President of the Veteran Footballers Foundation of Trinidad and Tobago (VFOTT) Selby Browne wants to be the next president of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association.
In an effort to achieve this goal, he has assembled experienced members from the local football fraternity and also young professionals who are actively involved in football nationally and internationally.
Browne says he and his team will roll out their plans for the “new TTFA” over the coming weeks and months. Currently, local football is being run by the FIFA-appointed normalisation committee headed by businessman Robert Hadad.
Appointed in March 2020 to deal with the TTFA’s debt problem for an initial period of two years, the committee’s life has since been extended to March, 2023, after which elections will be held for a new administration to run the TTFA’s affairs.
Here, Browne outlines his vision for taking the game forward; his “TTFA Reset 2022-23.”
Against a background of the appointment of the FIFA normalisation committee on March 17 2020 for a two-year term, with an extended year for completion of its mandate, and the Covid-19 shutdown for the past two years, the national senior male football team has unsuccessfully participated in the qualification matches for the FIFA World Cup 2022 and did not advance out of its group at the CONCACAF Gold Cup 2021 and now awaits preparation for the CONCACAF Nations League 2022. The national women’s team is involved in qualification matches for the FIFA Women Cup 2022.
The highlight of the football landscape since the return to normalcy granted on the advice of the health technocrats has been limited to the hosting of a triangular tournament between Barbados, Guyana and the national male team in which Trinidad and Tobago won the trophy, along with the excitement of the Ascension League and Tiger Tanks tournaments.
However, what is the status or plan with respect to the Pro League teams, the Super League teams, the roll-out of the Secondary School and Primary School Leagues along with WoLF (women’s league) and the zonal operations to embrace teams within their region and the community Leagues?
The structure for the New TTFA for which discussion will be invited, will be based on four pillars to ensure the proper development of the Trinidad and Tobago football style.
Pillar 1- Finance and Administration
- There must be professional personnel on all TTFA committees.
- The revenue generation assets of the TTFA must include the Home of Football in addition to sourcing investment for an attractive ROI.
- The TTFA must directly strengthen zonal football.
- Nationals with sport business administration skills must be sourced whether they are based nationally or internationally.
Pillar 2 - Marketing and Media
- All TTFA national and international football must be marketed.
- Sales personnel must be sourced.
- Information technology (IT) personnel familiar with global football technology must be recruited.
Pillar 3 - Structure
- There must be juvenile foundation football development.
- A youth football development programme must be produced.
- Primary and secondary schools should play within their zones together with community teams.
- The secondary schools should play adult teams and then against themselves for the InterCol competition.
- An Elite football development programme must be established.
- There must also be a national teams residential training programme.
- International tournaments must also be part of the national programme.
Pillar 3 - Training and development
- Trained nationals with coaching experience in the development of juveniles must be sourced.
- Nationals coaching actively at the highest level internationally must be identified.
- Nationals who have played at the highest level nationally and internationally must be recruited.
- Nationals skilled with advance training methodology must be engaged.
- Nationals with sport medicine training and practice must also be sourced.
Pillar 4 - Training and development for:
- Club Administrators
- Referees
- Coaches
- Tournament coordinators
And as Trinidad and Tobago awaits the completion of work by the FIFA normalisation committee for presentation of its recommendations to the TTFA membership for review, Browne and his team stress that the Home of Football must remain a vital TTFA asset as it is key to generating revenue for the rebuild and restructure of football in T&T.
He says the next nine-month period will be critical for the rebuild and restructure of the game.
SOURCE: T&T Express