By Newsday
Copyright newsday
THE EDITOR: Maracas United Football Club is a community-based sporting organisation that plays adult competitive football in the Eastern Football Association (EFA)’s league. This competition and others like it form the backbone of football in TT. We believe that if our community football teams are doing well, our professional league will improve and by extension our national teams will benefit.
The club is an amateur club that depends mostly on the benefaction of its members to fund our season, as is the case with most community teams. We often cut, mark, paint, maintain and fix (at least try to fix) the issues at the recreation grounds that we play on ourselves.
We are very happy with the recent commitment from the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation (TPRC) chairman for financial and other support to the Arima North Secondary School. However, we also see this gesture as a slap in the face of every community team that cannot train or play home games on their community recreation ground because community grounds all over the region are not being maintained properly by the corporation.
We see the financial support and commitment to lend resources to a secondary school as an indignity since most of the facilities at recreation grounds are in dire need of repair or upgrade.
Almost every time we ask for assistance to address issues at the Maracas Recreation Ground the response is that the TPRC does not have the resources to help “at this time.” All of the restrooms at this ground are “out of order.” No restrooms available for our players, their mothers, sisters, daughters, girlfriends and wives who come to support their community team.
The Secondary School Football League and the teams that play in its premier division get a lot attention during their short season. So we understand the motivation for such a gesture. However, we would like to remind the chairman of the TPRC of the real and practical importance of community football leagues and the impact they have in the fight against crime and other societal ills in the country.
Maracas United Football Club was created to promote sports, in particular football, as a tool in the fight against crime and to effectively build resilience of at-risk youth in Maracas Valley and environs. There are on average 32 players on the club’s team at the moment and most of the young men are between 18 and 35 years old.
Again, we have no problem with the premise of assisting a secondary school’s football programme in the region, but it would be remiss of us if we did not point out the irony of such a gesture in light of the present circumstances at the TPRC.
If financially the TPRC was able to walk and chew at the same time, then there would be no need for this letter. However, we believe this is not the case and that in this instance the chairman has gone for the spectacular when it is very clear the TPRC can barely handle the mundane.
We are simply asking that regional corporation be more thoughtful on the issues affecting its stakeholders and that some priority be placed on getting much needed funds and/or resources to address the problems that are plaguing community grounds throughout the region.
COREY M SELVON
Maracas United FC
