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I AM deeply and sincerely sorry for David Nakhid.


If Trinidad and Tobago fails to make the grade against Bahrain, he would be used as the scapegoat.

In fact, people are already spewing expletives at him amid comments that he, in this age of using foreign coaches that know nothing about your team or your culture, is not patriotic.

No one is taking note of the fact that he was fired just a couple of days after TnT qualified for the playoff.

Not only was this the wrong timing, he was the wrong person.

For, Nakhid has spent the majority of his career playing in the Middle East and would have been, if horses for courses still mean something in sport, the most important man on the technical staff -- even more important that coach Leo Beenhakker.

His knowledge of football in that part of the world and, more importantly, his access to those in the Middle East with information regarding players and decisions made by Bahrain, would have been key to TnT’s success.

After all, you’re not only talking about a highly intelligent individual, you’re talking about a man who was able to repeatedly hear Beenhakker’s assistant Whim Rhizerberg’s racists comments (in Rhizerberg’s own native language) regarding Moroccans ruling Dutch society.

Their argument was not in English.

The point here is David Nakhid constituted TnT’s entire intelligence against Bahrain.

It was utter negligence to sack him two days after qualifying to meet Bahrain.

Coach Beenhakker’s claim that: “We don’t need him for the next two games because we already have all the report we need from Bahrain,” is poppycock, but must not be forgotten while all the abuse is being hurled about after November 16.

Firing Nakhid is tantamount to the untimely and ill-advised sacking of at least one coach per qualifying campaign since 1994. And it is becoming apparent that this is a deliberate attempt to create the same end result as the 1992, 1996 and 2001 coach sackings, at this late stage.

For the record, I must note that Nakhid said he was sacked because of his argument with Rhizerberg; Jack Warner (TTFF’s “special adviser”) said Nakhid was fired because of racist comments TTFF was distancing itself from; and Beenhakker said Nakhid was not fired, his job was complete.

It is obvious to me that TTFF, Warner, et al, are looking for a scapegoat to deflect from two things (1) the millions now passing around and (2) TnT’s refusal to prepare for Bahrain as hard as Bahrain is preparing for TnT.

And the evidence is clear.

Bahrain announced within days of qualifying for this play-off that its domestic league would be halted so that players would be able to focus on preparation.

Their friends in Qatar, where six national players are on contract, were initially said to have done the same.

By comparison, local Pro League CEO Dexter Skeene has reported that the league has had “no request for more than five days for the release of players” for the matches.

Further, Bahrain, as immediately as TTFF fired Nakhid by e-mail, offered him a job to coach the national under-20 team and (no one can be convinced otherwise) to provide assistance beneficial to the forthcoming fixtures with TnT.

Bahrain knew of Nakhid’s value to an encounter like this and, even if its officials were to respect his request to sit it out until after the play-offs, would have already been pleased that at least his knowledge on Middle East football, like his access to information on them, was not being put to work against Bahrain.

It is therefore not Nakhid but TTFF that Bahrain must thank for this.

Also in preparation for the fixture, Bahrain is said to have offered Jamaica US$1 million to host and train with the national team for one week leading up to the away match in the Caribbean on November 12.

Jamaica has also to suspend its league for this period.

This, too, is a legitimate move.

It is logistically and tactically perfect, as war goes.

It is the best way to adjust not only to Caribbean conditions but to the flare and style of Caribbean football.

And don’t believe anyone who tells you Bahrain would have chosen Guatemala as a first or even last resort for this.

What has TnT done by comparison? On the positive side, it was reported since the Panama match to be sending Beenhakker’s next assistant, Rob Baan to see the Bahrain-Uzbekistan first-leg match.

However, since the Mexico match, TTFF has allowed Beenhakker to go home on his usual business, and appeared to complain about FIFA rules that permit a release from foreign club duty only five days before World Cup fixtures, while the special adviser has indulged in endless counts of intellectual dishonesty -- all in the sake of milking this qualifying thing for as much as possible beyond unshared and undisclosed TV rights.

