THE TRINIDAD and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) has agreed to drop the name “Soca Warriors” from its website, and subsequently discontinue the use of the name.
This decision was made unanimously in a recent Board of Directors meeting and comes on the heels of a pre-action protocol letter issued by local sports broadcaster Selwyn Melville to the local body over its use.
Melville has claimed he coined the term “Soca Warriors” 18 years ago and is seeking US$30 million for its use by the local football organisation.
A month ago, the TTFA denied officially switching the team’s nickname from “Soca Warriors” to “Red Army”, which was used in reference to the national team, in a few media releases.
According to the minutes to the meeting held by the TTFA recently, a copy of which was obtained by Newsday, members of the local governing body for football made it clear, “the TTFA’s preference is not to jointly own the name (Mr Melville already knows that).” They outlined that “Soca Warriors” is a name and the name and brand are two things. Looking forward to the post-Soca Warriors era, the TTFA agreed to re-brand the national team and “the TTFA has received one estimate for re-branding, it will cost approximately $1.7 million”.
The TTFA, after the discussions, decided to remove forthwith “Soca Warriors” from its website. However, it noted, “if the press wants to use it, (the) TTFA cannot control that (and) no statement is to be made by (the) TTFA”.
Efforts to contact TTFA president David John-Williams for a comment yesterday proved futile.