Pro-league begins, but what of the state of the game?

by Alvin Corneal

Amidst the confusion in the league system of the Trinidad & Tobago Football Association, the administrators are struggling to convene a special general meeting of the association, the last of which seemed to have ended abruptly with talks of a vote of no confidence somewhere in the making.

Putting that aside, we have begun the 2018 pro-league season where the winners of last year’s competition had to face the knock-out winners of the same season in order to have an early title holder.

I certainly wanted to see the start after so many players changed clubs for CONCACAF Champions League purposes, while the clubs themselves kept making changes in all departments of their structure.

In this opening game of the season, the W Connection franchise was able to score a huge 7–1 victory over 2017/8 league champions North-East Stars on June 1 at Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva.

Surprise! Surprise! Who would have expected the champs of last season to be humiliated? Was it because of the changing of the ‘guards’ which were either on loan from one club to another?

This was likely the case of Central FC, who wanted to ‘buy’ players to become a better team for the Caribbean division of the CONCACAF Champions League, which was played last month in Jamaica.

Unfortunately, Central was unable to win a single match and returned home, hoping that some fairy godmother will hand the clubs of the league some funds in order to pay their players in the upcoming season.

The player transfers have not clearly been defined since the start of the season, but it appeared as though North-East Stars may have suffered most.

The performances of Central in Kingston were not what local fans expected from any T&T team playing in the Caribbean. This hardly ever occurred much in our history. Not even our assistant national coach’s advice and coaching education was able to bring any pattern of play which would have left the local fans with hope.

But now that the season is on its way, it would be interesting how they play here, especially as the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs has decided to give funds to those special clubs unable to pay their staff and players.

I have always thought that any project that starts in the wrong way will struggle to return to any form of stability. So, I will look on at the administrative fiasco and hope for some intelligent solution to the complex problems, many of which seem to be contributing to the decline in our beautiful game.

More than that, I shall keep on looking and hoping for better days for our footballers.