Online voting has begun to determine the country’s choice for the top sporting personality of 2015. The Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee’s annual People’s Choice Awards was launched two weeks ago, and online voting will continue until December 20, nine days before the winners are made public.

The Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) has launched its first t-shirt line, and all proceeds will go towards the country's bid to win ten or more gold medals at the 2024 Games.

Clayton Morris, former captain of the T&T senior men’s football team from the 1989 era, on Friday joined his coach of that year, Everard “Gally” Cummings, as an inductee in the First Citizens Sports Foundation Hall of Fame. Cummings was inducted back in 1987.

Ten or more Olympic Champions by the year 2024.  Groundbreaking. Significant. Trinidad and Tobago Olympic and sport history in the making.  What’s the one thing that must be done to create that reality?

Many of our Olympic and world level athletes feel trapped in a time warp facing formidable challenges. Trapped but not defeated.  Their silent screams go unheard in the cacophony of noise emanating from the uncaring mob whose only desire is to ride the bandwagon of glory.  The process  required to create the demanded glory  bypassed as an inconvenient plea.

Those who really care seem  few while the majority can sometimes be shamed into acting in the athletes’ best interest. Trapped as the world of sport advances in a technological age. Bonds formed under duress, desperate souls wondering what comes next may  well describe  the T&T athlete striving to be a World and Olympic champion.

Often, little decisions are more revealing than big ones. Athlete centred is the buzz word. But every day decisions are made that point to the fact that athlete centred is not a deep commitment. Athletes and those aspiring to achieve world class and Olympic status continue to battle the forces of mediocrity.

The courage to pursue a dream is not all that is needed. Discipline and the temerity to persevere and focus on what you can control and  to treat what you can’t control as distractions is an aquired habit. Striving to be significant not just  successful.

Michael Johnson and his team at Michael Johnson Performance Centre during last week’s first ever bpTT/TTOC /MJP High Performance Summit sought to provide our athletes with an intense week of focused high performance treatment and service.

BpTT, a TTOC partner and official supporter of the Olympic Committee created the opportunity for the TTOC to partner with the MJP Centre and the legendary founder of MJP,  Olympic and World Champion Michael Johnson.

Individual athletes would have had the opportunity to experience the high quality and cutting edge centre and services. Last week was however the first ever training camp type summit.  If you want to be the best, get advice from the best. Also at the summit  was TTO  multiple Olympic medal legend, Ato Boldon.

In striving for 10 or more Olympic Gold medals by the year 2024 a system of excellence that is clear and defined that provides a development pathway and performance management system is a critical success factor. The demands of world  and Olympic level sport is not a nuisance value and a waste of financial resources.

Extraordinary as it may seem TTO athletes must make a choice. Following their dream of Olympic and World titles and being the absolute best is not as important as fitting into traditional thinking as to what is a career. The journey to excellence for T&T athletes in both individual and team sports remains a  labour of love and a step too far.

Dreams are brutally destroyed on the jagged rocks of harsh and unkind words and old ways of thinking and doing things. As a nation we celebrate every success but ignore  the process. Athletes who follow  their dreams have to rise above what can feel like an ongoing barrage of emotional and mental insensitivity at best or deliberate destruction at worse.

Trinidad and Tobago our talented sportsmen and women are facing unkind obstacles that can be removed with a sincere effort to understand the realities of the modern world of global sport.

• Brian Lewis is president of the T&T Olympic Committee.

Source

In spite of positive results on the field of play, members of the executive of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) have agreed to take a stance against the administration of the sport.

Vice presidents Lennox Watson, Rudolph Thomas and Krishendath Kuarsingh as well as other executive members Roland Forde, Neville Ferguson and Richard Kwan Chan, in a penned letter to the media, stated that they have lost confidence in president Raymond Tim Kee.

They described the administration of the sport over the past three years as the lowest it has ever been due to presidential incompetence and lack of consultation with executive committee members and/or the Emergency Committee of the T&T Football Association on critical issues.

The executive members also highlighted a number critical decisions made by the embattled football association president that derailed their confidence in him.

These include: Alleged payment to the president’s son for providing a TTFA website without consultation and agreement of the executive committee and or the emergency committee; Illegal and unconstitutional dismissal of the general secretary of the TTFA; Taking unilateral decisions with regards to matters pertinent to the TTFA and in such circumstances, failure of the president to convene one single meeting of the Emergency Committee, of which he is the chairman to address such matters.

The decisions also included; Failure of the president to convene one single meeting of the Finance and Marketing Committee and/or the Fundraising Committee of the TTFA; Failure of the president to ensure Audited Financial statements for the last three years, taking into consideration possible strategies to do so, as advised by Robert Reis of KPMG; Failure of the president to ensure a strategic plan for the development of football in Trinidad and Tobago over a ten year period is produced; Not providing relevant, timely and appropriate Financial statements over the last three years leading to the uncertainty surrounding the indebtedness of the Association, to the extent that the association may be bankrupt; Under Tim Kee the Standing Committees system has failed to function; Not addressing in a timely manner a threat by the FIFA to institute disciplinary charges against the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association for failure to adhere to a FIFA mandate to pay former National Women’s coach Evan Pellerud.

Watson said the decision by the executive is a bold move to save the sport of football from a certain suspension by the world governing body- FIFA. This letter was sent out to all stakeholders of football in T&T, as well as the FIFA. “We must understand that we are in a crisis situation and it is critical that the FIFA knows so that extreme measures are not taken against us” Watson explained yesterday.

