Croft leaves LOC 2010.
By: Ian Prescott (Express).[/size]
Colin Croft has departed as chief operating officer (COO) of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, six months after being installed by FIFA vice-president Jack Warner.
Back then Warner, the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation's (T&TFF) special adviser, said Croft was chosen from six candidates and given special consideration because of his familiarity with South Africa.
"I have nothing directly to do with that. I suggest you call Roy Augustus, the human resource officer," said Warner yesterday when asked about Croft's removal.
Last September, Warner introduced Croft as the man whose job it was to organise matches, events and raise corporate financing in the build-up to T&T's qualification bid for the 2010 World Cup. The LOC was to be based in Arouca, but has actually been set up at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya. Croft was to head several sub-committees and also to report to a board of directors.
However, after seeking several leaves of absence, Croft was relieved of the post. That was confirmed yesterday by Augustus, the LOC's human resource officer, who said the departure of the former West Indies fast bowler and cricket commentator was an amicable one.
"There is not anything negative about it really. It was a question of Mr Croft not having time to juggle the job with the other things he does. It was a pleasant separation and a mutual kind of thing," Augustus told the Express.
Asked if the T&TFF's World Cup campaign was affected now that the LOC's chief organiser was no longer on the job, Augustus replied: "We are in the search for a COO," while explaining that in the interim the current staff will have to increase their work load to make up for Croft's loss.
"It's not such an unusual thing really. Going into the last World Cup in Germany, we went in without a COO at several times after separation with individuals for one reason or the other. Some of us have had to double up what we do, but we have always got the job done," said Augustus.
When he took the job last September, Guyana-born Croft said the first World Cup to be played on the African continent will thrill the world in ways never before experienced and he was happy to be part of the project. He described South Africa as being football crazy.
In taking over the post formerly held by Jamaican Horace Reid, Croft admitted it will be a challenge and listed his job specification as being the main organiser of the T&T effort to qualify for the next World Cup.
He also said none of the inhabitants of Trinidad and Tobago should be thinking if Trinidad and Tobago will get to South Africa 2010. "It must be when," not if, he exclaimed.
