Oliver Camps, long-serving president of the T&T Football Federation, heads a nine-member T&T delegation leaving today for Leipzig, Germany to witness the group draw for the 2006 World Finals on Friday.
Camps will be accompanied by Soca Warriors manager Bruce Aanensen, media officer Shaun Fuentes, assistant manager George Joseph, Tobago House of Assembly representative Tracey Davidson, Dr James Heppel, director of the Tourism Development Company, Richard Groden, general secretary of the T&TFF, cultural laison officer Terry Joseph and Senator Roy Augustus, head of security.
The T&T contingent is expected to return home on Monday.
At a media briefing held at Crowne Plaza Hotel last week Fifa vice-president and Concacaf boss, Austin Jack Warner, said that T&T’s delegation is the smallest for the draw and the only country not represented by a minister of Goverment.
Comparing the size of T&T’s contingent to some of the other countries, Warner said:
“ Brazil will have a contingent of 19, USA 11 and England 21 persons.”
All eyes on Leipzig
Media interest is intense as more than 150 television and radio stations have bought the rights to broadcast the draw for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany and a global audience of 320 million is expected to tune in.
There will be 120 commentary positions and 850 national and international television and radio journalists from 55 countries reporting live, via delayed telecast, or on individual sections of the event.
Added to this will be 800 newspaper reporters and photographers, 600 of them from abroad.
A media extravaganza
The centrepiece of the gala ceremony will be the Final Draw, which is organised by Fifa communications director Markus Siegler.
The 32 teams will be drawn into eight groups of four.
To conduct the draw, Fifa has nominated at least one star player from each of the football- playing continents as ambassadors for their confederations.
German TV personality Reinhold Beckmann and supermodel Heidi Klum will present the 90-minute draw ceremony, which will be broadcast worldwide from 8:30pm.
The Final Draw ceremony will be part of an international gala.
The top musical act of the evening is Colombian rock star and 12-time Latin Grammy Award winner Juanes, whose summer hit, La Camisa Negra , brought him world-wide success and made him the number one male artist on the Latino music scene.
Host country Germany will be providing a short film by internationally renowned director and huge football fan Wolfgang Becker (of Goodbye Lenin fame), which will combine football fanaticism with the growing anticipation ahead of the Fifa World Cup.
Classics and magic
Exciting clips from classic Fifa World Cup matches will also be featured, while Hans Klok, the “fastest magician in the world”, will dazzle the public with a quick-fire illusion show using the symbols of the Fifa World Cup.
The ‘Young German Philharmonic’, 84 of the country's most talented music students, will be performing their own selected orchestral arrangements of works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Richard Strauss.
Biggest names from politics and sport
Federal President Horst Kohler will be present as a high-level representative of German politics.
Also in attendance will be Chancellor designate Angela Merkel, former SPD party chairman Franz Muntefering, the Prime Minister of Saxony, Georg Milbradt, and the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit.
All 32 participating national team coaches should be there, including T&T’s Leo Beenhakker, Jurgen Klinsmann (Germany), Sven-Goran Eriksson (England), Marco van Basten (Netherlands), Marcello Lippi (Italy), Zico (Japan), Oleg Blochin (Ukraine) and Luiz Felipe Scolari (Portugal).
The German football family will be represented by, among others, DFB President Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, Executive DFB President Dr Theo Zwanziger, DFL President Werner Hackmann and the majority of the Lord Mayors of the FIFA World Cup host cities.