Sports merchandise and apparel outlet store, The Fan Club, has partnered with the TT Pro League in a two-year sponsorship deal dedicated to the league's Coach of the Month awards.
The Fan Club, which has branches in Movie Towne (Port of Spain), Trincity and Gulf City Malls, will award a trophy and a voucher, valued at $1,000, to the coach who had the biggest impact on his team throughout the month.
The coaches will be shortlisted, based on statistics and all round performance of the team, with votes from a judging committee and the sport media pooled to decide the winner of the award.
TT Pro League CEO Dexter Skeene said, “The TT Pro League is a proud partner of The Fan Club, a brand which is synonymous with quality, a focus on fans, and a top apparel store. The TT Pro League’s mission is to provide inspiration to its stakeholders to strive for excellence, and critical to this is the performance of the coaches. The management of the Pro League believes in the talent that resides in the League and believe that these incentives will help to recognise and motivate our top performers.”
The partnership between the League and The Fan Club also allows Pro League clubs, with merchandise and apparel of their respective clubs, an outlet store to promote and sell their products.
Mario Singh, chief operations officer at The Fan Club said the company had no hesitation in agreeing to the sponsorship as a contribution to the development of football in T&T.
Singh said, “We are focused on the growth and the expansion of T&T football because the only way for us as a brand to grow, is to contribute to growing the sport. We didn’t just get into this business because it’s a business. We got into this because of the love of football. We can’t all be Ronaldinho… or Messi… or Cristiano Ronaldo. But that’s how we feel when we jump onto a football pitch.
“So for me it’s a natural fit, The Fan Club and the Pro League, because we want to see the sport grow. We want to see the sport evolve. We want to see T&T football spoken about in the same echelons as Italy, England, Brazil, Argentina and everybody else.
“We understand that the Pro League is a mechanism for enabling that. So that’s why we have partnered with the Pro League. The coaches, who bring their individual playing philosophies, are the ones who are going to shape the future superstars and the current players who are going to contribute to T&T football. That’s all it is. It’s a contribution to T&T football in growing it,” ended Singh.