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2019/20 T&T Pro League Thread

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Flex:
To be updated..

Flex:
Cunupia ready for Pro League plunge.
By Joel Bailey (Newsday).

CUNUPIA FC are seeking to take the plunge and enter the Pro League as early as next year, according to its coach Michael De Four.

Cunupia had a productive 2018 TT Super League season, winning the League Cup last Sunday courtesy of a 2-1 victory over Queen’s Park and placing fourth in the League on 45 points, behind FC Santa Rosa, Queen’s Park and Prison Service.

And De Four is hopeful his team will be able to meet the registration fee (this year’s fee for a club interested in the Pro League was $130,000) and participate in the highest level of club football in T&T.

“We would like to get in the Pro League as soon as (next) year,” said De Four, during an interview on Thursday. “We have shown consistency, discipline, good management ability as a club.”

He continued, “We want a challenge to be able to compete at the highest level in this country and showcase our talent so the national coach will have an easier viewing of us. It’s that kind of aspiration that we have as a club. That can only be done by performing at the highest level.”

De Four, who has been head coach of Cunupia FC since its existence, believes he can bring something new to the table.

Asked about the players’ mood since Sunday’s League Cup triumph, De Four said, “Everybody is just elated still. It’s the first major title any Super League club from the Central Zone has lifted in the Super League and it’s the first title in the Super League that we have lifted – and we’ve lifted it in a two-year period.

“We did the same thing when we were in the Championship Division,” he added. “This year we placed fourth (in the League) and lifted a title.”

De Four took part in a coaching course in Brazil two years ago at Cruzeiro and he has been using what he learnt at the popular South American club to good effect.

“The key to the team’s success will be philosophy and the style of football that we’re trying to develop,” he said. “Over the last two years, we’ve fine-tuned a little and it has started to bear fruit.”

He added, “There is always room for improvement which I am working on presently. I was supposed to go to Spain this year but was asked by the president of the club (Narvin Charles) to defer the move until a later date.”

Striker Kevon Woodley has been a key member of his team’s success as he notched 23 goals this season.

But De Four, who has been at Cunupia FC for the past decade, insists the team does not revolve around the ex-national beach soccer striker.

“A player or players of his calibre, at the end of the day, have to be able to play within the style of system (of the team). Even if you are ‘a big player’, if you cannot have that discipline to play in this system you wouldn’t be able to play on the squad – no matter who you are.

“You might have noticed Woodley has been moving away from the post-up, go-to role, and in such doing has been blowing past everyone in the goalscoring (charts). He is playing within the system.”

Cunupia FC achievements:

2012-

Ramsingh Sports World CFA Trophy – Winner

Chaguanas Borough Corporation CFA Hugo Francis Memorial Cup – Winner

CRIL CFA Premier League – Runner-up

TTFA National FA Trophy – Quarter-finalist

CFA Award Recipients – Coach of the Year and Team of the Year

SPORTT Spirit of Sport Award Recipient – Community Team of the Year

2013 –

Sanitank CFA League Cup – Winner

CRIL CFA Premier League – Runner-up

Ramsingh Sports World CFA FA Trophy – Third-place

2014 –

CRIL CFA Premier League – Winner

Chaguanas Borough Corporation CFA Hugo Francis Memorial Cup – Winner

Ramsingh Sports World CFA FA Trophy – Winner

CFA Award Recipients – Coach of the Year and Team of the Year

2015 –

CNG NGC National Super League Championship Division – Third-place

2016 –

CNG NGC National Super League Championship Division – Champion

2017 –

TT Super League, League One – Third place

2018 –

TT Super League – Fourth place

TT Super League, League Cup – Winner

Flex:
Phillips: Let's do away with Pro League.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).

"Let's re­vert to Na­tion­al League foot­ball," said Sam Phillips, for­mer T&T Pro League chair­man, yes­ter­day.

He be­lieves it's a tem­po­rary so­lu­tion to the on­go­ing prob­lems be­ing faced in the coun­try's strug­gling Pro League which has been to­tal­ly de­pen­dant on gov­ern­ment through the Min­istry of Sports and Youth Af­fairs and the Sports Com­pa­ny of T&T for sur­vival.

Speak­ing to Guardian Sports on Fri­day, Phillips, who has held key man­age­r­i­al po­si­tions at some of the coun­try's top foot­ball clubs, said con­sid­er­ing the cur­rent eco­nom­ic en­vi­ron­ment, it will be to­tal­ly un­fair to ask the gov­ern­ment to keep pump­ing mon­ey in­to the league.

Eight of the 10 clubs cur­rent­ly re­ceive grants of $50,000 per month (for sev­en months) to help off-set cost of salaries for play­ers and staff. Last year the gov­ern­ment came to the res­cue of the pro league with a grant of $11.1 mil­lion af­ter com­plaints from a num­ber of play­ers that their clubs were not pay­ing them. The league's start was al­so de­layed by a few months be­cause it had no cash.

But Phillips be­lieves foot­ball or­gan­is­ers can re­turn to the days when there was one na­tion­al league com­pris­ing of dif­fer­ent di­vi­sions.

"It can be called Di­vi­sion One, Two, Three or Four, with the op­tion of us­ing the present pro league as the top di­vi­sion, and play­ers will have the op­tion to work and play if they want. The main thing is that there will not be the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty by clubs to pay play­ers," Phillips said.

"They can even use the same or­gan­is­ers of the dif­fer­ent com­pe­ti­tions to run the af­fairs of var­i­ous di­vi­sions, for ex­am­ple, or­gan­is­ers of the T&T Su­per League can be re­spon­si­ble the Di­vi­sion Two com­pe­ti­tion while those in charge of Re­gion­al As­so­ci­a­tion foot­ball will man­age at the third di­vi­sion and so on."

Phillips has high­light­ed a num­ber of rea­sons for the pro league and clubs' in­abil­i­ty to be self-sus­tain­able and they in­clude the qual­i­ty of play on the field which has been se­vere­ly im­pact­ed by the at­ti­tude, be­hav­iour and in­dis­ci­pline of play­ers and their man­age­ment teams alike. To dri­ve home his point, Phillips said the dress code and de­port­ment of some man­agers/coach­es dur­ing match­es have left much to be de­sired.

Phillips said he has al­so en­coun­tered sit­u­a­tions where some pro league play­ers were seen rep­re­sent­ing am­a­teur clubs at mi­nor leagues which con­fus­es sup­port­ers of see­ing them play for free at one time and hav­ing to pay to see them, at an­oth­er.

Phillips said if there is a re­turn to the Na­tion­al League sys­tem, it will give clubs and or­gan­is­ers suf­fi­cient time to put a pro­fes­sion­al league for­mat in place for the fu­ture, say­ing there can be con­sul­ta­tion among all the stake­hold­ers in the sport be­fore a re­al pro­fes­sion­al league is in­tro­duced.

"Clubs will get the op­por­tu­ni­ty to se­cure its own home grounds and do what is nec­es­sary at the com­mu­ni­ty lev­el to be sus­tain­able. They can al­so fo­cus on be­com­ing com­pli­ant ac­cord­ing to the TTFA and FI­FA reg­u­la­tions," Phillips said.

Deeks:
Guys, Sam was a team mate of mine on the 1974 team. I did not always agree  with him, especially when he was with Jack. But he makes sense here. Reorganize the football. When they are on secured footing with serious sponsors(very wishful thinking) then they can venture back into the pro-system.

maxg:
http://www.socawarriors.net/forum/index.php?topic=818.msg4682#msg4682

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