As this country commemorates the 21st anniversary today of the national football team’s painful loss to the United States in a 1989 World Cup qualifier, there is word that the coach of that team, Everald “Gally” Cummings, has taken the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) and its special adviser, Austin Jack Warner, before the Equal Opportunity Commission.
Cummings said for him, today’s date “represents 21 years of alienation and disrespect.” He said in a statement: “At this stage, I have nothing to lose so I speak openly and honestly. I have finally decided to take action. On April 12, 2010, I submitted an official complaint to the Equal Opportunity Commission.
“My complaint was filed against the TTFF and its special adviser, Austin Jack Warner, seeking redress for over 20 years of discrimination and victimisation; a substantial loss of income and opportunities denied for professional growth through being barred and blocked,” Cummings said.
He claims he was fired as national coach in 1989 because he refused to give false statements on the ticket fiasco and overselling of tickets for that historic football match. Since then, he said, his professional career has been at a standstill.
He said since then, although he has contributed to the game at the highest national level as a player and a coach for more than 45 years, he has been blocked from making any further contributions to the sport.
Cummings first represented T&T as a footballer when he was just 16-years-old and he launched his professional sporting career at age 19. He said in 1994, the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Association approached the TTFA and Concacaf, seeking his services as technical director for their World Cup qualifying campaign.
However, the TTFF and Warner, refused to grant that request. In 1997, the Grenada Football Association sought Cumming’s assistance through Concacaf, but they, too, were denied.
Citing another occasion on which he was sidelined, the former national coach revealed: “In 2001, when the National Under-17 team’s preparation was going nowhere under Chief Onibinde of Nigeria, I received a call from Carryl Keller, at the Ministry of Sports, on behalf of the then Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Manohar Ramsaran, to coach the National Under 17 team.
“I was based in New York, at the time, and rearranged my schedule to prepare for this assignment, always willing to serve my country,” he said. “I was informed, however, that the final confirmation, but a mere formality, had to come from Warner.
“My good friend and former national player, the late Russell Teshiera, who was the manager of the National Under-17 team called me, in New York, to congratulate and welcome me on board, thinking it was a foregone conclusion.
However, I was soon informed that the confirmation was denied because the special adviser said he had a problem with me.” Cummings said over the last five years, “with the rise and fall of the fortunes of football at all levels,” he has publicly offered to assist but has been told that everytime his name is mentioned or submitted, it is rejected by the TTFF’s special adviser.
“It is to the Equal Opportunity Commission that I have had to go to save my career, seeking compensation for loss of earnings, the removal of the obstacles erected to prevent me from coaching at national and international level and the opportunity to contribute to the development of football, domestically and regionally,” he said.
“For the love of the game, I have experienced the indignity of racism, segregation, and bigotry as a young man playing professionally, in Atlanta, Georgia, during the 60s, under Jim Crow, but what I have experienced in my own country is far worse than what I endured being a black man in America’s south.”
Cummings said through the Equal Opportunity Commission he is seeking closure and an end to the discrimination and injustice so that other players and coaches don’t have to suffer the same fate.
The Strike Squad
This country came within one game of qualifying for the 1990 Fifa World Cup in Italy. Dubbed the Strike Squad during the qualifying campaign, the T&T team needed only a draw to qualify in their final game played at home against the United States on November 19, 1989.
In front of an over-capacity crowd of more than 30,000 at the National Stadium on Red Day, Paul Caligiuri of the United States scored the only goal of the game in the 38th minute, dashing Trinidad and Tobago’s qualification hopes. For the good behaviour of the crowd at the stadium, despite the devastating loss and overcrowded stands, the spectators of Trinidad and Tobago were awarded the Fifa Fair Play Award in 1989.
Hall of Famer
- Cummings, a midfielder, was a mainstay of the T&T national team in the 1960s and 1970s and later became the national team coach of Trinidad and Tobago in the 1980s during the Strike Squad years.
- He is listed in the Top 100 Sportsmen and Sportswomen of the Millennium (1900-1999) by the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Sports and was inducted into the T&T Sports Hall of Fame in 1989.
- He was a regular with the national team from at least November 17, 1968, when it lost 4-0 to Guatemala in World Cup qualifier, until December 18, 1976, when it lost to Suriname 3-2.
- He was a member of the national team for the 1973 Concacaf Championship to qualify for the 1974 Fifa World Cup when Trinidad and Tobago had five goals controversially disallowed against Haiti and fell two points short of qualifying.
- Cummings was awarded T&T’s second highest national award, the Chaconia Medal (Silver), alongside his Strike Squad players for their efforts in the 1989 campaign.
- In recent years, he has coached teams in the T&T Pro League, including South Starworld Strikers and North East Stars.