A call is now be­ing made for all clubs in the re­gion­al foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tions - East­ern Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (EFA), North­ern Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (NFA), South­ern Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (SFA), Cen­tral Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (CFA), To­ba­go Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TFA) and the East­ern Coun­ties Foot­ball Union (EC­FU) to be giv­en fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance by gov­ern­ment.

Alvin Corneal, own­er of East foot­ball cam­paign­ers Mal­ta Carib Al­cons said he be­lieves gov­ern­ment through the Min­istry of Sports, has set a bad prece­dence by pro­vid­ing fi­nan­cial help to clubs in the T&T Pro League and not oth­er teams. He point­ed out that while he sup­ports the sub­ven­tions be­ing giv­en to pro league teams, there were oth­er clubs that pro­vide play­ers to the na­tion­al teams and not on­ly those in the pro league.

Ac­cord­ing to the ex-na­tion­al foot­baller and coach, teams in the six re­gion­al as­so­ci­a­tions put out huge sums of mon­ey each year and re­ceive noth­ing in re­turn. On­ly last year Al­cons won the $15,000 first prize for the League as well as the Pre­mier Di­vi­sion award which car­ried a cash prize of $20,000, but are yet to re­ceive these prizes. Like the pro league teams, re­gion­al as­so­ci­a­tion clubs al­so have to fork out mon­ey for uni­forms, trans­port and oth­er mis­cel­la­neous ex­pens­es.

Present­ly eight out of the ten pro league clubs - W Con­nec­tion, San Juan Jabloteh, North East Stars, Point Fortin Civic Cen­tre, Club San­do, Cen­tral FC, Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed and St Ann's Rangers re­ceived fund­ing from gov­ern­ment to­talling $50,000.

"It's not on­ly the ten pro league teams that pro­vide teams to the na­tion­al teams. The gov­ern­ment has been set­ting a bad ex­am­ple by giv­ing one and not all be­cause clubs in the re­gion­al as­so­ci­a­tions al­so have ex­pens­es too and are de­serv­ing of help if oth­er clubs are get­ting" Corneal ex­plained.

Corneal added that gov­ern­ment's de­ci­sion to pay clubs is equiv­a­lent to pay­ing for play­ers cho­sen by pri­vate in­vestors. He be­lieves the fo­cus should not on­ly be placed on the end prod­uct but crit­i­cal­ly at the de­vel­op­ment of the play­ers, which is what hap­pens at the re­gion­al as­so­ci­a­tion lev­el.

Teams in the re­gion­al as­so­ci­a­tions re­ceive an av­er­age of $15,000 for the league and $20,000 for the pre­mier di­vi­sion which Corneal feels are in­suf­fi­cient when you take in­to con­sid­er­a­tion the ex­pens­es that teams have to pay. Al­cons' suc­cess­es to date have earned them a place in the Su­per League which car­ried a first prize of $240,000 for the league.

How­ev­er, Corneal said they have asked for this pro­mo­tion to be put on hold as his team need­ed suf­fi­cient time to pre­pare.

WAL­TER AL­IBEY