Football future looks bright

I was tempted to answer “Because!”, and leave it at that, for, after all, I am not part of the football administration any more.

And further, when our people are unhappy about anything in football, they use the derisive “All-you!”

But when our teams are winning, “All-you” becomes “We.” Anyway, I took the trouble to explain:

When the eight quarter-finalists in the Caribbean Youth Cup were decided after last weekend’s matches, there were four Caribbean countries seeking qualification for the CONCACAF Under-17 play-offs to be held in Jamaica.

Jamaica, as hosts, automatically qualified. The other Caribbean teams were Barbados, Haiti, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

The other three qualifiers were the “guest” teams, Canada, Mexico and Panama. By restructuring the system, from a knock-out to a league system, each team would have three matches to play before entering the Finals.

On the original format, each team would have one match before getting to the semi-finals, and each losing team would be out of the competition.

For those who said it would be unfair to Jamaica to put them in a group with Canada, Mexico and Panama, they should note that Jamaica was in support of the move.

They have risen to the challenge and beat Canada and drew with Panama. They met Mexico on Friday evening in Dwight Yorke Stadium after this column was written.

Because the Under-16 tournament is specifically directed at development — improving the competitiveness of the Caribbean teams.

Everyone was pleased with the opportunity to play more competitive football and not to be eliminated when they lost a match.

Imagine if our drawn match against Barbados had gone to penalty kicks, and we had lost. We would have been out of the competition since Monday!

Instead we were in second place behind Haiti, whom we will have played on Friday afternoon. As you read this, on Sunday morning, will you be satisfied with the support you gave to the Young Warriors for that encounter?

Will you be going out to support them this afternoon?

For the many of you who did not go out to see a single match, not even when TT were playing, you missed good, exciting football.

You missed seeing the stars of the future. Will you think about this when they are on a World Cup stage? Even the lesser lights of Caribbean football are now playing good, structured football at the Under-16 level.

This augers well for the future of the Caribbean game. Notwithstanding the bad weather, and our appalling traffic conditions, all of the matches have been played on schedule, and the fact that we had over 600 young footballers, from 28 countries competing here is good for our football, and our culture, and our economy.

The only thing I could see wrong in the whole tournament was the state of the playing surfaces at Larry Gomes, Ato Boldon and Manny Ramjohn stadiums.

The most important requirement in a sports facility is not the architecture, or the patrons’ comfort: It is the quality of the playing surface-field, track or floor.

The fields upon which these young men had to play were a disgrace. And they are not suffering from overuse. Excessive use puts most pressure in front of the goals-in the six-yard boxes.

In these stadiums, the six-yard boxes are in relatively good condition. It is the main playing area that is cut-up, has major grass-less patches, and are not worthy of this tournament.

Why is it that we cannot even maintain grass? We owe all these young people reasonable playing surfaces upon which to develop their skills and represent their countries.

As a Trinidadian (I did not see the Dwight Yorke field) I was embarrassed at the poor state of our relatively new stadium fields.

If more of us expressed our embarrassment (or did it not matter to you?) standards of upkeep would improve.

But, that criticism aside, our sports stars kept shining and rising all through the week.

Last Sunday I had just squeezed Rennie Quow’s gold medal into this column, when the news broke of Rhoda Watkins’ gold in the long jump, further brightening up the front and back pages of the weekend papers.

Is it not wonderful to read good news, proud news on a Sunday morning? Congratula-tions Rhonda!

I saw you win gold at the CAC Junior Championships here last month, and now you and Rennie have gone out and showed that you are the best in the whole world.

Then our netball girls won the Americas tournament in Barbados, qualifying for the World Netball Championships in Fiji. We have a proud history in netball, and here’s hoping that this team can take us back to the glory we knew in 1979, when we were joint world champions.

This team, going to Fiji, should be an investment for corporate Trinidad. Who will pick up the opportunity?

Our Under-19 cricketers will not repeat as champions, but they will benefit from their experience in Guyana where it rained more than here.

Age-group sports tend to be cyclical. This year’s championship team will generally have boys at the age limit, and when they move up, an inexperienced team usually follows.

And that brings us back to the football this afternoon, and the ongoing renaissance in all of our sports. As long as you are not in Tobago for the Great Race weekend, you should be out supporting your Young Warriors.

Stay away from any political meetings, for these things only poison your mind. Call your family, or your lime together, and head for the match.

At time of writing, they are still hoping that the Hasely Crawford Stadium will be ready — and what a sad story that was! If your spirits, in this country of ours, need lifting, come and lift them with the Young Warriors of Trinidad and Tobago!