T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTFA), in part­ner­ship with Con­ca­caf, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, and the Na­tion­al Pri­ma­ry Schools Foot­ball League, of­fi­cial­ly launched the Con­ca­caf Big­ger Game Acad­e­my at the TTFA Tech­ni­cal Cen­tre in Cou­va on Sat­ur­day.

The pro­gramme will reach up to 40 pri­ma­ry schools across T&T, com­bin­ing grass­roots foot­ball de­vel­op­ment with life skills ed­u­ca­tion. Over the next six weeks, schools will par­tic­i­pate in foot­ball fes­ti­vals, struc­tured train­ing ses­sions, and work­shops de­signed to de­vel­op both tech­ni­cal abil­i­ty and per­son­al growth through sport.

Present at Sat­ur­day’s launch were TTFA vice pres­i­dent Jame­son Rigues, Navin Har­ry, pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer (PRO) of the Na­tion­al Pri­ma­ry Schools League, Lyn­dell Hoyte-Sanchez, head of com­mu­ni­ty sport at Sport Com­pa­ny of T&T (SporTT), for­mer na­tion­al play­er An­sil El­cock, Ath­let­ics As­sis­tant in the Sport­ing Schools Pro­gramme un­der SporTT, Kevin Mc­gre­skin, FI­FA tal­ent scout and Jinelle James, TTFA Di­rec­tor of Women’s Foot­ball.

As part of the open­ing week­end, coach­es are re­ceiv­ing train­ing work­shops fo­cused on: The Role of the Coach; Coach­ing Method­ol­o­gy; Plan­ning a Ses­sion Work­shop; and Big­ger Game Ba­sic Ex­er­cis­es on the Field.

Fol­low­ing the train­ing, the pro­gramme will fea­ture foot­ball fes­ti­vals in­volv­ing pri­ma­ry school teams, be­gin­ning at the Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um in To­ba­go on Mon­day, and con­tin­u­ing at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um in Cou­va on Tues­day.

Con­ca­caf Pres­i­dent Vic­tor Mon­tagliani high­light­ed the Con­fed­er­a­tion’s long-term vi­sion for the pro­gramme, say­ing: “Con­ca­caf is proud to part­ner with the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion to launch the Big­ger Game Acad­e­my in both Trinidad and To­ba­go. This ini­tia­tive re­flects our shared com­mit­ment to us­ing foot­ball as a ve­hi­cle for pos­i­tive change by build­ing tech­ni­cal skills on the pitch, and im­part­ing life val­ues such as team­work, re­spect, and re­silience.

"By ex­pand­ing ac­cess to struc­tured play and so­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty pro­grammes, we are in­vest­ing in the next gen­er­a­tion and en­sur­ing that foot­ball con­tin­ues to be a force for uni­ty and op­por­tu­ni­ty across our re­gion.”

TTFA pres­i­dent Kieron Ed­wards em­pha­sised the im­por­tance of the ini­tia­tive, say­ing: “This is a proud mo­ment for T&T foot­ball. Through Con­ca­caf’s Big­ger Game ini­tia­tive, we are able to pro­vide young boys and girls with not on­ly ac­cess to play the sport but al­so with the tools to learn valu­able life lessons that will serve them well be­yond the field. We thank Con­ca­caf, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, and the Na­tion­al Pri­ma­ry Schools Foot­ball League for part­ner­ing with us to in­vest in our fu­ture gen­er­a­tion.”

The Big­ger Game strat­e­gy was launched by Con­ca­caf in 2023 to cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties for foot­ball and so­cial de­vel­op­ment across its 41 Mem­ber As­so­ci­a­tions. It is built on three pil­lars: Ac­cess to Play, Di­ver­si­ty and In­clu­sion, and Sus­tain­able Growth and Health.

The TTFA’s im­ple­men­ta­tion of Big­ger Game rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant step for­ward in align­ing grass­roots foot­ball de­vel­op­ment with ed­u­ca­tion and so­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, en­sur­ing that foot­ball in T&T con­tin­ues to grow both on and off the pitch.

More in­for­ma­tion on Big­ger Game

Big­ger Game’s mis­sion is to use the pow­er and reach of foot­ball to pro­vide de­vel­op­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties which ben­e­fit com­mu­ni­ties across Con­ca­caf’s 41 mem­ber as­so­ci­a­tions. The pro­grams fo­cus on coach­ing, ed­u­ca­tion, health, and com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment, lever­ag­ing foot­ball as a ve­hi­cle for pos­i­tive change.

Key fo­cus ar­eas in­clude: In­te­grat­ing Foot­ball for So­cial Change and Con­ca­caf W Pro­gram­ming in­to tour­na­ments; Build­ing com­mu­ni­ty part­ner­ships through lo­cal en­gage­ment ac­tiv­i­ties; Cre­at­ing Vol­un­teer Ed­u­ca­tion Pack­ages to em­pow­er lead­ers and men­tors; De­liv­er­ing Safe­guard­ing Cours­es and Poli­cies to make foot­ball safer for chil­dren and young peo­ple; Im­ple­ment­ing dis­as­ter re­sponse plans to sup­port com­mu­ni­ties in times of need; Am­pli­fy­ing the voic­es of pro­gram par­tic­i­pants and shar­ing best prac­tices.

A spe­cial fo­cus is placed on women and girls through the Con­ca­caf W strat­e­gy, launched in 2019, to ex­pand growth op­por­tu­ni­ties for women’s foot­ball. Big­ger Game ini­tia­tives are de­signed to in­spire in­clu­sion, health, and re­silience as Con­ca­caf heads to­ward the FI­FA World Cup 2026 and be­yond.