA in writing that I would like to relinquish the Super League,” stated Harford. “My company has no other choice.”

TTFA general secretary Sheldon Phillip was not available yesterday when several efforts were made to gauge the financial impact of the TTFA’s running of a new competition. However, in a brief telephone interview last week, TTFA president Raymond Tim Kee briefly acknowledged that the Association will take over the running of the League.

“Yes,” Tim Kee said when giving confirmation about the Super League coming under the TTFA’s control. “We are looking at it, but there are still things to be worked out.”

Harford said that in 2002, he approached the TTFA with a proposal to run a semi-professional league. But, he said that in recent times it has become more difficult to run the league. He said recent changes in the TTFA administration had also prompted the final decision to opt out.

“The TTFA wanted to do some review of the competition, and I also got the feeling they wanted to be independent, “ Harford said. “So, with a new administration (under Raymond Tim Kee) and our deteriorating relationship with the Ministry of Sport, I though it made no sense to continue running the Super League.”

The Super League had become a financial burden to All Sport Promotion. Harford said agreements put in place between the stakeholders when he took up running the Super League were not being honoured.

Back then, Government agreed to take care of referee’s fees and inter-island travel for teams, while Harford’s company would cover all other expenses and take a 15% commission. Harford said that since 2012, the Ministry of Sport refused to reimburse All Sport promotions for money paid to referees and for team travel.

“Every single week we have had to fork out $6,000 to pay the referees and we have had to pay the $18,000 to have teams travel to and from Tobago, and still no indication from the Ministry that we will be reimbursed,” Harford declared. “By the end of this year, I will be out of pocket close to one million dollars. It has almost made my company bankrupt.”

Speaking further of the League’s financial trouble, Harford said: “The permanent secretary paid us for the previous five years, but when we sent in our bill for 2012, we were told that there was no cabinet note for that.”

Contacted yesterday, permanent secretary Ashwin Creed declared that currently, the Ministry of Sport had no formal arrangement with the Super League, but he acknowledged that there was some arrangement in place under another Government in 2002-2003, when the Super League was formed.

“The only competition by Government is the Pro League and that is for just one year and would have expired in September. We have now where we have to go back to cabinet to get further approval for the Pro League, “Creed said. “The Super League was only part of an arrangement for a short period back in 2002-2003. But that arrangement with the Super League ended some years ago.”

“That does not mean we do not help the Super League,” he added. “The Sport Company and the Ministry has helped many Super League teams.”

[Tiresais]

Another situation where the government fails sports... But that might mean promotion/relegation which would certainly be interesting!

[Football supporter]

This is a big opportunity for football to work together to properly restructure a pyramid league system. The Super League has become stronger over recent years. In many cases, it's purely money that has held some Super League teams back.

Now is the time to sit and recreate a decent system, with an eye on a Caribbean League coming online in 2015.
Two leagues of 10 teams would be great. And there could be double headers with a Super League game followed by Pro League.
Also, one controlling body means avoiding the current fixture congestion with the FA and Toyota Classic running simultaneously. 

[Coop's]

This is a big opportunity for football to work together to properly restructure a pyramid league system. The Super League has become stronger over recent years. In many cases, it's purely money that has held some Super League teams back.

Now is the time to sit and recreate a decent system, with an eye on a Caribbean League coming online in 2015.
Two leagues of 10 teams would be great. And there could be double headers with a Super League game followed by Pro League.
Also, one controlling body means avoiding the current fixture congestion with the FA and Toyota Classic running simultaneously. 

       What u are saying here is fine but there will be other complications to be sorted out,lets see if the Super league will be the same,it seems Harford and them was doing a very good job with that league considering promises were not kept by the ministry etc etc

       How would we have two leagues of ten teams?i thought the Pro league was a separate entity,would teams be able to pay the fees to play in that league when promoted?i thought some teams don't play in the Pro league because of the finance attach to it?

       What i've noticed,it's taking a lot of money to run Football and Football not making money,although Tim Kee said he don't want to depend on government for money to run Football he looking for sponsors/godfarther i don't see Football going any where without government support.I think other sports are watching carefully the kind of money going into Football and down the road this will have repercautions,it's time we start making Football profitable to the point where it can stand on it's own.