Warner has huffed and puffed about how much money he is putting out, as if he’s doing it for charity; he’s throwing players’ salary requests out for public scrutiny to leave the impression that that’s how the millions now passing are being spent.

And he’s spewing out insults on Jamaica as if it were true that TnT were as seriously preparing for this encounter as Bahrain.

“It is a sad day for regional integration,” he pontificated, in a claim that Jamaica was turning its back on Caribbean solidarity.

His trite did not end there: Warner said when he “heard” of an “initial offer” to Guatemala he welcomed it as an opportunity to look at Bahrain.

Ha ha!

In a closed-door camp?

What a joke!

And if so, won’t such an opportunity to “look at Bahrain” be easier in Jamaica?

In case that didn’t make screaming headlines, Warner threw this out to gullible reporters: “A request from Dwight Yorke to double the players’ match fees to US$10,000 each.”

So, let’s add it up so far.

In case TnT loses to Bahrain, we can blame “turncoat” Nakhid and “mercenary” players for demanding more money to play for their country.

Forget the fact that while Bahrain is coming to warm up to Caribbean conditions, TnT is sending assistant manager George Joseph and TTFF secretary Richard Groden on a four-day stay in Bahrain, to “inspect the facilities, hotel accommodation and meals for the team”.

Forget the fact that on Day two (after Mexico) Warner sarcastically thanked the Sports Minister for paying $141,000 for the players’ charter flight from Panama but noted that it cost $748,000 (really?) to get them to Panama at his expense (and this while moaning over the $7.5 million previously given by government was for the Pro League).

Forget that it was said that same day that a meeting with the minister was rescheduled to accommodate Warner, that the list of personal expenses “could go on and on” and that he “yesterday renewed Beenhakker’s contract for another month”.

On Day 3 he claimed to be the target of hate mail from Mexico, so the message here is, he is putting out all the money and getting all the abuse, in the name of TnT.

This is when the Nakhid issue first surfaced, though he had been fired by then.

On Day 5 TTFF announced a meager profit of $232,906 from the Mexico match with a balance sheet that showed ridiculous figures like half-million for transportation.

On Day 7 Minister Boynes meet the jefe and agreed to take to Cabinet football’s proposal to “charter a plane from Trinidad to Bahrain and other items such as hotel accommodation, match fees and bonuses, and incentives for the players leading up to the World Cup”.

On Day 9, according to reports, Cabinet agreed in principle with TTFF’s request for a $13.8 million allocation to “cover the administrative and expenses associated with qualifying matches over a three-month period up to the end of this month”, plus the charter to Bahrain and payment for television broadcast rights for the November 16 match in Manama, Bahrain.

Observe the phrasing for the purpose of this money before and after Cabinet approval.

Note, too, the majority of this money has already been “spent” by Warner.

In other words, most of the taxpayers’ money agreed to by Cabinet is going straight to Warner as some form of reimbursement.

And this without even a review of how much returns his investment into the qualifying campaign had already made for him, personally -- if any at all.

For instance, who benefits from those ridiculous figures for transport, catering, accommodation, tickets and etcetera?

So, of this $13.5 million handout, $7,091,200 is going towards the said “sum for qualifying matches”; another $2,001,800 towards the coming two qualifiers, a whooping $4,400,000 for the flight and $315,000 to TV Asia.

In saying “thanks”, as insulting as it ever comes, Warner noted that government had put only $1.3 million prior to that while he spent $17 million.

No strings attached, I suppose.

But you know what hurts most of all: We all accept this.

And that is because we fit into one of two classes: either too stupid or downright dishonest.

Dishonest, I say, because they who know our price have paid in full and we dare not speak out against glaring attempts to hoodwink the public lest we lose out and -- worse -- are thrown into the doghouse.