After all these elections, what?
Members of the People's National Movement and the Congress of the People, or at least the appointed delegates, held their elections for a new executive yesterday. Barack Obama appears to be in danger of being a one-term President of the United States given the trends heading into that country's day of decision next week Tuesday. The sister island is seeing activity like never before ahead of voting for the Tobago House of Assembly, expected in January.
Yet after all the heat and emotion of the respective processes, will there be any meaningful differences to benefit the various constituents, or are we to be witnesses to more episodes of the unseemly spectacle of one group of feeders at the trough being replaced by another? It is in that context—the quest for real, fundamental change—that we should view the duel for the presidency of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) come November 11.
Raymond Tim Kee, until three years ago a long-serving vice-president of the TTFF, has kicked-off his campaign for the top job. Colin Murray, former coach of Fatima College in the Secondary Schools Football League, is apparently the other contender, although why he chooses not to officially make it public at this stage, with the deadline for nominations having passed, is not entirely clear.
Anyway, the real issue is not so much about the personalities but whether or not they are capable of engineering the revolution that is required to lift the game from the depths to which it has plunged six years after the euphoric first-ever appearance at the senior World Cup finals in Germany. If this boils down to nothing more than one person ready to do the bidding of the Ministry of Sport for the sake of funding, or the other finding favour with significant elements of the private sector who may have chosen previously to distance themselves from the bacchanal of football in this country, then it's a no-win situation either way.
If we can't get real selfless, principled leadership from our career politicians, given that they all talk the talk of constitutional reform but lack the testicular (or ovarian) fortitude to get the process going, maybe those who are vying for the top administrative job in our most popular sport can lead the way. Having said that, it must be acknowledged that even if Tim Kee or Murray are prepared to put themselves in the firing line for the good of the game, they may actually be shot down by some of the same people they sincerely believe they are trying to assist.
So the real question is not so much about who we go put, the insurance executive or the brewery's key marketing man, but do the people with the most to gain or lose from football really want the change that is so very necessary to get the game on a solid, progressive administrative footing? Or do they just want someone to scatter cracked corn in their direction in the shape of a little work here or an exclusive branding contract there?
Any organisation with a proper infrastructure doesn't live or die based on who is at the helm. Of course leadership is important in identifying a vision, charting a course towards specific objectives and inspiring operatives at all levels to feel that they are all contributing towards that goal. But when it comes to the day-to-day business, and in the case of football the different levels at which the game is played throughout the country, a proper, merit-based structure will mean that the thing can virtually run itself.
However this is a society which, like so many others, puts far too much store on the personality, making decisions based on like or dislike, or whether cherished positions on the list of "beneficiaries" will be jeopardised depending on who gets into office. Changing a mindset like that cannot be done overnight, or even in a few years. Still, if they're really interested in the future of football in Trinidad and Tobago, Tim Kee and Murray must have a vision beyond immediate concerns of the funding of national teams and whether nominal technical director Anton Corneal can spend more time on regularising the structure of our football and less on what price he can get for his lettuce in the market.
Like almost everyone else in this place, football people are tediously long on old talk and their tales of woe and perceived victimisation, yet breathlessly short on taking any sort of action that can bring about fundamental change for the long-term benefit of the game. Yet it is these same people who will determine which of the two candidates will prevail in less than two weeks' time.
Assuming they are sincere in their concerns for football in this nation, both Tim Kee and Murray face the dilemma of saying the right things or persuading the right people to get the vote, even as they may have to acknowledge that the best interests of the sport will only be served by getting rid of many of the personalities whose endorsements they are now courting.
It takes a principled person to get into office and almost immediately trigger the reform that could result in him or her being dispensed with, all the while believing that the greater good will be served, even if they are also one of the casualties.
If neither contender is thinking that way, then they shouldn't even bother.