“There is no need for con­cern.”

This, from T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTFA) pres­i­dent Kieron Ed­wards, as­sur­ing mem­bers of the ref­er­ee’s fra­ter­ni­ty amidst re­ports of a strike soon.

Guardian Me­dia Sports was told that TTFA ref­er­ees have been plead­ing for out­stand­ing pay­ments across mul­ti­ple com­pe­ti­tions. Ac­cord­ing to of­fi­cials, they have not been com­pen­sat­ed for their work for 2024, which in­cludes the T&T Pre­mier Foot­ball League (TTPFL) that com­pris­es Tier I and Tier II from Jan­u­ary to June.

It is un­der­stood that pay­ments are al­so out­stand­ing for the on­go­ing 2025 TTPFL Tier I and Tier II sea­sons for the months of Feb­ru­ary to May.

Ac­cord­ing to of­fi­cials, “Ref­er­ees have al­so re­port­ed that they are yet to re­ceive com­pen­sa­tion for all Zon­al com­pe­ti­tions, the G League, and match­es spon­sored by Re­pub­lic Bank for the Re­pub­lic Bank 2025 sea­son.”

The group, which in­cludes some of the coun­try’s high-pro­file of­fi­cials, is call­ing on the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties to ad­dress the ar­rears prompt­ly and em­pha­sis­ing the im­pact the de­lays will have on their liveli­hoods and com­mit­ment to the game.

Guardian Me­dia Sports tried to con­tact Os­mond Down­er, chair­man of the ref­er­ees’ com­mit­tee and vice pres­i­dent of the TTFA, but a call to his cell­phone did not re­ceive a re­sponse.

Ed­wards, though, said he has ded­i­cat­ed this week to iron­ing out the is­sues with the ref­er­ees, but based on what he has seen so far, it is not to be con­cerned about.

The T&T foot­ball boss said: “There is noth­ing close to a strike, so where is this com­ing from? There is an out­stand­ing pay­ment is­sue, which will be dealt with, but there is no lev­el for a strike. So some ref­er­ees reached out be­cause it is com­ing to the end of the sea­son, but there are some out­stand­ing pay­ments for this sea­son.

“About two months are out­stand­ing, which is nor­mal in terms of ref­er­ee­ing and how we pay ref­er­ees, but they knew the sea­son was com­ing to an end, and they want­ed to find out what was hap­pen­ing with last year’s mon­ey. So, they reached out to the head of the ref­er­ee’s de­part­ment, they reached out to Down­er, who then reached out to me, and I post­poned the Eng­land trip to deal with these things this week.

“So, by Tues­day, I would have a clear word in terms of what’s go­ing on with of­fi­cials, and then I will make an of­fi­cial state­ment,” Ed­wards told Guardian Me­dia, yes­ter­day.

Ac­cord­ing to Ed­wards, the on­ly rea­son they’re hav­ing these is­sues is be­cause of the re­cent gen­er­al elec­tions, and things are not to­tal­ly set­tled as yet.

“The Sports Com­pa­ny of T&T will soon get its board and every­thing will be cool, so it’s not that much of an is­sue,” Ed­wards said.

Quizzed on the amount owed to the ref­er­ees, Ed­wards said he in­struct­ed the fi­nance de­part­ment of the TTFA to have that in­for­ma­tion ready for him to­day, and he will fig­ure out how they move for­ward.