T&T Olympic Committee president Brian Lewis emphasised that constitutional reform to reflect good governance principles, like one member one vote, would assist a long way in bringing sport in this country to a commercially viable sport industry.
Lewis said while the potential is huge, a critical success factor is strong sport governance systems and procedures.
“Many of the existing Constitutions under which national sport organisations and national governing bodies operate need to be modernised and amended to include basic universal principles of good governance,” Lewis said.
Lewis added the Ministry of Sport, Sport Company of T&T and the T&T Olympic Committee( TTOC) must cooperate and work together to foster, facilitate and enable the necessary changes and reform.
“We can’t sweep the issue of poor sports governance under the carpet. It’s not about making cosmetic changes. There is need for reform.
“Some sports are operating in an undemocratic manner and aren’t conducting their affairs in a transparent and accountable manner.”
Lewis reminded that at their 67th AGM last April, the TTOC ushered in constitutional changes when they successfully moved a motion to stop outgoing executive members from having an automatic right to vote.
That motion received the unanimous support of the national sport organisations and the TTOC executive Committee members in attendance back then.
To be eligible to vote at the TTOC AGM, starting from the 2017 term, outgoing elected executive Committee members must now be a duly accredited delegate representing a financial and voting member affiliate.
“The change removing the automatic right to vote is a significant one with respect to sport governance and the notion of free and fair election of sport leaders,” said Lewis.
“The ultimate victims of bad governance and badly structured sport bodies are the athletes, children, youth and young people and the best interest and sustainable development of sport.”
“Constitutional reform is a priority in T&T Sport,” he concluded.
Experienced Trinidadian football administrator Richard Groden has been appointed general secretary of the embattled Guyana Football Federation (GFF). The development was announced through a letter from CONCACAF’s Normalisation Committee to associations on Wednesday. Groden will take up the position from March 2 and will have as his assistant local business executive Diedre Davis. She will take over as general secretary following Groden’s tenure.
The decision of Edmonton to withdraw from the bidding process to host the Commonwealth Games in 2022 is a reflection of the loss of status and impaired relevance of the Commonwealth Games.
FIFA Presidential candidate Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein says the accusations that Sepp Blatter's legal adviser altered a key report into reform recommendation are "deeply worrying" and that the Michael Garcia report could also have been interfered with.
The allegations surround a report which Blatter commissioned to Swiss professor Mark Pieth back in 2011 in order to repair some of the damage done by a miasma of corruption allegations during the Swiss' tenure as head of world football's governing body.
A redacted version of the American's report is due to be released later this year.
The potential for a commercially viable Trinidad and Tobago sport industry is huge. However a critical success factor is strong sport governance systems and procedures.
Edmonton tonight withdrew its bid to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games because of economic problems caused by the drop in worldwide oil prices, claiming that they wanted to focus on 2026 instead.
Edmonton 2022 notified the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) earlier today it would not be submitting a bid but is instead shifting its focus to 2026.
Edmonton had been in the final stages of putting together its final Bid Book which was due to be presented to the CGF at a special ceremony in London on March 2.