       How many of u have been to the TTFA news offices?i paid them a surprise visit on Tuesday,without going into any details i must say i was impressed with what i saw.I did not get to meet a lot of people as everyone is away with our national team etc but was able to get a tour of the facility and sat down with Mr Phillips for a few minuits (good friend),chit chat a little bit,update myself on their plans etc i came out of there knowing that these guys are trying there best and i want to say on there behalf have patience give them some time. 
 

[Tiresais]

Probably my Euro-mindframe, but I'd really prefer some bigger leagues to give some more depth.

[Sam]

Very good move, they should go after the pro league now and make all of them work together under one rule.

Bring all of them in one league now and have about 12 teams competing next season.

I hope de government help out just to get them off de ground.

If the government cant help make the community fields FIFA approved then they should at least provide free and frequent buss service to games to keep the fans coming, the league will benefit from the support from the super league.

Time to move the dictators like Skeene and Ramany, I know Sheene MIGHT be a decent guy, but he could be rotated, we need people to hungry for success and can bring fresh ideas.

De Hitchcock fella was a decent guy to bring on-board because Roamany holds to much position and he not doing a good job, he bitting off more than he could chew. I feel a man like Flex would do a good job too, serious, I know de man.

[Coop's]

Probably my Euro-mindframe, but I'd really prefer some bigger leagues to give some more depth.

     Sorry if i don't understand what you are trying to say here,it seems sometimes we don't try to understand is T&T what we are dealing with and want to have leagues like in Europe etc it does not make sense we have bigger leagues and the quality of the games are not good,in T&T we have three or four descent teams and the rest may be making up numbers,why stretch it where certain teams are dominateing all the time,the same teams win the trophys and money every year,the smaller teams are where the problems are,why don't we pay more attention to these teams,they constantly loose their best players all the time time because they can't afford to keep them.

     T&T have quality players but those players are not at home,when i look at the list of players we have abroad we could have a vibrant League but people don't see it that way they just look at what we have at home and label us according to that.Now i understand the multiple reasons why it's that way which is beyond our control.

[Tiresais]

I definitely see your point, but I think having more teams in the top leagues means they play higher quality opposition and thus improves the depth of skill - it's hard to argue against the notion that you need to play the best teams in order to improve, and having say a 14 team top league might well do better here. If attendances could be improved by situating teams in the community it also increases revenue for the clubs, whilst also increasing the match experience of our players - the best nations in the world have players playing 40/50 domestic games a year without fail.

Situating these teams in a lower league gives them less exposure, with the best players in a lower division typically only being visible to the nation itself. But yea I see your point - it's a situation where the problems are interlinked and inseparable, and multiple things need to happen at the same time to really get a solid league that's financially sustainable

[Coop's]

Very good move, they should go after the pro league now and make all of them work together under one rule.

Bring all of them in one league now and have about 12 teams competing next season.

I hope de government help out just to get them off de ground.

If the government cant help make the community fields FIFA approved then they should at least provide free and frequent buss service to games to keep the fans coming, the league will benefit from the support from the super league.

Time to move the dictators like Skeene and Ramany, I know Sheene MIGHT be a decent guy, but he could be rotated, we need people to hungry for success and can bring fresh ideas.

De Hitchcock fella was a decent guy to bring on-board because Roamany holds to much position and he not doing a good job, he bitting off more than he could chew. I feel a man like Flex would do a good job too, serious, I know de man.

      Sam if they was to make community fields FIFA approved would the community have uses of it?remember those fields are for the community and doing that would deprive people of what it was intended for. I see all kind of fete matches playing at the HCS and i'm sure that goes on at all the others,what i'm trying to say is the community useing those facilities and those community facilities are delapidated,everybody at the Stadiums so the schedule is hectic.

   

[Coop's]

I definitely see your point, but I think having more teams in the top leagues means they play higher quality opposition and thus improves the depth of skill - it's hard to argue against the notion that you need to play the best teams in order to improve, and having say a 14 team top league might well do better here. If attendances could be improved by situating teams in the community it also increases revenue for the clubs, whilst also increasing the match experience of our players - the best nations in the world have players playing 40/50 domestic games a year without fail.

Situating these teams in a lower league gives them less exposure, with the best players in a lower division typically only being visible to the nation itself. But yea I see your point - it's a situation where the problems are interlinked and inseparable, and multiple things need to happen at the same time to really get a solid league that's financially sustainable

      Just trying to be funny here,in the past we played more games than that per year Minor League filled the gaps. (good post)

[Football supporter]

Probably my Euro-mindframe, but I'd really prefer some bigger leagues to give some more depth.

