PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning yesterday promised to meet with Dwight Yorke, captain of the national football team, to determine a fitting tribute to the team that has created history by qualifying for the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany.
"We will have to discuss how the government of Trinidad and Tobago is going to mark this very sterling contribution and this very signal honour that the team has brought to Trinidad and Tobago," Manning said in an address at a function to welcome home the Warriors at Piarco International Airport.
He brought the crowd to laughter when he said Wednesday's sitting of the Parliament was suspended to allow MPs and staff to witness "a nail-biting finish" to the game against Bahrain.
"In fact, I wondered if the members of the Soca Warriors will recall that I have two artificial valves in my heart and a pacemaker. So I have decided that when they got home I will charge them (for) wear and tear.
"What a sweet victory it has been," he added, to the screams of the crowd. He said when looked at the game one would have seen the difference between those who aspired and those who achieved.
Manning also paid tribute to FIFA Vice President Jack Warner for the most invaluable contribution he singularly made to the team's victory. "Whatever anybody may think about him, there is one thing on which we are all agreed- he has been dedicated to the cause of football and has stood steadfast to the cause."
Manning also thanked the Warriors for succeeding where all politicians have failed-uniting the entire nation. "Yesterday, one football match, a dedicated team of people and Trinidad and Tobago came together," he said.
Manning also assured that the services of coach Leo Beenhakker were not in jeopardy.
Earlier in a brief speech in the VIP Lounge, Manning told the players that they had done so much for Trinidad and Tobago's image internationally.
Describing the victory as "a significant and signal success", Manning said the entire nation went in mad celebration on Wednesday night.
"Woodbrook was alive, St James was even more alive, High Street in San Fernando, Coffee Street, Penal, Debe, Arima, Tobago, over the entire country people were coming out with their flags-with their red, their white, their black, all in celebration of the significant and signal success that this team has had and the glory that it has brought to our country, Trinidad and Tobago, and it could not have happened at a more appropriate time," he said.