WAL­TER AL­IBEY

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

wal­ter.al­ibey@guardian.co.tt

Every­one is to blame for the match-fix­ing scan­dal which has rocked T&T foot­ball over the past two weeks.

​At least so says Car­lyle Mitchell, a for­mer Joe Pub­lic, Cale­do­nia AIA and na­tion­al de­fend­er, who ad­mit­ted to be­ing ap­proached by match-fix­ers dur­ing his play­ing days. Point­ing to play­ers, the T&T Pre­mier Foot­ball League (TTPFL), the clubs, and the style of man­age­ment at the club lev­el, Mitchell ad­mit­ted to a glossier T&T Pro League fi­nan­cial­ly in the past. That league was part­ly man­aged by for­mer FI­FA vice pres­i­dent and Con­ca­caf pres­i­dent Jack Warn­er, where no play­er re­ceived less than $6,000 month­ly, en­abling them to go to the banks to re­ceive loans or mort­gages.

​Say­ing that while play­ers are ac­count­able for them­selves, Mitchell not­ed the pack­ages be­ing of­fered, cou­pled with hefty fines, opened the door for play­ers to seek sur­vival by oth­er means.

“Match fix­ing is a thing that hap­pened not to­day, or yes­ter­day, it hap­pened a long time ago, but it's more vis­i­ble to the league now. You un­der­stand what I'm say­ing? The rea­son be­ing that back in my day, it was no Joe Pub­lic. You couldn't come to, no Joe Pub­lic play­ers with match fix­ing, be­cause it's the type of mon­ey we were get­ting back in 2008, 2009,” Mitchell said.

"No match fix­ing, peo­ple couldn't come to us, be­cause we get a prop­er salary, $10,000 up. You un­der­stand? So, now, where the League, the state the League is in, and the state some teams are in, when play­ers get $1,500, $2,000, and then we start to get even more in­come. And these play­ers, now I'm not sid­ing with the match-fix­ing thing, but they're show­ing how the match-fix­ing is com­ing about.

"I am against match fix­ing, be­cause it's a dis­grace to the game, you un­der­stand? But when you want to pay play­ers that type of mon­ey, and then you don't even give them any mon­ey on time, you leave them with no oth­er choice but to find some­one else to give, to get mon­ey.

"And, they're tar­get­ing the weak­er teams. And that was be­fore they start­ed tar­get­ing the weak­er teams, but now they're tar­get­ing the whole league, be­cause no­body is get­ting paid, so they're tar­get­ing the whole league."

​On­ly on Mon­day night, a meet­ing was held be­tween the 12 par­tic­i­pat­ing teams, their rep­re­sen­ta­tive Phillip Fras­er, and of­fi­cials of the TTPFL to dis­cuss the con­clu­sion of the League, which will see one team de­mot­ed to Tier 2 while the top Tier 2 team is pro­mot­ed, as well as un­paid wages for Feb­ru­ary and go­ing in­to March.

​When the meet­ing end­ed, the clubs were no clos­er to de­ter­min­ing when their month­ly sub­ven­tions would be paid, as no one from the TTFA was in at­ten­dance. Jame­son Rigues, a vice pres­i­dent of the TTFA, said the TTFA is not a prof­itable or­gan­i­sa­tion and has to wait for fund­ing from the gov­ern­ment and oth­er en­ti­ties to pay its bills.

​This com­ing week­end, the League will draw to a con­clu­sion with de­fend­ing cham­pi­on De­fence Force Elite (49 points) set to face AC Port-of-Spain at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo, Port-of-Spain while sec­ond-place Club San­do FC (48 points) will come up against FC Ea­gles at the same venue on the same day.

​Last week­end, how­ev­er, video footage be­gan cir­cu­lat­ing show­ing proof of match-fix­ing. This, co­in­ci­den­tal­ly, was fol­lowed by news that FI­FA of­fi­cials, act­ing on al­le­ga­tions of match-fix­ing from the past few years, en­tered the coun­try to in­ves­ti­gate.

Guardian Me­dia Sports has since learned that play­ers from cer­tain clubs, in­clud­ing a pre­vi­ous League win­ner, were in­ter­viewed as part of the in­ves­ti­ga­tion. In 2019, T&T play­ers Keyeno Thomas and Kar­lon Mur­ray were among eight play­ers banned for life for match-fix­ing. The oth­ers were Hellings Mwaka­sun­gu­la (Malawi), Ibrahim Karg­bo (Sier­ra Leone), Kudzanai Sha­ba (Zim­bab­we), Séï­dath Tchomogo (Benin), Leonel Duarte (Cu­ba), and Mo­ham­mad Sal­im Is­rafeel Ko­his­tani (Afghanistan).

​Mitchell said he is afraid that the League and the play­ers could suf­fer a sim­i­lar fate if the sport’s world gov­ern­ing body finds any in­di­vid­ual or club guilty of match-fix­ing.

"I watched a cou­ple of games this sea­son, and you could see some bla­tant things hap­pen­ing. It goes to show that play­ers lack re­spect for the league and lack re­spect for them­selves as well. But the league has to take blame, and the play­ers have to take blame as well, be­cause you can't ex­pect a man to train, and then two months, you can't get a salary. So, how are you go­ing to sur­vive? What is sup­posed to be the means of liv­ing?” he said.