Azaad Mohammed-Khan, chief executive officer of San Juan Jabloteh Football club, has expressed his frustration at the delay of the beginning of the Women’s League Football (Wolf).
The new name and image of the league was launched last year, with the hopes of developing the women’s game further while creating a “legacy” for the sport in T&T as a mandate of being host to the second Fifa Under-17 Women’s World Cup in T&T.
The 16-team World Cup will be held from September 5 to 25. “The girls have been training since January and it is very frustrating not knowing what is going on,” explained Mohammed-Khan.
According to coaches in the league, they are yet to receive any word as to when the league will start and what is the reason for its delay. “We just keep hearing promises of meetings to be held and it is disturbing and just means that all the efforts put into it has gone to waste,” said Clive Auguste, manager of the Petrotrin women’s team.
Clubs which participate in the league include Tobago FC, San Juan Jabloteh, Real Dimension, Petrotrin, U-17 Women and Joe Public.
Explaining that he feels a bit jaded, Auguste lamented his frustration at the fact that the women’s arm of the T&T Football Federation has not even had the common courtesy to call the coaches to a meeting to let them know what is going on.
The coaches, said they may be forced to look outside the umbrella of the T&TFF in order to get their girls playing some football, or organise a league themselves.
“A lot of the clubs are in agreement that if the league is not calling a meeting, they will have to go ahead and organise a league on their own,” shared Mohammed-Khan. He emphasised the fact however, that they would prefer not to play outside of Wolf.
“We don’t want to play outside the local federation but if they are not calling a meeting, they are putting us in a situation where we will have to put something in place.” The coaches also expressed their dismay with a local league not being organised with T&T hosting a Women’s World Cup this year.
“We are having a women’s World Cup and no women’s league, it looks good at the top, but no local league. That has to be obscene. How can you justify holding a women’s world cup, with no league running,” said Mohammed-Khan.
Also expressing his disappointment, was Corbin Cooper, coach of Tobago FC, which copped all the major titles last year including the League, Knockout and Big Four competitions.
“Since the league last year, they have not kept a meeting to tell us what is going on,” said Cooper. “As a champion team, we are looking forward to playing in the league and this is affecting us greatly, especially in Tobago where are there are no other local leagues running for the girls to play in.
”Contacted yesterday, Sharon O’Brien, President of the Women’s Federation, assured that the league would in fact be run at the end of June, and there are plans to call a meeting with the coaches next week. She also said she has not received any calls from the coaches on the issue.