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<SPAN style="COLOR: red"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13pt">Worrying times… Warriors’ near season finale.
By: Lasana Liburd (Express).</SPAN></SPAN>
Just over 4,000 patrons turned up at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on Saturday as the Trinidad and Tobago national football team took the field in its first home appearance since a heroic showing at the 2006 Germany World Cup tournament.
Four months ago, more than ten times that crowd turned out to see team captain Dwight Yorke and company walk through customs at the Piarco International Airport. And they were not doing ball juggling tricks either like those Brazilian show offs.
So where was the love?
An overcast evening seemed to do little to invoke any romance between even the Warriors and the dignitaries who did turn out.
President Maxwell Richards flew 14 hours to see the “Soca Warriors” play a historic qualifier in Bahrain and attended a luncheon with the players in Germany. But he was not led on to the field to greet the squad before kick off against St Vincent on Saturday. In fact, no one from the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) bothered with the traditional nod and handshake ceremony that seems to precede any match worth attending.
Presumably, Richards knew all the players by now and Yorke did not show any obvious signs of disorientation at the snub. Hey, so long as your boss pays you at the end of the month, right? Indeed.
No love lost on the field either. Two Vincentians were sent off for unsporting tackles and Trinidad and Tobago cruised to a 5-0 win.
National record goal scorer Stern John notched a double to take his tally to 67 goals from 99 caps while Chris Birchall, Yorke and substitute Kerry Baptiste contributed a goal apiece.
John was distinctly underwhelmed at the affair.
“I think we could have gotten better opposition,” John told the Trinidad Express. “We way past St Vincent… It is like we went back a few steps.”
But Saturday evening seemed to have little to do with St Vincent or even South Africa 2010. It had scarcely anything to do with football at all.
Four thousand plus spectators did not have World Cup qualification on their minds. They paid for front row seats to the disbandment of the popular “Soca Warriors” who, on Friday, announced plans for a mass retirement after a dispute with the T&TFF.
Yorke, in a prepared statement, suggested that the local football body was dishonest—at the least. T&TFF general secretary Richard Groden responded by labeling the players as delinquent and dishonourable. Rijsbergen tried to stand as still as possible so no one would ask his opinion.
It was not football; it was a reality show.
Would T&TFF special advisor Jack Warner take action to stop Yorke and friends from voting themselves out of the series? Might the players ask the fraud squad to investigate the T&TFF’s alarmingly inconsistent accounting?
Last December, the T&TFF announced a record US$11.8 million ($73,036,500 TT) clothing deal with Adidas. When it came time for the players’ cut, though, the T&TFF claimed that Adidas actually only offered US$292,683 ($1.8 million TT).
From just one deal, $71 million was missing. It is a good thing Warner is also FIFA’s Finance Committee deputy chairman or fans might have really been worried.
Forget Vincentian captain Wesley John, the fans in Port of Spain would have paid double the $100 and $200 admission fee to see Yorke and Warner whip out calculators and try to match financial statements.
Yorke was scheduled to leave Trinidad yesterday for England. Warner, according to the T&TFF, is still abroad at ports unknown.
The local football scene cannot seem to afford both of them. Synergy’s “Model Search” reality program is not nearly as gripping. <HR><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: red">Go figure.
… Warner mum as Warrior spirit fades.
By: Lasana Liburd (Express).</SPAN></SPAN>
$5,644.08 per player!
FIFA vice-president and Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&
By: Lasana Liburd (Express).</SPAN></SPAN>
Just over 4,000 patrons turned up at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on Saturday as the Trinidad and Tobago national football team took the field in its first home appearance since a heroic showing at the 2006 Germany World Cup tournament.
Four months ago, more than ten times that crowd turned out to see team captain Dwight Yorke and company walk through customs at the Piarco International Airport. And they were not doing ball juggling tricks either like those Brazilian show offs.
So where was the love?
An overcast evening seemed to do little to invoke any romance between even the Warriors and the dignitaries who did turn out.
President Maxwell Richards flew 14 hours to see the “Soca Warriors” play a historic qualifier in Bahrain and attended a luncheon with the players in Germany. But he was not led on to the field to greet the squad before kick off against St Vincent on Saturday. In fact, no one from the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) bothered with the traditional nod and handshake ceremony that seems to precede any match worth attending.
Presumably, Richards knew all the players by now and Yorke did not show any obvious signs of disorientation at the snub. Hey, so long as your boss pays you at the end of the month, right? Indeed.
No love lost on the field either. Two Vincentians were sent off for unsporting tackles and Trinidad and Tobago cruised to a 5-0 win.
National record goal scorer Stern John notched a double to take his tally to 67 goals from 99 caps while Chris Birchall, Yorke and substitute Kerry Baptiste contributed a goal apiece.
John was distinctly underwhelmed at the affair.
“I think we could have gotten better opposition,” John told the Trinidad Express. “We way past St Vincent… It is like we went back a few steps.”
But Saturday evening seemed to have little to do with St Vincent or even South Africa 2010. It had scarcely anything to do with football at all.
Four thousand plus spectators did not have World Cup qualification on their minds. They paid for front row seats to the disbandment of the popular “Soca Warriors” who, on Friday, announced plans for a mass retirement after a dispute with the T&TFF.
Yorke, in a prepared statement, suggested that the local football body was dishonest—at the least. T&TFF general secretary Richard Groden responded by labeling the players as delinquent and dishonourable. Rijsbergen tried to stand as still as possible so no one would ask his opinion.
It was not football; it was a reality show.
Would T&TFF special advisor Jack Warner take action to stop Yorke and friends from voting themselves out of the series? Might the players ask the fraud squad to investigate the T&TFF’s alarmingly inconsistent accounting?
Last December, the T&TFF announced a record US$11.8 million ($73,036,500 TT) clothing deal with Adidas. When it came time for the players’ cut, though, the T&TFF claimed that Adidas actually only offered US$292,683 ($1.8 million TT).
From just one deal, $71 million was missing. It is a good thing Warner is also FIFA’s Finance Committee deputy chairman or fans might have really been worried.
Forget Vincentian captain Wesley John, the fans in Port of Spain would have paid double the $100 and $200 admission fee to see Yorke and Warner whip out calculators and try to match financial statements.
Yorke was scheduled to leave Trinidad yesterday for England. Warner, according to the T&TFF, is still abroad at ports unknown.
The local football scene cannot seem to afford both of them. Synergy’s “Model Search” reality program is not nearly as gripping. <HR><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: red">Go figure.
… Warner mum as Warrior spirit fades.
By: Lasana Liburd (Express).</SPAN></SPAN>
$5,644.08 per player!
FIFA vice-president and Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&
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