Azaad Mohammed-Khan, chief executive officer of record four-time T&T Pro League champions San Juan Jabloteh is calling on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to step in and get Minister of Sport, Anil Roberts to meet with its officials.
Mohammed-Khan made the plea, he said, after numerous efforts to meet with Minister Roberts to discuss the club’s financial plight has proved futile. Jabloteh, Pro League champions in 2002, 2003, 2007 and 2008 faces the possibility of becoming extinct within the next few months as it find itself in a financial crisis.
Within recent months, the club which was once backed by the financially strapped CLICO has found itself strapped for cash as it struggles to stay in the Pro League. This despite the help of Adam’s Construction Company Limited which last assisted the club in October of last year.
Following the loss of its funding from Adam’s Construction Company Limited the Sports Company of T&T (SporTT) then stepped in and pumped $17,000 a month into the club, however that has since been halted at the end of December.
Speaking after the club’s executive held an emergency meeting at its Akal Trace, Santa Cruz office on Monday night, a frustrated Mohammed-Khan said, “This cannot be the good governance that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissesar and the People’s Partnership spoke about on their campaign trail before they got into Government.”
“We have written to him on numerous occasions through different persons and up to now we have not gotten a response.
He has apparently dismissed everyone of our efforts to get a meeting with him.” Mohammed-Khan who has been at the club since its inception noted that if the Minister of Sport has something personal with someone within the club he should not take it out on the club itself but deal directly with whoever it is.
He added, “We know he had some issues in the past with one of our coaches but you cannot get personal as a Minister. “All we are saying is if we at the club have done something wrong we will like him to meet with us, tell us what is the problem and what are the ways to go about getting it corrected.
Others who were present at the meeting included club chairman Jerry Hospedales, Accounting Advisor Atiya Mc Millan and Directors Phillip Fraser, Prakash Bhaggan, Judith Hospedales and Williams Stewart.
Mohammed-Khan who is also the General Secretary of the Secondary Schools Football League noted that fellow Pro League clubs North East Stars ($50,000), Caledonia AIA ($83,000), St Ann’s Rangers ($83,000) and W Connection ($83,000) were all being given grants from the Ministry of Sport on a monthly basis while Jabloteh was being overlooked.
“Why is he discriminating against us within the San Juan/Barataria area. We are a Pro League club as well as and all we are asking now is for the Prime Minister to get into the ears of the Minister of Sport and try to get him to have a meeting with us. Efforts to contact Minster Roberts have proven futile.
“The new Pro League season is less than two months and if we don’t get a positive response soon we will have no choice but to opt out of the competition,” stated Mohammed-Khan. “We can’t stay in the league if we don’t get money and we are quickly running out of time.