Horace Burrell calls for ‘full support’ for T&T.
T&T Guardian Reports.[/size]
Former Jamaican Football Federation (JFF) president Captain Horace Burrell has called on Jamaicans to support T&T in its bid to qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Burrell was speaking at the 2005 Manchester Football Association’s (MFA) annual presentation of awards and dinner on Friday night, at the Golf View Hotel in Mandeville.
“I would not leave this podium, unless I ask everyone here, home and aboard to give full support to the T&T football team, who is now on the verge of qualifying for the next World Cup in Germany,” he said to a thunderous round of applaud from the audience.
Fourth place finishers in Concacaf, T&T will face Bahrain in a play-off on November 12 and 16 for a place in the 2006 World Cup Finals.
If T&T is successful, it will become the second team from the English-speaking Caribbean to quality. Jamaica qualified for the 1998 World Cup.
According to Burrell, T&T’s qualification will be good for the region, because we are all happy when a Caribbean team does well.
“Let’s not be myopic, we can’t be insular ... I don’t like people who can’t see further than the door ... we are living in a global village, and therefore, we have to, whenever we say or do anything at all, always look at the bigger picture,” he said.
“And the bigger picture here is ... we should support our Caribbean brothers,” he added.
Burrell, who is also senior vice-president of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), said T&T helped Jamaica to qualify for France in 1998.
“I can recall in 1997, T&T hosting us at some crucial times. I remember spending one week in Trinidad, they looked after us, they played against us, and said, look, we want Jamaica to qualify since we are not going to France.”
Burrell said at that time, Concacaf president and vice-president of FIFA, Austin ‘Jack’ Warner, and other T&T nationals rallied around Jamaica.
Burrell, also said Warner helped to find a place in the 1998 Gold Cup for Jamaica after the Reggae Boyz failed to qualify.
“Those of you who follow your football history will remember us failing to qualify for the Gold Cup in 1998, and it was the same Jack Warner who said, I have to find a way to put you there, because you have made us proud (at World Cup) and he gave Jamaica a bye, so let us not forget that,” he argued.
Meanwhile, the match between the Reggae Boyz and Bahrain has not yet been finalised, according to Jamaica Football Federation’s (JFF) general secretary Burchell Gibson.
Gibson told Sporting World in a telephone interview on Saturday that “no confirmation of the match between Bahrain and the Jamaica Football Federation has been reached. At present we are still in discussion”.
Last Thursday, reports said that the two countries had agreed to a six-day visit, including a friendly game next Friday.
It was reported that the Bahrainis turned down a match fee request of US$350,000, but had agreed on a reduced figure, and they would finance their own stay while in the island.
Despite giving his blessing for the friendly match last week, regional boss and FIFA vice-president Austin “Jack” Warner accused the JFF of “selling out” the twin-isle republic, after being informed by former JFF president Captain Horace Burrell that the JFF had agreed to a week-long training camp, plus the friendly with the Bahrainis.
Warner was also told that the local federation had suspended its Premier League programme to accommodate the visitors.
Warner said it was “a sad day for Caribbean football and Caribbean unity.”
In responding to Warner’s outburst, the JFF said it was premature to suggest that it had entered into any concrete agreement with Bahrain.