Rangers bid for Pro League

SUPERSTAR Rangers is bidding to be accepted into top flight football —  the Trinidad and Tobago Pro League which kicks off April 8. This decision was made in the midst of the recent Carnival celebrations. Club chairman Richard Fakoory submitted an application to the T&T Pro League after lengthy discussions with the league’s officials and is waiting confidently for a positive response. Recently chairman of the Pro League,  Larry Romany revealed the competition would be upgraded to ten teams. The line-up has been boosted with the return of Joe Public Football Club as well as subsequent discussions with southern based Star World Strikers which would also include them in the competition. According to Romany there was need for one more club and the St Ann’s-based team could well be the one to fill that position.

Fakoory is asking players from the different divisions in his club including the Open category, Under-18, Under-17 and Under-16 as well as all coaches and managers to be at the St Ann’s grounds on Sunday to organise the team for the competition. Since their inception some 40 years ago, the team has been the pride of the St Ann’s community building their home on a ground that is now proposed to accommodate an extension of Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s new multi-million dollar residence. Whether or not the Superstar Rangers unit will remain at the St Ann’s grounds is unsure, but Romany, at a recent press gathering told reporters that attempts are being made with the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SCOTT) for the upgrade of all community facilities which would then be given to the pro-league clubs.

He said the move is aimed at making the league more community based and therefore increase the support base for the competition. According to Romany, when this is done, clubs will be asked to hold coaching sessions and programmes something that Superstar Rangers have pioneered for the past 40 years. The club is been a household name in the domestic football league, and in particular the Northern Football Association (NFA) competition and the Semi-Professional Football League in which they featured regularly  among the top four teams. Rangers have also been unearthing and nurturing latent football talent making them a dominant force in  youth football.

Their successes at this level include their capture of the T&T Cup for Under-17s at three out of the four years staged. Superstar Rangers youths also copped the Republic Bank Cup among the Under-17s and the Pro League Knock Out last year. According to Fakoory, the loss of all his young players to the country’s bigger football clubs was a factor that influenced his decision to play in the T&T Pro League this year. Rangers have been the breeding ground for a number of this country’s top footballers among them former captain of the Strike Squad Clayton Morris, Marvin Faustin, Errol Mc Farlane Junior and Senior, Hutson Charles and Aurtis Whitley who is on Trinidad and Tobago’s World Cup bound team. Fakoory’s involvement with the Rangers has presented them with a sponsor — Superstar which has been associated with the club for the past 26 years.