FORMER Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) special advisor Jack Austin Warner has wished the 13 members of the 2006 Soca Warriors well, after Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced yesterday that the players will be receiving the sum of US$1.3 million owed to them following a prolonged bonus pay dispute with the local governing body (now called TT Football Association).
In a media release, Warner, who also served as vice-president of FIFA as well as president of Concaf and CFU, said, “I want to take this opportunity to wish them well and to hope that this finally brings closure to this matter.”
Warner allegedly made the infamous promise to the national team, dubbed “the Soca Warriors” after the squad’s goalless draw against Sweden in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.
Yesterday, Warner wrote, “this group of footballers who played three matches in the 2006 World Cup and who never scored a goal nor win a match and who now stand to benefit from the Prime Minister’s benevolent gesture received $20 million from the Patrick Manning administration, $7 million from FIFA, $4 million from the TTFF, $6 million from Jack Warner through the courts of Trinidad and Tobago and now $1.3 million US from the People’s Partnership Government; a total sum of close to $50 million and this excludes gifts from private organisations like CLICO and others.”
The former Government Minister continued, “it is my sincere wish that this is the end of this story and that the furniture and the archival material, which the TTFA lost when this team of footballers levied on the TTFF, will now be returned to it.”
Warner also called on the Prime Minister “to demonstrate that this is truly benevolence and not Public Relations to lift the flagging image of her Minister of Sport (Anil Roberts)” by saving the home of former TTFF president Oliver Camps.
He revealed, “(in 2006 he) signed a promissory note of $480,000 US, on behalf of the TTFF, in order to procure the services of Wim Rijsbergen as coach of the national team.
“The TTFF has been unable to raise the money and now Al Roberts’ firm, father of the Minister of Sport (Anil Roberts), is now moving to levy on (Camps). If he cannot raise the money he will lose it by September 2014, if not before.”