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…opens season with windy 200 win

FIFA Presidential candidate Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein today published his manifesto to reform football's world governing body, with the establishment of a formal continental rotation system for the World Cup among its key elements.

Entitled A FIFA Worthy of the World's Game the document details specific pledges to transform FIFA into a service organisation that is a model of good governance and ethical conduct.

Prince Ali said he envisages a "virtuous circle which will take the beautiful game of football to new and unprecedented levels all over the world".

The manifesto is the result of an extensive international consultation process involving National Association leaders, players, coaches, sponsors, fans and other stakeholders, he claimed.

The Jordanian foresees the World Cup being played in different countries, in a similar way to Euro 2020, but believes all stakeholders should be consulted before making a decision on expanding the tournament from its current 32 team make-up.

"My manifesto for reforming FIFA reflects my discussions with National Associations around the world and the priorities that they have expressed to me," said Prince Ali, President of the Jordan Football Association and vice-president of FIFA.

"They have told me that they want a FIFA Development Programme which is transparent, fair, generous and flexible - and which delivers tailored support where it is most needed, so that the level of the game rises for all."

Prince Ali claimed there was a "culture of intimidation" within football's governing body at the launch of his campaign in February and insisted he cannot be a part of FIFA if incumbent President Sepp Blatter is re-elected.

The 39-year-old has promised greater transparency by making public the salaries of the FIFA President and Executive Committee members, as well as the minutes from Executive Committee meetings.

Ensuring commmerical success is also high on Prince Ali's list of priorities to increase the funds available to invest in football around the world.

"It is clear to me that FIFA currently rides rather than drives the success of the beautiful game of football," he added.

"With good governance, targeted development, and growth in the game around the world, there is a great deal of room for improvement in FIFA's commercial performance, and National Associations around the world would benefit from a more commercially savvy and successful FIFA capable of generating more money to invest in them and in football.

"I will lead by example and I have a clear vision to accelerate a long-term plan for football development.

"I am committed to a programme of reform for FIFA that has football's best interests at heart and I want the game to flourish for generations to come.

"With a new culture of democracy and with leadership that promotes accountability, transparency and integrity, the global football community can unite to form a new FIFA that National Associations, players, fans and all our stakeholders can all be proud to belong to and own."

The evaluation and optimisation of the international match calendar is another prominent pledge, with a review of the world ranking system and a full and open debate about the place of technology in football also proposed.

Additionally, a detailed 10-point proposal for development has been drawn up, including providing more support for National Associations who need it most and more investment in women's football.

Prince Ali is aiming to ensure that every Football Association in the world will have what it needs to play the game, including basic infrastructure and equipment, within four years.

Despite the endless amount of corruption allegations made towards FIFA and the fact that he could face three different challengers to his Presidency - with The Netherlands' Michael van Praag and Portugal's Luis Figo the other two candidates - Blatter remains the firm favourite to continue in a role he has held since 1998.

The National Associations are due to vote to decide the winning candidate at the FIFA Congress on May 29 in Zurich.

To view the full manifesto, click here.

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Five gold medals, one silver and two bronze, were on the cards for the Trinidad and Tobago swim team on the opening night of the 2015 Carifta Championships at the Barbados Aquatic Centre Friday night. The effort in the pool was boosted in the Boys’ 15-17 4x100m relay, where the T&T team won gold, clocking three minutes, 36.50 seconds. Currently, the national team stands at third on the overall standings after the first day of competition.
Jeron Thompson, Kael Yorke, Racine Ross and Tyla Martin were the other swimmers who got to the wall first in their individual events.
Thompson won the Boys 13-14 50m backstroke, clocking 28.47 seconds. Yorke got home first in the 100m butterfly in 58.17. Racine Ross (13-14) and Tyla Martin (15-17) both won the 100m butterfly Girls events, clocking 1:04.78 and 1:04.82 respectively. Meanwhile, the 15-17 boys were able to clock 3:36.50 on the way to victory in the Boys 4x100m relay.
Other athletes to cop precious metal included Aquel Joseph, who came second in the Boys 11-12 100m butterfly, clocking 1:05.82. Jahmia Harley placed third in the Girls 11-12 100m butterfly in 1:10.53, and Emil Goin with 57.23, won bronze in the same event in the Boys 15-17 division.
Graham Chatoor may not have medalled last night, but he did have a reason to be satisfied, shaving 33 seconds off his personal best when he clocked 17:36.31, finishing fifth in the Boys 13-14 1500m freestyle.
The four-day competition features junior swimmers from across the region and is but a small portion of the overall action. The event also includes the already completed water polo and synchronized swimming events from March 27-29, while the open water event will conclude the championships on April 8.

