Local football was placed in safer hands on Tuesday.
Following the signing of a four-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) partnership deal between the parent T&T Football Association (TTFA) and the University of T&T (UTT) at the UTT's Chaguanas campus, players, coaches and other coaching staff will now have direct access to the UTT's expertise and facilities.
It will lead to the development of the sport essentially, as well as opportunities that will make professionals out of players in a wide range of careers.
Attending the signing ceremony was Robert Hadad, chairman of the FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee, as well as technical director Anton Corneal, TTFA's general secretary Amiel Mohammed, UTT’s Chairman of the Board of Governors Professor Clement Imbert, President Professor Prakash Persad and UTT’s Senior Manager Sport and Recreation, Ian Pritchard.
Pritchard told Guardian Media Sports on Tuesday that the deal will be an obligation between the parties for advanced research and development to be done during preparation and training, using technology to further develop players. He noted that a scientific approach can also be used for measuring players' performances and readiness.
He said players, coaches and other staff will also have access to their facilities and expertise, which will include rehab services, human resource capacity, and testing methods for athletes to determine their readiness.
According to Pritchard, there will also be the offering of partial scholarships for students/players on the verge of leaving school.
"Through our High Performance programmes, young players in the TTFA High Performance Programmes will get the opportunity to advance their academic careers through partial scholarships etc. This initiative started back in 2007 when the Sport and Recreation Unit of the UTT started offering scholarships for the advancement of young players.
"And the reason I say partial scholarship is because we don't offer room and board like universities abroad, but we offer transportation and insurance, as well as some level of financing."
The MOU is expected to cover a large range of objectives, such as: 1. Seeking to encourage and ensure mutual cooperation and support generally between UTT’s Academy of Sport and TTFA’s Academies and National Teams; 1.1. Lending technical support to each other in an effort to ensure the continued development of football in T&T; 1.2. Advancing coaching education as a priority agenda of this MOU, through mutual cooperation and support generally between UTT’s Academy of Sport and the TTFA.
The embattled football association has committed to: 4.1 to making the TTFA facilities available to UTT. For the purposes of this agreement, “TTFA facilities” shall mean its football fields, courts and the Home of Football at Balmain, Couva, as well as its administrative offices, conference room(s) and any other location
that TTFA may reasonably make available to UTT;
4.2 Endorsing, sanction or otherwise approve of the football tournaments arranged, hosted or administered by UTT on the condition that UTT has satisfied TTFA that it has attained the requisite standards and approvals for the hosting of such tournaments;
4.3 to endorse, sanction or otherwise approve of football coaching certification courses arranged, hosted and administered by UTT in conjunction with the TTFA:
4.4 to provide access, where reasonably practicable, to its national teams, both male and female, including the Under-23, U-19, U-17 and Under-15 teams. The access being sought by UTT shall be limited to coaching and training sessions, attendance of such national team members at UTT screening sessions annually, attendance at competitive and friendly matches, and promotional appearances by team members, whether the team members are available individually, in small groups or as an entire team.
On the other hand, the UTT, which has campuses across T&T inclusive of San Fernando, Point Lisas, Camden, Chaguaramas, the ECIAF campus, as well as in the sister isle of Tobago has assured its undertakings will include: 3.1 Where feasible, to make UTT facilities available to TTFA. including classrooms, lecture halls, outdoor courts, auditoriums, outfields, laboratories and such other venues, rooms or locations at UTT campuses that UTT may reasonably make available to TTFA;
3.2 to provide educational and training opportunities, through its academic and coaching staff, associates and/or consultants, to coaches, teams and clubs affiliated to TTFA on topics including but not limited to: (i) national coaching certification (various levels); (ii) anti-doping; (iii) match-fixing, corruption and illegal betting; (iv) safeguarding and child protection; (v) health, fitness, safety and risk management; (vi) sports science; (vii) ethical values and sport; (viii) pre-participation athletic evaluation; (ix) taping and bracing; (x) periodization; (xi) nutrition and sport performance; (xii) sports psychology;(xiii) contractual rights and obligations;
(xiv) intellectual property; and (xv) financial management and taxation 3.3 to offer scholarships where feasible to those inductees of the Programmes that meet
UTT’s criteria for scholarship eligibility;3.4 to offer coaching and technical expertise to TTFA’s national teams; 3.5 to facilitate and foster the building of strategic relationships between UTT’s local, regional and international academic and sporting partners and the TTFA for the benefit of the TTFA.