The Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation kindly accepted a presentation of footballs and training wear from Shell Trinidad Limited at their Atlantic Avenue offices on Tuesday.
The contribution was made by Andrew Hart, country representative for Shell Trinidad to Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation President Oliver Camps with General Secretary Richard Groden as well as Shell head of distributors for East and West Caribbean Victoria Singh also present at the handing over of the 150 odd Nike footballs. Hart explained that his company felt the urge to offer their assistance in whatever small way. “What happened is that we had a promotion sometime ago where we brought in these footballs and kits and we felt it would be appropriate now to hand over some of it to the Football Federation. We thought it would definitely be a neat contribution towards helping in whatever development and preparations that may be taking place," Hart told TTFF Media.
“We are hoping that they can come in handy for the national teams in their preparations for matches which would be keeping in what our hopes are for the development of the sport.” Hart also commented on Shell’s support for sport in the region.
“Generally Shell has always been supportive of sports in the region dating back to the Shell Shield cricket competition and then we went into the Shell Caribbean Cup which was a football initiative for a few years. People would also be aware that we have gone back into cricket now in a different form, this time being the cricket academy in Grenada. We are always active especially where youth will be involved and even where football is not our main focus right now because of our sponsorship of the cricket academy, getting more involved is always a possibility for the future,” Hart said, adding that Shell is very much active in Trinidad having been here for the past 95 years. Currently their focus is on the manufacturing of lubricants for export throughout Caricom. He boasted that they manufacture and sell close to 120,000 barrels of engine oils per year with distribution done through Laughlin and De Gannes Limited.
“We are always looking for other opportunities of business,” Hart said. Camps, who was manager of the T&T senior team which won the first ever Shell Cup tournament in 1989, was grateful for Shell’s contribution.
“We have been associated with Shell before dating back to 1989 with the Caribbean Cup. I would like to thank them on behalf of the TTFF for their contribution and we can assure them that it will be well used in preparing our teams as well as being used in our youth coaching clinics,” said Camps.