I AM sorry for Selwyn Melville, my good friend, journalistic colleague and “Brother from Braga” (something of a silent brotherhood of reporters and footballers who attended the 1991 World Youth Championship in Portugal. TnT, the first from the Caribbean to play in this “Youth World Cup” based in Braga).
I am sorry for Selwyn partly because he did not register the name “Soca Warriors” which he coined sometime after the words “Strike Squad” became too hard to bear hearing or saying; and made public for the first time while reporting on TnT’s exploits at the Orange Bowl tournament in Miami in 1999.
I, as someone not inclined to marketing expertise and that hates pseudonyms, recall condemning the phrase in his report on TnT’s 4-3 win over Colombia in the Guardian of September 10, 1999.
The report was captioned Soca Warriors shock Colombia, drawn from his reference at the end of the article.
That is irrefutable proof of the origin of the name and, like him I dare anyone to prove otherwise.
Anyone looking it up for his or herself at the National Archives on St. Vincent Street, Port of Spain, would find this quote: “The celebration was evident and indications clear that fans in the US are ready to support the Soca Warriors on their campaign to a place in the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan.”
I am sorry for Selwyn because he failed to make certain safeguards after the 2002 incident in which his part in coining the phrase was acknowledged and a monetary offer mentioned but not made.
I am sorry, too, because a subsequent promise of recompense (by perhaps the same official whose name remained unmentioned by top speakers and audience alike at a three-hour Paragon talkshop at which all the ills of football were raised) also ended in trickery.
What we, the public were made to witness, instead, was a big launch of a new team name past the midway stage of the campaign, dropping the word “Soca” and retaining only “Warriors”.
However, the original name had already stuck and that fact came to the fore when qualification became likelihood.
By the time TnT eliminated Bahrain to trigger off massive, spontaneous celebrations, the name “Soca Warriors” was plastered all over the world.
Even well-known schemers were forced to openly concede to the re-branding.
I am somewhat sorry for Selwyn because he did not move in when the name was first changed or when it was reverted to, infringing on what should rightly be his intellectual property.
I am sorry, too, that all he wants now is to be acknowledged as the creator of the name while those better poised to capitalise have even gone so far as to register the name internationally to ensure they, only they, can rake in every possible dollar from its usage.
In other words, to “protect” its usage by “pirates” and “counterfeiters” (Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!).
But what I’m indeed most sorry for Selwyn for is that his tardiness in registering his own property lay upon the belief that “honesty and morality in public affairs should dictate the appropriate response from those in charge of football in TnT”.
If I didn’t know my dare “Brother from Braga” I’d ask: “Selwyn, where’re you from, boy?”
This is Trinidad!
Is the TTFF you’re talking about.
These are the people who won’t give the country a straight answer as to how many tickets we are entitled to for the World Cup finals.
These are the people leaving us the impression that our only hopes of getting to the World Cup finals is to either be rich or be ready to buy a $30,000 tour package from a travel agency owned by one of their officials.
These are the people who raped this country of any financial benefit of hosting the 2001 Under-17 World Youth Cup: The only federation ever to host that tournament and still come begging for money to run a World Cup campaign.
The same people who “buss” on every football match (at least on paper) yet do things the same way every time, while adding more and more ridiculous areas of expenditure that benefits someone or the other.
The same people who have a reputation of underpaying players, overselling tickets and calling for open cheques with no budget and no balance sheet on previous contributions.
These are the same people who refuse to tell this country what it would get for qualifying for the World Cup until it was leaked by international source.
The people who, similarly, would never have let you know that they were being given more than $11 million by Adidas if Adidas were not a German company eager to capitalise on the mileage of sponsoring another country coming to Germany for the World Cup.
The people who refused to even announce how our national team managed to be playing in Bahrain in Adidas kit in the first place and neglected to declare what was given up to that point, in lieu of qualification.
These people made us believe that the “final signing” was part and parcel of the original donning of Adidas gear in Manama, so the $11 million covers that.
These are the people who are not giving a daily account of the millions in donations coming from government, State agencies and the private sector; but are expecting us to wait for one final balance sheet after the World Cup along the lines of the “balance sheets” sometimes published after matches.
These are the people ridiculing the State for not saying: “Here, take this five million before you even make up a budget.”
These are the people who oversold tickets in 1989 and said: “So what?”
These people whom, when the State agreed to fund the $127,000 or so return trip from Panama said: “What about the $400,000-plus I spent to get them there?”
These people said it would cost $4.4 million to get to Bahrain and back but when they got $6.5 million of a requested $13 million, said that is “money already spent on the trip to Bahrain”.
These are the same people who introduced the Football Company of Trinidad and Tobago (FCOTT) to elude creditors, changed from TTFA to TTFF to do the same and continue to have short-term companies or committees running this or that until your head spins so fast you don’t know who is to be made accountable for anything.
Naivety, Selwyn, naivety!
For all your worldly experience and history of making for yourself where others conspire to shut out “ah we boy”, you relied on “honesty and morality in public affairs (to) dictate the appropriate response from those in charge of football in TnT”.
Ha! Ha! Ha!
Sorry, Sello, don’t take it personally; I laugh louder the least funny things are.
And I don’t find this funny at all.
I guess it’s just your upbringing; you’re decent and honest so you take it for granted that everyone would treat with decency and honesty.
I get caught in the same trap too, that’s why I’m yet to recover from the shock of the image of mothers having their children drag loot through Port of Spain in the aftermath of the madness that was July 1990.
I guess I can identify with your stance to a large extent, in that it is not about money for you, it is about respect and recognition of one’s contribution to his country.
It’s about people who position themselves to be the country’s leaders showing proof that as leaders they respect the citizenry; or that they would reward citizens for good work, rather than usurp it and leave the false impression that those citizens are wrought with greed.
But then, Sello, I also know you are the type to stick to your guns until the truth comes out, no matter the personal injury, no matter the influence of others, because the saying “each man has his price” does not apply to you.
You live a contented life.
Voracity doesn’t consume you as it so easily does others.
You don’t depend on others to look after your own and neither you nor your own require more than is sufficient.
Keep it up, my friend.
Fight them!
Let’s see who the real warriors are now.
That’s my view.