Jame­son Rigues, the for­mer in­ter­im pres­i­dent of the T&T Su­per League is of­fer­ing his ser­vices and ex­per­tise to the mem­bers of the FI­FA-ap­point­ed Nor­mal­i­sa­tion Com­mit­tee (NC) to find a so­lu­tion to the prob­lems af­fect­ing the sport of foot­ball.

Rigues, who con­test­ed the lead­er­ship of the or­gan­i­sa­tion last year against for­mer 'Strike Squad' de­fend­er and cap­tain Clay­ton Mor­ris and lost, said he in­tends to chat with Robert Hadad, chair­man of the NC to agree on com­mon grounds mov­ing for­ward.

Rigues, the First vice pres­i­dent of the T&TSL in his let­ter dat­ed June 8 to Hadad, stat­ed: "The con­stant­ly de­clin­ing state of T&T foot­ball is des­per­ate­ly call­ing for a prop­er T&T Foot­ball Plan (TTFP), a vi­sion for foot­ball in 2030. The plan is a set of am­bi­tious, yet tan­gi­ble goals that every­one in T&T foot­ball can work to­wards over the next eight years, at least, as we strive to be­come the most pop­u­lar and well or­ga­nized foot­balling na­tion in CON­CA­CAF and qual­i­fy for con­sec­u­tive FI­FA World Cups from 2026."

He not­ed: "Along the way, foot­ball will nur­ture a life­time con­nec­tion to the game for all our peo­ple in all our di­ver­si­ty. We all want foot­ball to live and breathe be­yond the 90 min­utes.

The (TTFP) is a col­lab­o­ra­tion in­volv­ing all of Foot­ball’s stake­hold­ers; every­one from na­tion­al, state and pri­vate en­ter­prise to the com­mu­ni­ty par­tic­i­pants, from top Tier clubs to fans on the bleach­ers and in dig­i­tal com­mu­ni­ties. The TTFP rep­re­sents the game’s col­lec­tive wis­dom at this point in time. The plan will give the sense that the game is on the move and that our best years are ahead of us."

Hadad and his mem­bers - at­tor­ney Judy Daniel, the deputy chair­man and busi­ness­men Nigel Ro­mano and Trevor Gomez may feel that they are in need of much-need­ed help fol­low­ing the dis­clo­sure of a $98.5 mil­lion debt, dis­con­tent among the mem­ber­ship, no de­vel­op­ment pro­grammes, no func­tion­al com­mit­tees, and a se­nior na­tion­al team that just failed to emerge from the first round of the FI­FA World Cup Con­ca­caf Qual­i­fiers re­cent­ly.

Ac­cord­ing to Rigues, "We need to har­ness the uni­ty of pur­pose, en­er­gy, con­fi­dence and am­bi­tion that ex­ists in T&T foot­ball, ex­plore the po­ten­tial of our youth in the de­ci­sion-mak­ing process and en­sure that there is a new breed of qual­i­fied in­di­vid­u­als in lead­er­ship roles.

To me, it makes no sense hir­ing and fir­ing coach­es, ex­pect­ing re­sults from match­es, with­out a clear na­tion­al foot­ball plan.

Like any game of foot­ball, the TTFP will in­evitably spark de­bate and be­come a con­test of ideas where the out­come can­not be eas­i­ly pre­dict­ed. That’s the na­ture of any grand un­der­tak­ing.

In de­vel­op­ing this plan, foot­ball must make a de­ci­sion not to be lim­it­ed by the game’s re­sources in 2021.

There must be a firm con­vic­tion that foot­ball’s best years are ahead of us. This growth will bring the promise of greater rev­enues and new in­come streams, enough to fund the fu­ture. But I can say with cer­tain­ty that with­out an in­clu­sive na­tion­al plan with a long-term vi­sion,

T&T foot­ball can­not pos­si­bly reach its po­ten­tial."