Sports Minister Roger Boynes says the Government will pay the salary of T&T Warriors football coach, Dutch national Leo Beenhakker, but will not provide an open budget for the team’s preparation for World Cup 2006.
Boynes said while the Government was committed to providing whatever the team needed for its World Cup preparations, there was a limit to how much taxpayers’ money could be spent on this effort.
Boynes was responding to a call by T&T Football Federation special adviser Jack Warner, on Saturday, for the Government to provide an open budget for Beenhakker to finance the national football team’s World Cup preparations.
“No Cabinet in the history of the world will do that,” Boynes said in a telephone interview yesterday.
At a press conference on Saturday at Crowne Plaza, Port-of-Spain, Warner said it would take some US$15 million for the team to train adequately for the World Cup Finals in Germany.
A meeting, involving Sports Ministry officials, T&T Football Federation and sports consultants from the United States, is scheduled on Thursday to work out the exact needs of Beenhakker and the entire football squad.
Boynes said after that meeting, he would meet Beenhakker, who Warner said had agreed to sign on for the World Cup campaign, as the Government was yet to receive a proposal from the coach.
“The Government will be paying his salary. The country needs to know what the cost is. I need to find out what Mr Beenhakker wants, and I need to put it in a Cabinet minute and take it before the Cabinet,” Boynes said.
“I have to account to the people and the Parliament of T&T, so people know where the money went.”
Nonetheless, when asked as to what Beenhakker would receive for staying on as the national coach, Boynes said: “The works.”
Boynes said this would include housing, travel and other expenses.
When the football team returned to T&T on November 17, after defeating Bahrain to qualify for next year’s World Cup, there was speculation as to whether Beenhakker would continue as the coach.
Prime Minister Patrick Manning then said Beenhakker still had a job.
“We need him to assist us in the World Cup and also to assist us in the development of football in T&T, so that we have the best coaches to continually qualify for the World Cup,” Boynes said.
He said the Government did not want the Warriors’ qualification in the World Cup finals, scheduled to take place in June 9, 2006, to be a “one off situation.”
Boynes said the Government was even willing to go as far as covering the cost of having the entire team in England, if necessary, to train for the World Cup, as many of its members play for teams in the United Kingdom.
“I understand the need to make sure that the team is properly trained. I think it is in that capacity that Mr Warner is asking for an open budget.
"The team may need to go to England. Mr Beenhakker may have to go to England,” Boynes said.
“We are working together with Leo, with Mr Warner, with the TTFF. It is a collective approach. The Government is on board 100 per cent that we have the best resources.”