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Enough is enough
Officials call on football fraternity to make change
Ian Prescott iprescott@trinidadexpress.com
Saturday, June 23rd 2007
FOOTBALL TALK: Clayton Morris, left, vice-president of the Football Players Association of Trinidad and Tobago, engages Larry Romany, the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee chairman, at a panel discussion on the state of Trinidad and Tobago football a year after playing in the World Cup. "It seems that every time our national team succeed and have the attention of the rest of the world and the focus is on our stars, administrators create situations as these, start all over again by bringing in inexperienced players, offer them next to nothing, and then get poor results like we got in the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup. There is no continuity and we keep starting over all the time instead of building on success. It seems as if no team or player must ever become too successful," said Clayton Morris, a former national captain, and now ice-president of the newly-established Football Players Association of Trinidad and Tobago.
Morris was speaking at a June seminar hosted by the Lloyd Best Institute of the West Indies. The panel discussion took place on Monday night at the offices of the Development Finance Corporation, Cipriani Boulevard, Port of Spain and saw panelists Morris, David John Williams and Larry Romany making contributions.
Also among the audience was Deryck Murray, president of Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board. All three members of the panel, as well as members of the forum, agreed that there has been no growth since T&T played in their first FIFA World a year ago. They suggested it was time that "an enough is enough" approach be taken with the administrators of local football.
"The players who finally took us to the World Cup after 40 years, as mentioned before, and brought so much joy to our hearts, are now victimised for standing up for what is rightfully theirs," Morris lamented. "They should not be called 'greedy' just because they are asking for transparency. All the players are asking for is to see the accounts for the World Cup campaign."
In contrast, Romany said he had no sympathy with those who are victimised by football administrators because in large part, no one was willing to do anything to remove the same administrators. Chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee, Romany said that there was general lack of management skill among the 32 association under the TTOC. He was of the view that no administration should have more than two terms or eight years in charge, because they were bringing nothing new idea to the table. According to Romany, many associations play a game of musical chairs, where the same people assumed different positions, and largely, the same administration remained in place.
"People have set up a structure that locks them in for life. But, that is because when the time comes for meeting, no one turns up. Nobody wants to go to a meeting and say we voting out the 'hero' there. We just want to complain," said Romany, who further added that a lot of people in football don't want to stand on their own two feet, but instead prefer to depend on the powers that be.
David John Williams, president of the W Connection football team, said that the state of development in local youth football was very, very poor and believed that the "Colleges League" was doing little to help . John Williams said that in larger football-playing countries, professional clubs were largely responsible for developing young players and not schools. Hence, Carlos Tevez, Maxi Lopez and Fernando Torres were already attached to professional clubs when they played at the 2001 FIFA Under-17 World Championship in T&T. Except, for Southampton's Kenwyne Jones, John Williams said no T&T players from the 2001 team had developed to make an international impact.
John Williams said that there was a general lack of development and this is mirrored by the state of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) after almost a hundred years in existence.
"One hundred years later, the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) do not own a parrot on a stick," John Williams said, while comparing football's achievements to that of the local cricket board who now have a home and a national training centre.
Officials call on football fraternity to make change
Ian Prescott iprescott@trinidadexpress.com
Saturday, June 23rd 2007
FOOTBALL TALK: Clayton Morris, left, vice-president of the Football Players Association of Trinidad and Tobago, engages Larry Romany, the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee chairman, at a panel discussion on the state of Trinidad and Tobago football a year after playing in the World Cup. "It seems that every time our national team succeed and have the attention of the rest of the world and the focus is on our stars, administrators create situations as these, start all over again by bringing in inexperienced players, offer them next to nothing, and then get poor results like we got in the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup. There is no continuity and we keep starting over all the time instead of building on success. It seems as if no team or player must ever become too successful," said Clayton Morris, a former national captain, and now ice-president of the newly-established Football Players Association of Trinidad and Tobago. Morris was speaking at a June seminar hosted by the Lloyd Best Institute of the West Indies. The panel discussion took place on Monday night at the offices of the Development Finance Corporation, Cipriani Boulevard, Port of Spain and saw panelists Morris, David John Williams and Larry Romany making contributions.
Also among the audience was Deryck Murray, president of Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board. All three members of the panel, as well as members of the forum, agreed that there has been no growth since T&T played in their first FIFA World a year ago. They suggested it was time that "an enough is enough" approach be taken with the administrators of local football.
"The players who finally took us to the World Cup after 40 years, as mentioned before, and brought so much joy to our hearts, are now victimised for standing up for what is rightfully theirs," Morris lamented. "They should not be called 'greedy' just because they are asking for transparency. All the players are asking for is to see the accounts for the World Cup campaign."
In contrast, Romany said he had no sympathy with those who are victimised by football administrators because in large part, no one was willing to do anything to remove the same administrators. Chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee, Romany said that there was general lack of management skill among the 32 association under the TTOC. He was of the view that no administration should have more than two terms or eight years in charge, because they were bringing nothing new idea to the table. According to Romany, many associations play a game of musical chairs, where the same people assumed different positions, and largely, the same administration remained in place.
"People have set up a structure that locks them in for life. But, that is because when the time comes for meeting, no one turns up. Nobody wants to go to a meeting and say we voting out the 'hero' there. We just want to complain," said Romany, who further added that a lot of people in football don't want to stand on their own two feet, but instead prefer to depend on the powers that be.
David John Williams, president of the W Connection football team, said that the state of development in local youth football was very, very poor and believed that the "Colleges League" was doing little to help . John Williams said that in larger football-playing countries, professional clubs were largely responsible for developing young players and not schools. Hence, Carlos Tevez, Maxi Lopez and Fernando Torres were already attached to professional clubs when they played at the 2001 FIFA Under-17 World Championship in T&T. Except, for Southampton's Kenwyne Jones, John Williams said no T&T players from the 2001 team had developed to make an international impact.
John Williams said that there was a general lack of development and this is mirrored by the state of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) after almost a hundred years in existence.
"One hundred years later, the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) do not own a parrot on a stick," John Williams said, while comparing football's achievements to that of the local cricket board who now have a home and a national training centre.
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