Colin Wharfe, CEO of the TT Premier Football League (TTPFL), says the league will submit a report to FIFA next week, with data to support a marked return of spectators and corporate sponsors to the top two tiers of football in the country.
Wharfe celebrated the league's inaugural season on Friday when the TTPFL hosted its awards ceremony for the two tier league competition at Trinidad Hilton.
“(I am here to) assure you that sometime towards the backend of next week, a full report of the season will be presented to the minister (of sport), to FIFA and to you guys so you understand in detail what the last season was about …”
The season kicked off in March and ended on October 10, with Defence Force winning tier one and 1976 FC Phoenix dominating tier two.
Wharfe said the league made significant progress with regard to recommendations made by FIFA.
“We have a lot more work to do to deepen the social and economic integration of our clubs within their communities,” he said, “but we are heartened by our overwhelmingly positive feedback from our social media followers and match attendees.
“In conjunction with our various stakeholders, we plan to leverage the inroads we made this season to fulfill our mandate of discovering and developing the wealth of talent with which we are blessed.”
He said the league based its success on the advances made on the objectives set out by the TT Football Association for the league, including helping to restore stakeholder trust in the sport.
“In that regard, we had an investment by FIFA and the government, as well as Concacaf, both in cash and in kind. Corporate (TT) has begun to return, and you will see that with the naming of some of the clubs. And we hope to accelerate that process into the new season.”
He said data from the report will also reflect a return of fans to the sport, both at venues and via broadcast media.
Eighty-three matches were broadcast on Sportsmax, while over 50 were streamed on FIFA’s website.
Wharfe said social media was also a crucial marketing platform used to promote the league. But while he noted a wide “reach," the actual engagement from social media users was insufficient and should be seen as an area to explore in the coming season.
Match day attendances, he also said, were also considerably higher than the league projected.
“For those of us who have been around the Pro League (in 2018/2019) when it was ending, there were very few people in the stadia, so we had a very conservative expectation with respect to the crowd and (attendances this season) exceeded every expectation.
He said a FIFA-administed “post-mortem” identified areas in which the league made progress and others where it fell short.
[caption id="attachment_1043947" align="alignnone" width="1024"] TT Football Association normalisation committee CEO Robert Hadad speaks during the TT Premier Football League's awards ceremony, at the Trinidad Hilton, St Ann's, on Friday. - TT Premier Football League[/caption]
Among the areas identified were: the need to improve mar