A reliable source, however, told the T&T Guardian that there are attempts to ensure that the November 29 elections do not come off as expected. And if this happens it can spell danger for T&T as its executive members are to be compliant with the FIFA if they are to be allowed to vote at the FIFA Congress.

According to the source if they do not vote  it would mean an immediate ban for the executives from the FIFA which would lead to no representation for T&T at the FIFA level.   

The Guardian questioned Watson about the time frame given to the TTFA to be compliant and he said “TTFA executives have been given a certain period of tyime to be compliant by the FIFA and that time is November 30. If we are not compliant by then, we will be given another 18 months before the FIFA will intervene and throw us out as members.

Now after watching the game on Friday night I am sure that the TTFA being thrown out will hurt all the players who played and all other players throughout T&T and therefore what we are trying to do now is to do damage control before it becomes worse” Watson said.  

Meanwhile, Watson added also that the world governing body for football had ordered the TTFA to make payment of well over $200, 000 to Pellerud- the United States coach who was at the helm of the TT women’s team for the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup in 2010 from September 5- 25. That order was not adhered to.

The T&TFA vice president has made it quite clear he will want nothing to do with T&T football after the coming annual general meeting (AGM) and Election of Officer on November 29 because of the destruction to the sport by Tim Kee.

Contacted Tim Kee said he was not surprised by the actions of his executives. “They are the ones who have criticised me when I took up office in 2012 and therefore they have been very consistent. I can tell you though that they are the ones from the Jack Warner era who are oppose to change and who do not want the sport to progress” Tim Kee said.

Source

In spite of positive results on the field of play, members of the executive of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) have agreed to take a stance against the administration of the sport.

Vice presidents Lennox Watson, Rudolph Thomas and Krishendath Kuarsingh as well as other executive members Roland Forde, Neville Ferguson and Richard Kwan Chan, in a penned letter to the media, stated that they have lost confidence in president Raymond Tim Kee.

They described the administration of the sport over the past three years as the lowest it has ever been due to presidential incompetence and lack of consultation with executive committee members and/or the Emergency Committee of the T&T Football Association on critical issues.

The executive members also highlighted a number critical decisions made by the embattled football association president that derailed their confidence in him.

These include: Alleged payment to the president’s son for providing a TTFA website without consultation and agreement of the executive committee and or the emergency committee; Illegal and unconstitutional dismissal of the general secretary of the TTFA; Taking unilateral decisions with regards to matters pertinent to the TTFA and in such circumstances, failure of the president to convene one single meeting of the Emergency Committee, of which he is the chairman to address such matters.

The decisions also included; Failure of the president to convene one single meeting of the Finance and Marketing Committee and/or the Fundraising Committee of the TTFA; Failure of the president to ensure Audited Financial statements for the last three years, taking into consideration possible strategies to do so, as advised by Robert Reis of KPMG; Failure of the president to ensure a strategic plan for the development of football in Trinidad and Tobago over a ten year period is produced; Not providing relevant, timely and appropriate Financial statements over the last three years leading to the uncertainty surrounding the indebtedness of the Association, to the extent that the association may be bankrupt; Under Tim Kee the Standing Committees system has failed to function; Not addressing in a timely manner a threat by the FIFA to institute disciplinary charges against the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association for failure to adhere to a FIFA mandate to pay former National Women’s coach Evan Pellerud.

Watson said the decision by the executive is a bold move to save the sport of football from a certain suspension by the world governing body- FIFA. This letter was sent out to all stakeholders of football in T&T, as well as the FIFA. “We must understand that we are in a crisis situation and it is critical that the FIFA knows so that extreme measures are not taken against us” Watson explained yesterday.

A reliable source, however, told the T&T Guardian that there are attempts to ensure that the November 29 elections do not come off as expected. And if this happens it can spell danger for T&T as its executive members are to be compliant with the FIFA if they are to be allowed to vote at the FIFA Congress.

According to the source if they do not vote  it would mean an immediate ban for the executives from the FIFA which would lead to no representation for T&T at the FIFA level.   

The Guardian questioned Watson about the time frame given to the TTFA to be compliant and he said “TTFA executives have been given a certain period of tyime to be compliant by the FIFA and that time is November 30. If we are not compliant by then, we will be given another 18 months before the FIFA will intervene and throw us out as members.

Now after watching the game on Friday night I am sure that the TTFA being thrown out will hurt all the players who played and all other players throughout T&T and therefore what we are trying to do now is to do damage control before it becomes worse” Watson said.  

Meanwhile, Watson added also that the world governing body for football had ordered the TTFA to make payment of well over $200, 000 to Pellerud- the United States coach who was at the helm of the TT women’s team for the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup in 2010 from September 5- 25. That order was not adhered to.

The T&TFA vice president has made it quite clear he will want nothing to do with T&T football after the coming annual general meeting (AGM) and Election of Officer on November 29 because of the destruction to the sport by Tim Kee.

Contacted Tim Kee said he was not surprised by the actions of his executives. “They are the ones who have criticised me when I took up office in 2012 and therefore they have been very consistent. I can tell you though that they are the ones from the Jack Warner era who are oppose to change and who do not want the sport to progress” Tim Kee said.

Source