“We didn’t ap­point you as our rep­re­sen­ta­tive on the Board of the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion to fight down the Home of Foot­ball, or for trans­paren­cy or ac­count­abil­i­ty. We sent you to rep­re­sent the in­ter­ests of the T&T Su­per League.”

This was the view ex­pressed by clubs in the coun­try’s sec­ond- tier foot­ball league, most of whom, have been clam­our­ing for the re­moval of its pres­i­dent Kei­th Look Loy as their rep­re­sen­ta­tive.

Yes­ter­day Gre­go­ry Mc Sween, man­ag­er of cen­tral club Harlem Strik­ers said the TTSL has, for the past two years, not had a spon­sor, which means clubs played for free, al­though be­ing asked to put out lots of mon­ey. "We need to have a vi­brant com­pe­ti­tion where pro­mo­tion and de­mo­tion can take place for oth­er clubs to join. We need to help clubs to be­come com­pli­ant, and we need clubs and play­ers to look out for some­thing in re­turn when the sea­son comes to an end."

Mc Sween’s Strik­ers was one of 11 clubs to have been omit­ted from the 2018 edi­tion of the su­per league for its fail­ure to pay a $45,000 reg­is­tra­tion fee and $5,000 cau­tion fee to gain en­try in the league. The Strik­ers boss said he had been dis­ap­point­ed with the FC San­ta Rosa pres­i­dent for fight­ing on­ly for the in­ter­ests of him­self and his club. “We ain’t get­ting any­thing by him fight­ing David John-Williams and for au­dit­ed state­ments of the TTFA, be­cause we need help in the TTSL too,” Mc Sween ex­plained.

Harlem Strik­ers was one of four clubs re­port­ed­ly to have dis­tanced them­selves from calls for Look Loy’s re­moval. An­oth­er, the Mara­bel­la Fam­i­ly Cri­sis Cen­tre, through man­ag­er Ter­rance Boissiere, re­fut­ed these claims, say­ing he is ful­ly in sup­port of a pe­ti­tion to re­move Look Loy, while Ja­son Gor­don, chief cook and bot­tle wash­er of TTSL first-timer Erin FC, be­lieves he was tricked in­to sign­ing a pe­ti­tion for rea­sons oth­er than what was ex­plained to him. “I am all for foot­ball, and once I am giv­en a fair chance to make a de­ci­sion in the in­ter­est of the sport, I will do so.”

Gor­don, whose team made its de­but in the su­per league for the 2018 sea­son, said he still be­lieves Look Loy is the best per­son to rep­re­sent the TTSL at that lev­el, as he has had no neg­a­tive ex­pe­ri­ences with him since join­ing the com­pe­ti­tion.

How­ev­er, Jame­son Rigues, the TTSL vice pres­i­dent said he had been forced to sup­port the clubs, as he too be­lieves that Look Loy was not rep­re­sent­ing the in­ter­ests of the League. “As the TTSL vice pres­i­dent and the sec­ond in com­mand, I could not sit by and watch our mem­bers fight for their rights. As a man of the truth, I will not sit by and do noth­ing, and there­fore, I will side with the clubs, as we are still to get a spon­sor for the League.”

The Su­per League is set to meet on Sat­ur­day from 2 pm at the Queen’s Park Oval at which dis­cus­sions on the com­ing sea­son and the pro­pos­al put for­ward by vis­it­ing UE­FA/CON­CA­CAF of­fi­cials.