"The willingness to not bypass illusion is very important... We come to see the true nature of things by seeing through the illusory nature of things... We don't come to clarity by avoiding confusion." Adyashanti (American spiritual teacher and author).
We live in a country of illusions. Daily we negotiate a conjured reality with which those who exercise dominion over our social institutions, including politics and the media, seek to seduce or to batter us. The boldest illusionists attempt a narrative which seeks to convince us that what we are told is more real than all we know from our own direct experience. And this, we the people allow, wittingly and unwittingly with our intellectual and moral laziness, and our feigned and self-enforced ignorance. Partisan loyalty, self-interest and fear of contradictions provide fertile ground for the illusionists who abound.
The art of illusion is about creating deception to influence the perception of reality. It blends psychology and showmanship, the objective being to confuse the audience. The more gullible the audience, the more compliant it is, and the more willing it is to accept deception. And, as elsewhere in national life, our football is subject to the scripting of illusionists.
THE ILLUSION OF TTFA DEMOCRACY
TTFA will next have an election in 2028, and there will be much at stake. Football languishes under an illusory democracy that is really the dictatorship of the Executive Committee. This is rooted in and sanctified by TTFA's FIFA-imposed and -approved Statutes (2024), which facilitate and even ensure institutional capture by TTFA's Executive. Under its regulations, Congress, constitutionally due once annually, is the Association's supreme, most authoritative body. TTFA's members may call an extraordinary Congress, but they evidently do not care enough to do so despite all that is patently wrong within the Association. The membership has willingly ceded its power to the Executive Committee, which runs the Association without "external" (read membership) interference while members numbly await the quadrennial ritual of auto-redundancy in 2028.
The political effect of having only one membership meeting a year transcends the executive's unmolested monopoly on power. It also severely restricts the opportunity for an alternative leadership to emerge because there is no legitimate, common forum for internal debate or challenge to the status quo. The resulting capture of institutional power and resources allows those who rule to co-opt real and potential opposition. With regard to democratic discourse and membership influence, there is little, if any, difference between the dictatorship of FIFA's Normalisation Committee and that of the current Executive Committee. Indeed, it is only a few executives who dominate the association, given that the 2025 Congress was asked by the committee to adopt an amendment to the statutes allowing the committee to remove executives who are absent for four consecutive meetings – a sure sign of dysfunction. The practical consequence of this situation is the stifling of rank-and-file ideas and popular decision-making energy that could transform the Association. Democracy limited to a quadrennial vote is an illusion for a broad TTFA membership not caring or brave enough to demand better.
THE ILLUSION OF GOOD GOVERNANCE AND CARE
Shawn Cooper. The name screams loud denial of any TTFA pretence at good governance. Cooper's safeguarding case has been well ventilated in public and social media, yet since he was banned by TTFA from youth coaching in March 2025 there has been no movement in his case - an astonishing abuse of power by TTFA. But maladministration is endemic in the Association, by far surpassing Cooper. Oh yes, the president talks a good game. Indeed, he won the TTFA presidency on a platform of promised good governance, transparency and democracy. In December 2024 Edwards crowed, “One of our primary focuses this year was reinforcing governance and operational efficiency... We successfully established several standing committees... which now play pivotal roles in driving professionalism and accountability within our organisation.” Evidence to the contrary abounds though - poor administration of the Premier Football League (with one team threatening to withdraw mere days after 2025 Tier 1 kickoff and Tier 2 kick off being delayed "due to a number of pending administrative matters", according to a TTFA statement); chronic mishandling of national youth team logistics (the most recent example being the stranding of the Women's U17 team without accommodation after they assembled for a camp); the hurried decision to organize a national youth competition by the end of January in order to beat a FIFA financing deadline (having been caught with their pants down after Republic Bank suspended its Republic Cup and then starting the competition to immediately go on a one month break to try to organize it); talk of a strategic plan that has been discussed with no one; anonymous committees that may or may not be working; and, after two years in office, an absence of developmental infrastructure – grassroots, youth, women's programmes, and a paralysed coach education programme. I could go on.
THE ILLUSION OF DEVELOPMENT AND PROGRESS
Words are a very powerful tool in the arsenal of the illusionist, and TTFA uses key words – "premier", "pro", "elite", "academy", "pathway" – to convince the public of its work. TTFA President Kieron Edwards said recently, "We're creating the clear pathway. We're working with international bodies in terms of bringing investment into football in Trinidad and Tobago. We're sitting with the government in terms of really ensuring that we can make football a career – and that has to be the goal." What? Why focus on youth players "going pro" when, in the best of circumstances, it is a miniscule percentage of youth players anywhere (globally estimated at 0.012%) who are good enough and have the opportunity to do so? Are we to believe that TTFA could create a broad pathway to professional football when it cannot even run the local league efficiently? Why are they not talking about structures that provide social and academic support for youth players in schools, clubs and national teams that would address their vastly better chances of earning a livelihood outside of football? This issue of professional football in Trinidad and Tobago has been debated ad nauseam for thirty years. Where are we with that? Alongside that, we have heard about TTFA sponsoring an SSFL girls' "premiership" since 2024. Do we need that when SSFL competitions suffer from apparently insurmountable administrative and logistical problems and, worse, have lost all sporting integrity? The league itself is now a farce, with promotion/relegation and junior finals being played in January with depleted and unprepared teams. An organised TTFA would be demanding administrative improvements from SSFL, not seeking to fund joint disarray.
One of the techniques used by magicians to create illusions is called "misdirection" – distracting the audience's attention. An endless stream of TTFA media statements about the personal activity of its personnel in international circles does not equate to institutional progress. Another main element of TTFA's illusion-making is international matches, with hyped-up friendlies and talk of foreign-born players when nothing is being done for local players. The Association has consistently bet all its marbles on an international breakthrough to dazzle the public and mask the multitude of sins of commission and omission on the domestic front. Meantime, our Women's U20 team (2020) remains the last national youth team of either gender to play in a CONCACAF final tournament, losing at the quarter-final stage.
The illusion-making fails. Those who are brave enough to open their eyes can see. The truth is the emperor has no clothes. And TTFA's membership must bear the cross of responsibility for this sad state of affairs. They have two years to fix it because, ultimately, people always get the government they deserve.
POST SCRIPT: AFCON MOROCCO 2025
A final word on AFCON Morocco 2025. Senegal beat hosts Morocco 1:0 in a dramatic final, but the chaos that erupted on and off the field after the hosts were awarded a contentious penalty in the dying seconds of regulation time (which was missed) did a huge disservice to African football. The tournament had been exemplary to that point and the football had been interesting, at times captivating. The distasteful scenes that halted the final match undermined the progressive image of the African game presented by the tournament. Senegal's coach has correctly been suspended, but the faux horror and pompous condemnation in some quarters at the turn of events are laughable. When Europeans fight inside and outside their stadia, no one condemns all of European football, yet some condemn African football now. Still, the genie is out of the bottle. The United Nations has one hundred and ninety members and one hundred and seventy of them, not including Trinidad and Tobago, viewed the tournament. Hopefully, the 2027 tournament will be aired locally.
Editor’s note: The views expressed in the preceding article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of any organisation in which he is a stakeholder.
