I MUST praise the Prime Minister’s sobering approach to the question of a suitable benefit to players for taking Trinidad and Tobago into its first World Cup finals.
For one thing, government won’t be the ones blamed for using the footballers for political mileage -- at least not in the heat of qualification when all eyes are on the team and mouths open wide ready to deify even the crookedest of crooks.
And the State won’t be accused in the same way as before, when, for example, feteing Olympic gold medallist Hasely Crawford in 1976 and TnT’s World Champion netball team of 1979 to a lesser extent.
Or, more recently, Claude Noel and Leslie Stewart’s world boxing conquests; the Strike Squad’s infamous pre-qualifying holiday, Ato Boldon’s first TnT Olympic medal in 20 years, Brian Lara’s world records and George Bovell III’s first TnT Olympics swimming bronze or, to an even minor level of pomp, the 4x100m relay team’s first ever World Championship silver.
There is no way a State is not going to give a civic reception for a world-beating national or a national team even if, usually, that State is shooed off from having any involvement in the running of that national or national team’s governing body, but is required only to supply tax payers’ funds upon demand, as demanded!
While it would seem to be capitalising on the individual or team’s success, there are graver dangers to a State neglecting to receive those who have brought positive international attention to that very State.
It is foolhardy, therefore, or downright politically mischievous, to criticise any State for getting involved at such a time.
But how the governors of that state or aspirants to governance of that state capitalise on the occasion is another thing.
It seems the norm to hijack the entire moment for mileage among the masses.
It is refreshing to find that not to be the case in this instance, momentous as the occasion may be. What is most commendable, though, is how the PM managed to resist the temptation of making wild promises of this and that until after discussions with team captain Dwight Yorke re: the players’ needs.
It could be that he was faced with two obvious challenges: What to give and who to give it to.
I, personally, would have been concerned with who should get.
On the question of what to give, many people have been suggesting something equal to the property and cash awarded to Lara while others have been making public claims, mostly false, of what the Bahrainis would be getting.
On the question of who to give it to, the State must have been still smarting from disbursements amounting to $33.4 million to football alone (not including donations from state firms) and more than a bit concerned that the $4.4 million bill for the charter to Bahrain suddenly rose to $6.6 million and which football’s supreme advisor declared “already spent” once the State announced approval of that $6.6 million.
The question facing them must have been, should the TTFF be given this new package to disburse to players or should we go to the players ourselves.
Few would argue that they are on the right track going to the players.
As I hinted, my concern would have been who should get (and on that you will with me) which will bring us all around to the question of what they should get. Here goes:
Only the man who scored the deciding goal, namely Dennis Lawrence should be awarded.
After all, his is the only name history would readily recall whenever reference is made to the first time TnT qualified for the World Cup finals; just like Maradona’s solo run to eliminate England after the infamous “Hands of God” goal would survive eternity.
You still don’t agree?
Who then … the whole starting 11?
The finishing 11?
The entire 17 from the day’s team list?
The full contingent that made the trip?
Okay, then what about players who did not make the trip?
What about those who had not figured in the new coach’s plans in the last nine matches?
What about those who took TnT past the first round eliminations and the six-match semi-final qualifiers without being allowed a decent warm-up match (not counting the one against North-East Stars)?
What about the coach who took TnT that far with all but nine matches remaining?
Why not all 38 players used throughout the 20 qualifiers altogether?
That’s not all!
What about the Strike Squad of 1989 and the 1973 team in Haiti whose one-point deficit was not a failure but a fillip for teams to come, including this comparatively inferior one?
They are the ones that kept lifting our hopes at dark periods of TnT history -- like coming out of the Black Power era or being in the midst of economic austerity measures that were soon to give way to a coup attempt.
One point has not been true failure but successes that were built upon at 16-year intervals.
True failure is being eliminated very early, in only the second round of the campaign that immediately followed those two wonderful years.
True failure is going further to be eliminated in the first round after that (as in the case of the 1973 campaign).
True failure is selling home advantage and, by extension, the entire 1985 qualifying bid to USA and Costa Rica for $50,000.
True failure is firing a coach at the start or in the midst of every single campaign after the Strike Squad.
True failure, and cowardice, is in virtually sabotaging a 2001 campaign with Dwight Yorke, Russell Latapy, Angus Eve and Arnold Dwarika (among others) in their prime, by breaking it down from the highpoint of topping the semi-final group with Mexico, to the all-time low of finishing last in the succeeding final qualifying round.
Then blaming the pros and other players for what you would have the public know as their “Prima Donna” behaviour.
Those players of ’73 and ’89 had a hand in this year’s World Cup qualification, too; along with those from the campaigns of 1965, 1968, 1976, 1980, 1985, 1992 and 1996.
Since some of you have unwittingly accepted my point that not only one player must benefit, then it must go without saying that not only this year’s team should benefit.
Every team must.
But don’t stop there.
What about the people who prepared those teams?
What about those who support players financially and otherwise?
What about the Secondary Schools Football League that exposed all but those born and raised in England?
What about those in the family-type systems behind school teams who prepare lunches, provide taxi fare, lessons and the sort, to ensure that these boys make something of themselves?
Don’t give just the Soca Warriors goalscorer, the starting team or full squad; give everybody who has ever done something to the benefit of football -- even those who have fought tirelessly against the misadministration of football in TnT (which is still ongoing though masked today by the Warriors’ success).
Give everybody! That’s my recommendation.
How can this be done?
By setting up a fund.
Put everything you think this team deserves into a fund to benefit them and others like them at retirement age; or to meet their health needs; or to provide assistance when times get hard, etc. Professionals must manage this fund to ensure continued financial growth.
And there can be no better body to oversee case-by-case needs of deserving individuals like a Players’ Association.
This is a fine opportunity to set up such a body, towards which all players present and past can contribute some agreed stipend, some of which can go to management and the balance towards the fund.
Corporate bodies could be approached to make contributions; or at least be directed to set aside part of any player or team endorsement to the Players’ Association.
This association could link up with international bodies to ensure its own continuity and to get other benefits, grants and/or funding -- just as sporting associations like TTFF and the NAAA get at regular turns. With their needs looked after, we are sure to see players less ill at ease and more determined to rise to any challenge.
That, in turn, would lift the quality of football we expect from national teams.
The growth of players as a body must be encouraged.
Right now, even women’s football has a vote in the national association while, largely, still being a novelty.
A Players’ Association is the only way forward for TnT football; and the best way to kick it off is to set-up a fund from which all players, present and past, could benefit.
The PM says in a small business ad now airing, “we won’t give you fish; we’ll teach you to fish”.
Well, this is an opportunity to let the players fix their own business, too!
That’s my view.