Chairman Phillip follows CEO Skeene out Pro League door; uncertainty over 2018 season grows

Less than a week after Dexter Skeene announced his intention to leave the TT Pro League post he held for some 14 years, chairman Sam Phillip told Wired868 that he will be following the departing CEO through the exit door.

“Yes, I tendered my resignation earlier this week,” Phillip told Wired868, reluctant to comment further. “Dexter Skeene and they will do a press release tomorrow.”

Photo: San Juan Jabloteh attacker Julio Noel (foreground) tries to hold off a challenge from a Racing Club opponent during 2017 Caribbean Club Championship action at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on 14 May, 2017.
Jabloteh won 2-0.
(Courtesy Nicholas Bhajan/Wired868)

Phillip, a former Soca Warriors manager, lasted less than a year in the post, having taken over from long-standing chairman Larry Romany in June last year.

His departure follows Skeene’s resignation last Friday and is another blow to the Pro League, which is struggling to come to terms with life without the monthly TT$50,000 government subvention for clubs.


In a two-part series published earlier this week, Trinidad and Tobago international defender Yohance Marshall, former World Cup 2006 midfielder Densill “Bleeder” Theobald and a third player, who chose to remain anonymous, shared some of the issues caused by the current uncertainty.

There is still no start date for the 2018 season. Skeene, who is also the co-founder of SKHY, has promised to assist the League in any way he can but he is equally determined to take his leave in another three weeks’ time, when his 54th birthday rolls around.

Editor’s Note: See Wired868 tomorrow for full story on Sam Phillip’s resignation.

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About Roneil Walcott

Roneil Walcott is an avid sports fan and freelance reporter with a BA in Mass Communication from COSTAATT. Roneil is a former Harvard and St Mary's College cricketer who once had lofty aspirations of bringing joy to sport fans with the West Indies team. Now, his mission is to keep them on the edge of their seats with sharp commentary from off the playing field.

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30 comments

  1. Well, the Pro League clubs said they had no knowledge of that bail out and there was no mention of it in Cabinet yesterday. So I don’t know that there is any truth to the Guardian report.

  2. ..Not surprised. The Politics of Failure. We specialize in that. Meantime, Smith steadfastly refuses to even acknowledge official correspondence from the Super League. Six million more after the previous many tens of millions went down a deep, dark, bottom-less pit. And now talk of marketing. The Super League has twice requested a subsidy of some three hundred thousand dollars for inter-island travel and to maintain the integrity of what is a truly national league – without response from officialdom. But this is Trini. We also specialize in the Politics of Partisanship…

  3. When yuh see that Money done.Thats how things goes in T&T!!

  4. This whole thing shambolic…needs to be remedied soon

  5. SOS SOS calling Arthur suite get him lmmediately what’s going wrong I would like to know

  6. Old people say “Money done, friend done.”

  7. Yuh know? One ting dat has been conspicuously absent from the ongoing saga of the Pro League, is official comment from the TTFA. As a matter of fact, what is even worse is dat we haven’t even heard official word from the Pro League itself. No official unifying message. What de Board doing, scratching? ttproleague.com have no news about de state of de league, no news about Skeene’s departure, no news about Sam Phillip’s departure. Is de plan just to ignore it and it will go away?

  8. ..I repeat my offer to facilitate the entry of any TTPL club into the 2018 Super League..

  9. Have to know a dead horse when you see it.

  10. Pro League is unsustainable under the current conditions but it shouldn’t just dismantle and implode. Dialogue is quickly needed to see what and how much is salvageable and can be turned productive with minimal investment.

  11. The writing is not just on the wall, it also on paper.

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