Eastern Lions to pull out Pro League

IT’S official! Joe Public Football Club are indeed playing their final season in the T&T Pro League. According to club chairman and owner Jack Austin Warner, Joe Public will be out of the competition at the end of the current season. “Joe Public will be playing, if accepted, in the Super League,” added the FIFA vice-president and head of CONCACAF. The club was formed in 1996 by the Warner family (Jack, wife Maureen as well as sons Daryan and Darryl) with veteran administrator Harold Taylor as co-chairman. It is based at the Lever Brothers ground in Tunapuna, which is now the site of the Dr Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence. With a stated aim of “setting the trend for establishing high standards of professionalism at club football in the Caribbean” Joe Public won the 1998 Craven A Semi-Professional Football League and were runners-up in 1997, 1999 and 2001. They also copped the 2001 FA Trophy, after being the beaten finalists in 1999 and 2000. But the club has been on a downward slide since and, bedevilled by indiscipline and lack of financial returns, have suffered to make an impact this season.

“Joe Public, over the last six years, have spent over $21 million and I don’t think that is value for money. And nothing I’ve seen in the Pro League seems to suggest that there will be an improvement,” Warner said. Commenting on the current Pro League, which have lacked an official sponsor since Warner pulled out of local football after the 2001 General Elections, the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) advisor said: “I wish them well if they can improve.” “I’ve tried to get the two leagues (Pro and Super) to merge, and therefore use all the expertise that we have in a small country. I did not succeed. I also tried to see whether they can attract sponsors since I’ve left. They have not done that. “For me, I could not continue with the financial haemorrhage that has taken place with my company, my family and the association,” he said.

The Macoya-based club had a number of coaches during their stint at the highest level of local football, including Keith Look Loy, Yugoslavian Zoran Vranes, Jamaal Shabazz, Kenny Joseph, Clayton Morris, and the incumbent Ron La Forest while Richard Abraham and Joseph Sam Phillip served as managers of the club. And, among the long list of high-profile players to wear the Joe Public’s colours were national representatives Arnold Dwarika, Travis Mulraine, Nigel Pierre, Dale Saunders, Michael McComie, Lyndon Andrews, Kerwyn Jemmott, Stokely Mason, Keyeno Thomas, Adaryl John and Angus Eve as well as midfielder Kendall Velox (St Vincent) and striker McUnisa Conteh (Sierra Leone).