Alone in Korea.
By: Peter O’Connor (Newsday).
I wonder if our Young Warriors are aware of how alone they really are in South Korea?
Do they know that our television is not even bringing their games to us “live” and that there is no radio coverage of our matches at all? TV-6, which advertised that it was bringing, “live” the matches of the FIFA Under-17 World Championships, blithely, and as far as I am aware, without advance notice, decided to pre-empt the TT versus Ghana match for Morning Edition, and show the match, delayed, at 8.45am instead. Well, for all of us who had made arrangements to stay at home to watch, and support our boys, this was a shock!
Unless you were not working, or had nothing to do with your life, it meant that you were going to miss the live telecast. I left home very angry, deciding that I would have to settle for radio commentary instead. To my utter disbelief, I discovered that there is no live commentary of the Trinidad and Tobago Under-17 matches at the World Championships. As far as TT radio is concerned, we are not even in Korea. Have we no shame at all? Here we are, in our Independence month, 45 years as a sovereign and independent nation, and our Youth Team has qualified to play in the World Championships, and not a single member of the local media — print, radio or television — is there to report for us.
As one local commentator remarked — and at least he did express disappointment that there was no local media in Korea: “We have to settle for the syrupy reports of the TTFF Media Officer.” Well thank God for Shaun Fuentes, and if you find him too “syrupy” maybe you can trot down to the ongoing Caribbean Football Union Under-15 Championships, currently being played at venues throughout Trinidad and Tobago, and dig up something a little less syrupy to write about. And while on that topic, I can say that 105.1FM is carrying the TT Under-15 matches live when we play.
However, they still interrupt the live action to bring a series of ads twice in each half! So if you missed hearing a goal scored, just thank the product being advertised, and remember not to purchase it in the future.
Why is it that the electronic media and the advertising industry — two entities which are at the cutting edge of the future — continue to remain so utterly backward when it comes to sports broadcasting? Well, back to the games: I am yet to see the TT vs Ghana match because the re-run was at 10.35 pm, just right for youngsters who wish to support their older brothers! I got the result late on Monday morning by going to the FIFA website, and I did see the highlights on the news. Yes, we were disappointed, and yes our defence was too square in the first half. Four goals are a lot, but we have to keep our faith and we have to build upon our experience.
At least TV-6 brought the Colombia game live, but I could not watch it, and suffered from the fact that there was no radio commentary. Guess what? St Kitts has live television coverage of our matches. This is the e-mail I received from St Kitts: “I watched most of the 1st half and at 1-nil down thought we looked good (keeper was saving well). Checked later and saw that we lost 5-0. A bit disappointing after what I thought was a good 1st half showing.” Thanks, son, I just got the score and I too was disappointed. However, I take heart that we managed to “look good” for a while. We now await the attacks.
But what would the people of TT like the Federation to do? The local comments after the Ghana match were scathing as usual: “We barely qualified, TTFF led us to believe we would be competitive, so far we have not been, therefore why are we there?” So tell us, TT, should we withdraw from all international competition?
Should we quit? Is that what you want us to tell these brave young men who carried our flag halfway around the world? And why have we not been as competitive as you would have liked — you who never went to see them as Under-15s and Under-16s?
In a subsequent column I will give you the preparation schedules of the other teams in our group, and I will give you our warm-up schedule. And when you ask why we are not as prepared as them, I will ask you for your support in our next campaign, so that we can be just like them. Will you be there for your sons?
