Soca Warriors News Room.

29-Mar-2008.

Celtic dismiss Trinidadian claims as ‘totally mistaken.
By: Iain Collin (The Herald).

San Juan Jabloteh, the Trinidad and Tobago champions who have just finished a two-week tour of Scotland, yesterday expressed their anger at Celtic for allegedly reneging on a three-year partnership deal.

Terry Fenwick, the former England and Tottenham Hotspur defender who is the manager of San Juan, claimed the tie-up was an extension of Celtic's educational programme in North America, with it expected to develop commercial value, and incorporate youth initiatives and the transfer of players.

But the Parkhead club last night dismissed the claim, saying that Fenwick was "totally mistaken" in his belief that any deal had been agreed.

"There is no tie-up between San Juan Jabloteh and Celtic FC," read a statement from the Scottish champions. "A Celtic representative quite simply visited Trinidad at their request earlier in the year. Mr Fenwick is totally mistaken in this regard, but we are pleased to have cleared this up."

As he prepared to fly home with his squad yesterday, Fenwick said: "We are not just disappointed with Celtic, we feel we have been let down very badly. As well as the educational programme with Celtic, the partnership allowed us to come to Scotland to use their new Lennoxtown facility.

"It's been shocking really, we've not had any contact. Having arrived, we were left with no programme at all really and had to scramble to put games and training facilities together. For an institution like Celtic to pull out like they have, we're very disgruntled.

"We're disappointed they have gone public with this tie-up in Trinidad and across the world and not followed it up. We have the best youth policy in the Caribbean but it looks like the Celtic tie-up is falling through."

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