Caribbean professional football coming
Two West Indian cricket legends call for changes in financing
Richie Richardson.
Associated Press
Caribbean Life, May 15-21, 2020 29
By George Alleyne
CONCACAF now has a
working group set to format
and structure a regional
professional football league
that should kick off in the
Caribbean and the north
and central American zones
shortly after the Coronavirus,
COVID-19, world pandemic
ends.
Mexico’s FA president,
Yon de Luisa, is chairing the
working group and Barbados
Football Association and
Caribbean Football Union
(CFU) President, Randy Harris,
is the deputy chair.
CONCACAF, Confederation
of North, Central American,
and Caribbean Association
Football, comprises 41 member
nations of which 28 are
from the geographical Caribbean,
though three South
American nations identify as
Caribbean taking that CFU
grouping’s total to 31; seven
are from Central America;
and three are North American.
Blank Slate
CONCACAF President,
Canadian Victor Montagliani,
recently stated in a
news release from the organisation
that that the working
group will in a few weeks
begin meeting with no preconceived
ideas, “it’s a blank
slate.”
“Sustainability will also
be a key issue and while
the league will potentially
be supported by CONCACAF
and FIFA funds, the objective
is for it to make and
then live off its own business
case, he said, adding, “it
needs to be properly thought
out and planned otherwise
it won’t be sustainable.”
Pro Football
CFU’s Harris, who is also
a CONCACAF vice-president,
sounded all gung-ho for it
during an interview with the
Barbados Nation newspaper.
“It is obvious that the time
has come for the Caribbean
nations to be playing professional
football because what
we are doing at this time is
playing as amateurs against
professional football players
representing their countries.”
“As soon as we have a
hand on the pandemic we
will start to get together to
look at the ways that we
can put it into existence,”
he said.
“I think that if we can
make it possible for the players
to benefit from the game,
the whole mind-set of how
people view the game in the
region will change.”
Harris said that under a
pro league Caribbean footballers
will be making a living
from the game, so “we
have to look at developing
our players in a different
way so that they would have
the necessary skills to fit in
a professional environment.
Most of the time we have
players who are very talented
with skills but they don’t
have the knowledge of what
it takes to be professional.”
Other working group
members are former Trinidad
and Tobago sports minister,
Brent Sancho; Patrick
Massenat of Haiti; Manuel
Estrella, the Dominican
Republic; Valdemar Florentino
Marcha, Curacao; Christopher
Samuda, Jamaica,
and a FIFA representative.
Caribbean Football Union President, Randy Harris.
Photo by George Alleyne
By Azad Ali
Two West Indies cricket legends
are calling for a different
handling of the financial
challenges facing Cricket West
Indies (CWI) and a change
of culture and for a different
approach to preparing the
region’s young cricketers.
Speaking recently on the
Mason and Guest radio program
in Barbados, former West
Indies captain Sir Clive Lloyd
called for an equitable share of
revenue earned by the International
Cricket Council ICC).
“Because of the situation
that they (CWI) have now, I
think we need a restructuring
of the money that is going to be
given out by the ICC,” he said.
Referring to the ICC’s full
members, Lloyd said the governing
body should “give everybody
the same. Those are
serious things we have to think
of.”
Explaining the financial difficulty
his administration was
facing, CWI President, Ricky
Skerritt, speaking on his oneyear
anniversary of his coming
into office last month said:
“West Indies cricket has been
suffering for some time from
a shortage of working capital.
Basically, we spend more
money than we earn most
years.”
He said that grants from
the ICC have sometimes fallen
below the amounts expected.
The former West Indies captain
of the 1970s and mid-80s
also advocated a change in how
players are handled when on
international duty.
Another former West Indies
captain and current match
referee, Sir Richie Richardson
said a change of culture was
needed in regional cricket for
things to improve.
He warned, however, that
such a change could only come
through, “a concerted effort
by the entire region, not just
cricket boards but schools, parents,
communities. We have
to find a way to come together
again.”
Former West Indies Captain Clive Lloyd. Associated Press / Matt Dunham, File