Football during Christmas for TTPFL season 3

As it is with many of the international football leagues around the world, there will be football during the Christmas season here in T&T.

It’s a new initiative of the T&T Premier Football League (TTPFL) and the T&T Football Association, which was announced at the launch of the TTPFL on Tuesday night at the Northern Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) Port-of-Spain.

Jameson Rigues, vice president of the football association, said the idea will ensure that there is football all the way.

Season III of the TTPFL kicks off on December 6 and will go to May. Despite the late start, there will be no break for the Christmas holidays, as fans will instead be presented with a Boxing Day affair featuring a doubleheader at the Diego Martin Sports Complex between champs AC Port-of-Spain and Central FC at 5 pm, and Defence Force and Terminex La Horquetta Rangers at 7 pm in the other game.

Also on Boxing Day will be another doubleheader at the Arima Velodrome featuring Caledonia AIA and FC Phoenix at 5 pm and a clash with Miscellaneous Police and Prisons Service FC at 7 pm.

Rigues also assured that for this season of the TTPFL, there will be promotion and demotion, though he could not say how many teams will be relegated or promoted.

On Tuesday, seven of the 12 teams that will contest Tier 1 of the TTPFL were given their license certificates from the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the TTPFL, Yale Antoine, with the assistance of Lystra Lara, a TTFA employee.

Following greetings from the football association’s general secretary, Kareem Paul, and Antoine, Rigues revealed that several changes from the standpoint of promotion would whet the appetite of the football fraternity and would enable the league to be better managed.

“Apart from the marketing, we haven’t really taken on the type of structure in terms of the administrative structure that there was prior. One thing that they would have benefitted us by doing that was the cost that was carried prior, in terms of what we were paying a CEO and so on. We kind of managed to eliminate that and put other things in place—better support that would propel the League in such a way that you would get more quality in terms of the administration, so you would definitely see a different sequence of how things would happen,” Rigues explained.

“You would see a different way if I could use the term the ‘dressing of the league’ with the marketing combined with the administrative support that the teams are going to get. Concerning marketing, we have asked all our clubs to work together with our marketing team, so both coming together will certainly make it better. And they have been doing that so far in the build-up to the opening on December 6.”

The League was initially scheduled to kick off tomorrow (November 22); however, it faced a setback of having to deal with payments to suppliers such as Sports Max, Caribbean Airlines, referees, and other officials, etc. Rigues told Guardian Media Sports that while discussions were held to have an earlier start to the League, the executive would have spent time going back and looking at what was happening before and what could happen to make it better.

Meanwhile, the League will see the return of San Juan Jabloteh, a household name in local football who missed the last season due to financial issues. Coach Marvin Gordon said he was elated to be back in the top-flight competition, for which he believes he will give a good account of themselves.

“I’m excited to be back, happy to be back. I think since I started coaching in 2009, last season was the first season I did not coach at this level. So I kind of stayed with the club; I coached at under-20 tournaments for them, and here we’re back now; the players are happy to be back with Jabloteh, and we’re looking forward to the season. We have a new chairman in Nirad Tiwarie, and I think he has been doing a fantastic job; some new board members as well, so things are looking up at San Juan Jabloteh,” Gordon explained.

“We have a young squad still; we’re still a young squad between 17 and 28 years old; the oldest player is 28, and that’s fantastic. We have some good names who are doing well now in the College’s League who are in the squad, and I look forward to seeing them punching to the highest level with these players.”

Quizzed on the names of some of his players, Gordon excitedly said, “The one whose name is all over T&T right now, Derrel ‘Zoom Zoom’ Garcia, Andell Fraser, Lindell Sween, Russell Francois, Jaylon Matthews, Dwight Jordon, Jokool Pierre, Joshua Lewis, Jelani Peters, and I have a kid who is only 17 by the name of McShine; he plays right back, and I think you all will enjoy him. We want to try and come in the top three; I know it would be kind of difficult, but I think we’re punching for that, and in every game, try to be as competitive as possible and try to go at them. We’re going to play high-tempo football,” Gordon explained.

“We’re not going to sit back; we’re going to come at you; you have to beat us; let’s go punches for punches. I think I have youth on my side; I like to play exciting football; I like to play attractive football, so we’re going to keep the ball.”

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