LEADING football administrator Jack Warner has promised that the national Under-17 football team will be engaged in several overseas stints next year, as they prepare for the 2010 FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup, which will be staged here in Trinidad and Tobago.
“In February, we’ll get a foreign tournament here, with Mexico, Costa Rica, Canada and Trinidad and Tobago. In April, we’ll go to the Far East and to Europe,” Warner revealed. “In July, we are in Brazil.
“It is a very big programme and we have to become competitive,” Warner said.
“Pellerud is doing a fantastic job. The problem will always be funding but we have to find the money, at all costs,” he said. With regards to the men’s teams, Warner, in his TTFF role, noted, “We’ll have a very long meeting with our technical committee to appoint the staff for the various teams. The programmes of the teams will be looked at and revised.
“All will be done, so come January 4, we’ll go full speed ahead with our national programmes.” Warner is confident that Trinidad and Tobago will be able to achieve qualification for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
“Based on our Under-20 team in Egypt, and based on the performances of Joe Public, and the other clubs, if we don’t qualify for Brazil 2014, I will take a boat and go away.”
Warner is also the owner of champion club Joe Public, and he was understandably elated at the achievements of the team this year, including their conquests of the Digicel Pro League and the TTFF FA Trophy. “I think the chickens are coming home to roost,” he said.
“We, the Warner family, are reaping the rewards of our investment, of our faith in young people. We are a family club and, over the years, we have invested money in this club,” continued Warner.
“We have the best coaching school in the country, over 200 kids. We have Under-15, Under-17, Under-19, Under- 23, we have a women’s team. We have a senior team, a team in the EFA, and it costs about $4 million a year, which we have to bear. And I think we have never wavered. In fact, Joe Public is the only club not going through a recession,” added Warner. “You’ll see, in the next couple of months, a different Joe Public. We are having our club function in May (and) the feature address is being delivered by Franz Beckenbauer,” he revealed.
“I’ll tell you, they’ll go on holidays, they’ll get a very nice bonus after Friday’s success (over Caledonia AIA in the Digicel Pro Bowl final).
“Believe you me, this is unprecedented,” he pointed out. “This for me, is the bright side, politics is the dark side.” He also had a message for his critics, noting, “They can say what they want about Jack Warner, but they can’t keep a good club down.”
On Friday Joe Public completed a 5-3 penalty-kick triumph over 2008 champs Caledonia AIA to seize the Digicel Pro Bowl crown at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo.
Joe Public added the title to the Digicel Pro League, Big Six, Toyota Classic and FA Trophy which they copped all since early November.
Friday’s match ended with a 1-1 draw at the end of regulation time and, with penalties required to determine the winner, Joe Public’s captain Kerry Baptiste scored, with an effort which struck the crossbar and goalkeeper Kevin Graham’s body before going in.
But Baptiste’s national teammate Keon Daniel saw his weak left-footed try saved by Alejandro Figueroa, diving to his right, and Caledonia were on the backfoot from there onwards.