Team standings:
1.Bahamas 209.
2.Barbados 149.50.
3.Trinidad and Tobago 128.
4.Guadeloupe 117.
5.Jamaica 112.
6.Suriname 73.
7.Aruba 72.
8.Cayman Islands 64.
9.Bermuda 61.
10.Martinique 57.

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Silver for St Clair, Briggs, James

RAYMOND TIM KEE, president of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA), says that the local governing body is not ignoring the national women’s football team, but they are stretching their financial resources to deal with various national teams (both men and women), in all age groups.

Tim Kee made this disclosure in a telephone interview yesterday, a couple days after national women’s team captain Maylee Attin-Johnson took to social network site Facebook to highlight the perceived neglect towards the squad, dubbed the “Women Soca Warriors”, by the TTFA, since their failure to qualify for the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada.

Trinidad and Tobago lost a home-and-away playoff to Ecuador 1-0 (after the first leg in Ecuador in November and the return leg at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo on December 2) for the 24th and final World Cup spot.

The TTFA boss said, “right now, we are preparing a document for release, because we also have other women’s teams, like the Under-17s who are preparing for a (CONCACAF) tournament in a few weeks.

“It’s ten national teams we have,” Tim Kee continued. “And because of our limited resources, we have to be distributing the monies in the best possible way. The only (other) option we have that could present a different picture is if we pull out about five different age-group teams from activities. And we don’t want to do that because, in the development process, we’ll need the younger ones coming up.”

He emphasised, “we have not ignored the senior team. We’re bringing Randy (Waldrum, the American-born women’s coach) and all those things are very costly. I know the Ministry of Sport has been doing some supporting but it’s not as easy as people may think because we have the men’s team to prepare too. “We still have a huge amount of debts that have been incurred in the last two years,” Tim Kee added. “So we have to be playing a balancing act. All I can say is that the administration wants to do the best they can.”

Tim Kee referred to the use of funds towards the TT Beach Soccer team, who are currently involved in the CONCACAF Championships in El Salvador, and the Futsal team, with screening sessions underway for potential national players.

About the women’s team itself, Tim Kee noted, “(we) have to do things in harmony with the coach and his technical staff. They would know where their plans are and they’ll come to us with their plans, in terms of training and preparation.

He added, “Randy sent me an e-mail on Friday making recommendations of how we should proceed with our fitness exercises and so on. What we are trying to do is put the training for three teams together — the women’s team, the men’s team and the (women’s) Under- 17s.

“We’re trying to get them under the same training regimen instead of having three different sets of people or facilitators.”

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The TTSA National Dinghy Championships Series 1 were sailed in strong winds last weekend and featured 28 sailors from the Trinidad and Tobago Sailing Association (TTSA) Sailing School in Chaguaramas,

Vessigny Vikings Sailing Club and the HydroTec Point Fortin Sailing Club participated in three classes of boats.

Star of the show was Kelly-Ann Arrindell whose seven straight wins in the Laser Radial class left little doubt who will be this year’s Laser Radial Class Champion when the event concludes in June at either Vessigny or Point Fortin. With a catalogue of strong international results this year, Arrindell is up for a pick to represent TT at the Pan Am Games to be held in Canada in July this year. Second to Arrindell was Abigail Affoo and third by one point was Noel Furlonge-Walker, both showing improvement due to experience gained from attending

international events. The Laser 4.7 Class was won by Meiling Chan Chow with Kwame Gudel second and Isiah Paul of HydroTec Point Fortin Sailing Club in third. The Laser Standard class was won by Ian Mahon by one point from James Arrindell with Emmanuel Joseph of Vessigny third.

