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LESS than 48 hours after making a decision to withdraw from the 2025/26 TT Premier Football League (TTPFL) season, current league leaders Prisons FC had a significant change of heart and will now be fulfilling their obligation to continue playing this season.
The move from Prisons was confirmed by TTPFL acting CEO Yale Antoine on November 7, and he also said that Prisons’ previously scheduled matchup with Club Sando should go ahead as planned on November 9.
Via a Facebook post on November 8, Prisons coach Dexter Cyrus said his team will continue their participation in the ongoing TTPFL tier one season after an agreement was reached between the club and the TT Football Association (TTFA) board.
“We always wanted to be able to play. A face-to-face meeting was held between the TTFA president (Kieron Edwards) and his board and Prisons FC’s director of football and manager,” Cyrus’ post read.
“Conversations were had and an amicable agreement was reached by both parties. Prisons FC are back in tier one and will continue their participation in the 2025/26. The Most High be praised.”
Late on November 7, Prisons’ club president Jude Gordon wrote to Antoine to inform the latter that Prisons would be reversing their earlier decision to pull out of the league because of financial challenges and a drop in the subvention distributed to clubs. The TTPFL tier one club representative, Phillip Fraser was also part of the discussions that led to Prisons’ newfound desire to continue the season.
Gordon issued an apology on behalf of Prisons and said that misunderstandings do happen in relationships, but mature parties find a way to come up with solutions.
Antoine said he was pleased a resolution could be reached after sound dialogue and thanked Prisons’ management and technical staff for their cooperation towards finding the best solution.
Speaking to Newsday on November 8, Gordon didn’t go into the specifics and terms of the agreement with the TTFA, and simply said, “we wanted to get a resolution and we found it.”
When asked what the resolution was, Gordon replied, “The resolution is that we’re playing...at the end of the day, everything was amicably resolved.”
When pressed further to ascertain if Prisons will receive an increase in their subvention for the 2025/26 season, Gordon reiterated, “Everything was amicably resolved.”
He assured the team is in the TTPFL for the long haul and will be playing their fixture this weekend, as well as the remainder of the season.
Initially, Prisons’ pull-out stemmed from what Cyrus called a drastic deterioration in the financial subvention provided by the TTFA in recent seasons. For the inaugural 2023 season, he said Prisons received $250,000 for a four-month period, with that figure dropping to $129,000 over a seven-month period for the subsequent 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons. For the ongoing season, the Prisons coach said they are being allocated $175,000 over seven months.
For the current campaign, Prisons have had a makeover as Cyrus said they have just one prison officer playing for the team, with the remainder of the squad being civilians. According to Cyrus, the team took on this new look heading into the season based on promises made to them during discussions with the TTFA in the pre-season. Those discussions allegedly led the Prisons staff to believe that their subvention would be increased based on the number of civilians playing with the team at present.
Up to press time, it was unclear if Prisons had received reassurance that their subvention for the ongoing season would be increased.
Prisons are scheduled to play their next league game against Sando at the Mahaica Sporting Complex in Point Fortin from 6 pm on November 9. Prisons have six points from two games and head the table on goal difference, with the third-placed Sando also on six points.
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