FORMER TT footballer Angus Eve and former national cricketer Andre Lawrence both hold the late sports administrator and broadcaster Anthony “Tony” Harford in high regard, saying his influence was pivotal in their success not only on the field, but off it.

Harford, a director at All Sports Promotions, helped develop TT and regional athletes by affording them opportunities to travel overseas.

Eve, a former national midfielder who has the most caps in the history of TT football, represented the national senior team from 1994-2005. Eve played for TT 117 times.

Eve, now head coach of the national senior team, first met Harford when he was still a child growing up in Carenage. Since his retirement from playing Eve has spent time as a coach, including at school, club and national level.

He has also done TV commentary, both locally and regionally.

“One of the key lessons that Tony would have taught me as a coach, as a budding professional, is to read more. (He said), ‘Expand on your vocabulary,’ because I was doing a lot of TV (commentary) at that point in time: I was doing the World Cup, I was doing stuff with SportsMax (in Jamaica).” Eve said Harford encouraged him to be a leader and to have integrity.

“The second one is about professionalism. Leadership always comes from the top. You (have) to set the tone. If you are early and on time all the time, then everybody else would follow…he spoke about integrity a lot, hence the reason he has been in the game for so long and in sport administration for so long and as a business person for so long and so respected for so long, because of the level of integrity that he had.”

Eve was a member of the national Under-20 team which competed at the 1991 FIFA World Youth (Under-20) Championships in Portugal. That team comprised many players who made names for themselves at senior level, including Dwight Yorke.

Around that time, Harford wanted Eve to remain focused, and gave him the opportunity to leave his home in Carenage and stay at a property he owned in Woodbrook.

“They had a guesthouse on Carlos Street (and as) a boy from Carenage, there were a lot of issues in those type of areas…it was thought that for a little while I should stay in a different environment.”

[caption id="attachment_928518" align="alignnone" width="785"] Veteran sport broadcaster Anthony Harford - Roger Jacob[/caption]

Eve said Harford played an integral part in his development.

The former national footballer said Harford would always give him advice when he was growing up playing for Carenage United. He may not have known the value of the advice then, but Eve certainly appreciated it more as he got older.

“When you are a younger person you don’t really understand when somebody gives you advice. You just feel like these old people just want to talk. It’s only when you get a little older you really appreciate more what the person was saying to you.”

Eve also got to witness how Harford operated as a sport a