TSTT fork out $m for player fees.
By: Joel Bailey (Newsday).[/size]
Trinidad and Tobago footballers will don their customary red outfit for Saturday’s first leg FIFA World Cup play-off against Bahrain at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo.
FIFA vice-president and special advisor to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) Jack Austin Warner said yesterday: "On Saturday, we’ll be wearing red, red, red and I want to say that Bahrain would be wearing white.
"And the reverse will be the case on Wednesday (for the second leg in Bahrain)," Warner added. "So those persons who are travelling on the charter flight need to know that they have to wear white on Wednesday."
Warner was speaking at the CONCACAF office, Edward Street, Port-of-Spain where he received a cheque valued at $1,121,382.20 from Lisa Agard, TSTT vice-president (Legal/Regulatory/Carrier Services), to offset cost for the national players on Saturday.
"I’m very proud indeed to be associated with TSTT," Warner noted. "When Dwight Yorke called me from Australia and said he wants his players to remain focused and he didn’t want to discuss any money problems when he gets here, I said ‘Dwight, I agree with you’."
"He said, ‘I’m asking you for one favour, double the match fees you guys paid for each game.’ I said ‘Dwight done’,"Warner continued.
"When I said ‘Done’, I didn’t have a clue where to turn to. At that time, for each match, (the TTFF) would pay them a match fee of about US$89,000," Warner continued. "And it meant I had to find, for the match on Saturday, US$178,000.
"I sat down with Lisa Agard and Ian Joseph, vice-president of marketing at TSTT, and I told them my problem," he pointed out. "There was no bureaucracy, no delay, no negotiations. All I know is that they said ‘We’ll pay’."
Warner was full of praise for the gesture shown by the telecommunication body. "I want to tell Trinidad and Tobago the kind of gesture that brings joy and music to one’s heart. "Because here is TSTT, who has kept the faith consistently for two years, who has given us all that we have asked for and more, who has come to our aid at this very last hour to pay the players the fee that they asked for.
"These fees are for victory, and they could have waited until the match to see whether I should pay this fee or not," Warner continued. "Because of the faith they have in the team and, ultimately the country, they paid the fee in advance for victory on Saturday."