     Sorry if i don't understand what you are trying to say here,it seems sometimes we don't try to understand is T&T what we are dealing with and want to have leagues like in Europe etc it does not make sense we have bigger leagues and the quality of the games are not good,in T&T we three or four descent teams and the rest may be making up numbers,why stretch it where certain teams are dominateing all the time,the same teams win the trophys and money every year,the smaller teams are where the problems are,why don't we pay more attention to these teams,they constantly loose their best players all the time time because they can't afford to keep them.

     T&T have quality players but those players are not at home,when i look at the list of players we have abroad we could have a vibrant League but people don't see it that way they just look at what we have at home and label us according to that.Now i understand the multiple reasons why it's that way which is beyond our control.

Absolutely. We don't have a large enough player pool to have larger leagues.
England, for example has approx one professional club for every 700,000 people. That same equation would give T&T only two professional clubs!

Now, to be fair, if T&T only had two pro clubs, they would be dynamite and would reach a lot further in CONCACAF.

And so we see where a Caribbean League with two T&T clubs would take us. The downside is that the Pro League would have reduced quality and we need the ProLeague to develop talent and feed the two Caribbean League clubs as well as produce national U17, U20 & U23 teams.

So, effectively, we need all of the clubs working together to create the pyramid that will allow T&T clubs and the national teams to improve. This, in turn, will create revenue, so everyone wins.

[Tiresais]

for every professional club, England has 368 teams in the top 8 tiers of the league, so including semi-pro teams that's one team per 144,000, 659 upto tier 9 (80,000) and I got bored of counting thereafter. There's basically a football team, semi-pro or amateur, for every community (literally, the Bangladeshi FA sponsor a team in Tower Hamlets). That type of representation gives a huge pool and keeps the interest alive. It's not about numbers per se, but the culture of football, hence why China and India aren't world beaters.

[Tiresais]

I definitely see your point, but I think having more teams in the top leagues means they play higher quality opposition and thus improves the depth of skill - it's hard to argue against the notion that you need to play the best teams in order to improve, and having say a 14 team top league might well do better here. If attendances could be improved by situating teams in the community it also increases revenue for the clubs, whilst also increasing the match experience of our players - the best nations in the world have players playing 40/50 domestic games a year without fail.

Situating these teams in a lower league gives them less exposure, with the best players in a lower division typically only being visible to the nation itself. But yea I see your point - it's a situation where the problems are interlinked and inseparable, and multiple things need to happen at the same time to really get a solid league that's financially sustainable

      Just trying to be funny here,in the past we played more games than that per year Minor League filled the gaps. (good post)

Probably part of the problem - the more a team plays together with high quality coaching and training the better.

[Football supporter]

for every professional club, England has 368 teams in the top 8 tiers of the league, so including semi-pro teams that's one team per 144,000, 659 upto tier 9 (80,000) and I got bored of counting thereafter. There's basically a football team, semi-pro or amateur, for every community (literally, the Bangladeshi FA sponsor a team in Tower Hamlets). That type of representation gives a huge pool and keeps the interest alive. It's not about numbers per se, but the culture of football, hence why China and India aren't world beaters.

Well, yes, but that wasn't the point! T&T has a very good network of amateur clubs including bank leagues, industrial leagues etc. I was talking exclusively about professional clubs.
T&T being the smallest nation by population to play at a World Cup backs up your comment about football culture.

But once we accept that T&T is a football nation, the number of clubs per capita is a factor in talent and supporters. If 10 EPL clubs have a total attendance of 500,000, 10 clubs in T&T would have to get 40% of the population to equal them. Or, if we got 500,000 to Pro League games, the 10 EPL clubs would need to attract over 30 million!!

[Tiresais]

T&T splits its talented sportsmen with cricket in a much more competitive manner than England does with its 2nd sports. Basically any of the sums you do in that manner will apply to India and China, or comparing the Netherlands to Brazil - it isn't the size that's important per se. I do see your point about attendance though.

[Sam]

De only problem I have with this is Anthony Harford.

[Coop's]

De only problem I have with this is Anthony Harford.

      Please explain because he did not get the support he was suppose to get.

[Sando]

Any word on this?

[coache]

The league dead now...