In the two-man 420 dinghy, victory went to Patrick Francois and Michael Stewart of Vessigny with Kathryn Christopher and Brittany Assam of TTSA second and Grace Moraine and Owen Joseph of Vessigny in third.

Thirteen participants took part in the 15 and under Optimist class. Proceedings started with an early tussle for dominance in the Opti class between TTSA’s Nathaniel Clarke and Christopher Dells of Vessigny but a more consistent second day performance by Clarke told in the end. Clarke won the class with Dells second and Akim Williams and Jamal Morson of Vessigny tied for third.

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IN LATE February, even as the national men’s team was flying out to California, their female counterparts were returning from Uruguay; both squads failed to advance from their respective World Hockey League Round Two play-offs.

Recently, Newsday published the reflections of the men’s coach Glen Francis. Today, we feature those of women’s team coach Anthony Marcano.

Whereas the TT men lost all six of their matches, the women actually registered two victories - a 5-0 score awarded against Kenya by default and a predictable win over Caribbean neighbours Dominican Republic. Omitting the Kenya result, the women scored five goals and conceded 19 in five outings.

The World League is a means to qualifying for major hockey tournaments like the Olympics and World Cup. TT’s challenges, Marcano told Newsday, began at home; just getting the players assembled and in training was difficult. “We had a hectic year coming out of Commonwealth Games, straight into World League Round One, straight into the CAC Games,” he reflected.

The three tournaments were compressed between July and November 2014, after which the players took a break to recuperate, and some were also seeking gainful employment. The latter fact doubtless influenced the decision to select nine youngsters among the final18.

It was done, Marcano claimed, looking forward to the 2016 Pan Am Under-21 Women’s Championship, which Trinidad and Tobago are scheduled to host.

Given the many issues, “Bumper,” as Marcano is affectionately known, felt TT had done well. Key to their performances, he said, was the fact that in the three weeks available before flying to Montevideo, they had worked strictly on their defensive game.

“The young ones obviously need some work, but I think they stood up pretty well,” he stated.

Among the stand-outs, he said, were co-captains Alanna Lewis and Patricia Wright-Alexis, goalkeeper Petal Derry, Kryzia Layne and youngsters Amie Olton and Jessica Lee. On opening day, Azerbaijan, ranked 19 by the FIH, beat TT 5-1; Alanna Lewis scored TT’s only item. Following Kenya’s default, they suffered successive 3-0 losses to France and Italy.

A double from Blair Wynne led them to victory over the Dominican Republic, but the French returned to hand TT a 6-1 beating, consigning them to sixth place among the eight teams. “We played a half-court game on everybody; we never played a normal three-quarter, and I think that was the difference,” he mused. “We know we’re quick at the front; if we get the opportunity and we counter-attack we are going to be fast, and teams understand that.” He believes long-term work on defence would ultimately change the TT’s international performances significantly, “But we need high-level competition to test that defence, he added.” With that in mind, “Bumper” has been working on a four-year-cycle plan that would avoid problems such as those which arose before the tournament in Montevideo, Uruguay and it would be critical in attracting quality opponents, both for purposes of player development and assessing overall team progress.

“If finance is an issue, then invite teams,” he adds. “But you can’t invite a team today for tomorrow. If you have a four-year cycle, you can invite a team to come next year, and they’re going to fit it into their programme.”

Meantime, domestic competition remains on hold as the National Hockey Centre turf in Tacarigua is being cleaned. Marcano says it costs upwards of $600 for a training session on the Marvin Lee Stadium in Macoya, the only other artificial surface in TT.

Unlike the men’s team, the TT women did not qualify for Pan Am Games. Their next overseas assignment will be in October - the Pan Am Challenge in Peru.

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