The recent withdrawal of United Petrotrin from the Professional Football League has raised eyebrows throughout the sporting community, especially among football fans in south Trinidad. The concern is understandable given the long and successful relationship between the oil industry and sport in that part of the country.
I remain confident that Petrotrin will not turn its back on this proud legacy or abandon its traditional social responsibility. It may be that the state oil company is reviewing the investment that it has made in professional football and evaluating the returns, if any, on this investment.
The issue is an important one and its implications surfaced during a recent CCN TV6 broadcast of the Sporting Edition with host, Joel Villafana. The guests were Brian Lewis of the Olympic Committee and Keith Lookloy, a former national coach and currently a Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) technical advisor. Both gentlemen provided much-needed enlightenment on some of the fundamental challenges confronting the local Professional League.
One critical issue is the concept that the Professional League represents an opportunity for both a social and a financial investment and one should not view the return on investment (ROI) in purely financial terms. It is a view that I readily endorse and a simple textbook definition of a social investment is ’the provision and use of finance to generate social returns’. In a local context, a potential sponsor may view ’social returns’ as programmes to reduce widespread juvenile delinquency while promoting greater self-discipline and self-esteem among the youth.
On the other hand, some sponsors or club owners may see their involvement in the PFL as a lucrative opportunity to make money by selling home-grown players to the overseas market. This is not uncommon in so-called third-world countries especially Africa, where European scouts prowl the continent in search of the next George Weah or Didier Drogba.
Trinidad and Tobago also has its share of visiting scouts and agents looking for the next Dwight Yorke and some have developed close ties with local club owners and the TTFF itself. A single multi-million dollar transfer fee with the associated ’sell-on’ clauses can keep a shrewd investor ’in the black’ for many years.
A Government or state agency may invest in sporting programmes not for the financial profits that can accrue but for the public goodwill and social development that can be generated. For such an investor, the indicators that are used to evaluate the ROI would be significantly different. Petrotrin’s predecessor companies such as Shell, Texaco and Trintoc would have placed a priority on the social impact of their investment in sport and would be less concerned about the revenue that it generated.
Trinidad-Tesoro did not build a multi-purpose velodrome in Palo Seco to make money but to provide a forum for employees and people in the community to showcase their talent and witness top quality sport. Texaco’s sponsorship of the hugely popular Southern Games was not merely about gate receipts but also the enhanced corporate image and community support it received by bringing top class athletes and cyclists to local shores.
The return on this type of investment could be assessed by the quantity and quality of activities taking place at the company-owned venues and more importantly, the level of public interest, especially from within the surrounding communities. I suspect that Petrotrin is motivated by similar criteria and would be evaluating its PFL investment in terms of the overall social impact including the contribution to community development.
The discussion on TV6 brought the dilemma sharply into focus and hinted at the need for a more realistic and perhaps indigenous approach to marketing the Professional Football League. References to Manchester United and F.C Barcelona while useful can lead to false expectations and misguided policies. If it is agreed that there are social investors who are seeking non-financial returns, then this has to be integrated into the marketing strategy and the guiding philosophy.
For instance, it was recently reported that a PFL team based in the deep south will establish its youth development programme in the north. This is puzzling since south Trinidad has a large pool of young footballers and several vibrant youth academies in Palo Seco, La Brea and Point Fortin.
Having an official policy that allows such a move undermines the need for sustainability which is a stated imperative of the PFL. It is these types of contradictions that need to be resolved if the League is to survive.
Despite its withdrawal I would not be surprised if a Petrotrin-sponsored team returns to top flight football in the near future. If so, it is likely to be a team that is rooted in the surrounding communities and reflects their history and character.
These are communities that have produced some of the finest footballers ever to grace the local game. Names like ’Cax’ Baptiste, Delbert Charleau, Bobby Sookram, Warren Archibald and Leroy De Leon are just the tip of the iceberg. In the 1980s the all-conquering Trintoc team was hailed as the ’Pride of the South’ and attracted thousands to its games at venues like Skinner Park, Mahaica Oval and Guaracara Park.
Although the squad comprised players from across the country, home-town heroes such as Brian Williams, Adrian Fonrose, Philbert Jones, Larry Joseph and Patrick Geoffroy reinforced its popularity throughout the deep south.
The talent is still there in abundance and in people like Edgar Vidale, Muhammad Isa, Dr Alvin Henderson and Leroy De Leon there is a cadre of technical expertise readily available. However, a systematic, community-based development programme is required and membership in the PFL should be predicated upon having such a programme.
In this regard, the League could borrow from the late Lloyd Best’s model of community development which he called ’school in pan’ and initiate a ’community in sport’ project, using football as the catalyst.
This would help attract those sponsors who may be seeking substantial returns on their social investment in sport. RB is a former member of the FIFA Technical & Development Committee.