Tobago United FC Technical Director Peter Granville has assured his club’s continued participation in the TT Pro League despite financial woes.
According to Granville, for years Tobago United have been operating on small budgets. However the club will continue its struggle at the professional level with hopes of attracting substantial sponsorship.
“I always laugh when asked if we will continue participating,” Granville said. “Because Tobago United have been present in the past seven years. Tobago United like some other clubs are not going anywhere but the Pro League.”
“We are continuing what we normally do. We will start our training next month as we look forward to the upcoming 2010 season.
“But I can admit, it really wasn’t an east feat for Tobago United over the years and what is also evident, is the unfortunate situation of United Petrotrin who would not be here (this season). But Tobago United will continue to press on and continue doing what we are doing,” continued the former Trinidad and Tobago youth coach.
Granville further explained that a management restructure is expected in upcoming weeks geared at attracting sponsorship.
“It’s always been one major problem that’s affected us, and that’s funding,” continued the Technical Director. “And we are looking to change that. We are looking at restructuring our management of the club. This should be sorted out in the next few weeks.
“Because we have a number of Tobagonians living in Trinidad who are willing to come on board in terms of management and help us get more funding and so on. The problem has always been funding and until we fix that, we will continue to struggle,” he said.
On the pitch, Granville says the interest shown by players to join and re-join the club is flowing in. And that the club will host its open screening in February to kickstart their 2010 pre-season.
Last season, for the first time in the club’s seven year professional history, Tobago United finished off the bottom of the standings coached by Kenny Thomas and featured players such as Kayode McKinnon, Jamal Jack, Tichard Joseph, Carey Harris and Richard Reynolds.
The Tobagonians finished 10th with 13 points, 2 wins, 7 draws and 11 losses ahead of Police FC in 11th.
“We are happy in terms of what we have achieved last year,” said a pleased Granville. “For the first time we came off the bottom and we knew that we could have done a lot better. We would have had some seven drawn games and would also take pride in saying that we took points from every single club except Joe Public.”
Tobago United’s Pro League history(10 teams)
2009—10th (11 teams)
2008—10th (10 teams)
2007—10th (10 teams)
2006—10th (10 teams)
2005—7th (7 teams)
2004—8th (8 teams)
2003—10th (10 teams)