Govt okay youth football plan

GOVERNMENT has approved the proposed Youth Development Programme drafted by the  Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) and agreed to pump a significant amount of money into it to assure it is smoothly conducted. “The programme is aimed at total football development,” said Oliver Camps, president of the Football Federation yesterday. He made it clear that the plan will embrace all football clinics, schools — including Primary and Secondary —  as well as clubs participating in the different regional associations. At the end of it all Camps said, it is hoped that a competitive national senior team would be selected with enhanced chances at qualifying for future World Cup competitions.

Camps said the programme will be launched early next month when Government are expected to reveal the value of their assistance. But more importantly, Camps said will be its value to the nation in terms of country development. This is where he said, there will be “overall development,” such as coaching courses to enhance the capabilities of coaches and managers, seminars which will guide football officials on decision-making during matches, as well as marketing programmes to sensitise the interest of the public. The programme is expected to be a network, where the right tools and techniques are instilled into young budding footballers during their early primary school years, and during their stint with various football clinics.

The programme is geared to prepare the young players for their term at secondary schools where the lessons learnt previously will be fine-tuned and taken to another stage by highly competent and qualified coaches. Camps said also that such a process will continue until the players are prepared for the sport at the regional level before it is taken to the National Superleague and Pro League level. It comes in the midst of the Trinidad and Tobago football team’s qualifiying campaign for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The local team dropped three valuable points in a 2-1 defeat to the United States of America at the Queen’s Park Oval and on Saturday were beaten by Guatemala in Guatemala City.

Camps announced also that with the programme in full-swing, players will have an easier chance to play in the Superleague since more clubs will be admitted to the competition. The top football administrator revealed that promotion and demotion will be opened up to clubs from the coming season. He noted it will also give the young players the opportunity to play in the Trinidad and Tobago Pro League since the Superleague is being used as a feeding ground for new recruits into the  professional teams.