Sidebar

19
Tue, Mar
24 New Articles

Govt gives Soca Princesses bonus ahead of semifinals.
Typography

T&T’s senior women’s team has been given a boost ahead of tomorrow’s semifinal clash against Costa Rica in the Concacaf Women’s Championship as Cabinet announced a $50,000 incentive for each player.

The bonus was announced by Sports Minister Dr Rupert Griffith yesterday at the weekly post-Cabinet news conference, owing it to the women’s rich form in which they defeated Haiti and Guatemala.

Griffith said the squad now has a good chance of creating history by being the first to qualify for the 2015 Fifa Women World Cup finals in Canada.

“As all of you know they have done us proud, they have done well. They defeated Haiti, they defeated Guatemala, they lost to the United State 1-0, but they have very good chances of entering the World Cup next year. The Cabinet has decided to provide them with an incentive of $50,000 to the players and the manager.

“We are very pleased and I am sure the national community will be very happy and thankful to our women who are playing their hearts out and doing us proud in the run off qualifiers for the world cup.”

The team entered the qualifiers in the United State under contrasting circumstances when they arrived in Dallas, Texas without food, training gear and a mere US$500. This led to a passionate plea by US-born coach Randy Waldrum on Twitter.

Griffith explained that the proposal for funding the team arrived at his desk the same time the players were headed for Texas. He said $50,000 was given to the team captain Maylee Attin Johnson the next day.

He assured that such an incident would not happen again, saying, “I have already discussed with the Ministry of Sport and the Sport Company to put measures in place so that early requests will be made for the release of funds. That is being put in place.

“There is already a policy regarding grant allocations and funding of sporting organisations, but we have noticed that governing bodies and other sporting organisations do not adhere to the timelines that we imposed. What we are trying to do is sort that out so that we will have timely requests for funds.”

In a release yesterday, T&T Football Association thanked the government for its generous offer of a financial incentive to the national women’s senior football team.

President of the TTFA Raymond Tim Kee, in a response to the statement made by Griffith yesterday, said the reward would be a definite boost to national captain Maylee Attin Johnson and her teammates.

Soca Princesses to get $50,000 each
By Sue-Ann Wayow (Express).


Money in bank

AS an incentive for representing the country well at the CONCACAF Women’s Championship, Trinidad and Tobago’s women’s footballers, the “Soca Princesses” will each receive $50,000, Sport Minister Rupert Griffith announced yesterday.

Griffith said the national team was well capable of qualifying for next year’s World Cup and the government was fully supportive of the team. They play Costa Rica tomorrow in Washington DC and victory would put them into the World Cup finals in Canada next year. So far in the series, T&T have beaten Haiti 1-0 and Guatemala 2-1, while losing 1-0 to world champions United States 1-0.

Speaking at yesterday’s post-Cabinet press conference at the San Fernando Teaching Hospital, Griffith said: “They (the Soca Princesses) have done us proud. They have done us well. They have very good chances of entering the World Cup next year.”

He said: “Cabinet has decided to provide them with an incentive of $50,000, just not the players, but those who are managing. We are very pleased and I am sure that the national community will be very happy to find out that our women are playing their hearts out and making us proud.”

On October 6, the national women’s team left four days late for a training camp in Dallas, United States, to prepare for the opening CONCACAF Final Round fixture against the United States on October 15.

The Express reported that the team was grounded because the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) had failed to come up with $40,000 to process visa applications for team members. And upon arrival in Dallas with only US$500, the team’s coach Randy Waldrum

Money continues on Page 62 took to Facebook to appeal for help to feed his players.

Referring to the financial plight of national teams, Griffith said yesterday: “I have already discussed with the Ministry of Sport and the Sport Company to put measures in place so that early requests will be made for the release of funds.

“Many times the governing bodies and other sporting organisations do not adhere to the timelines. We are trying to sort that out so that we will have timely request for funds.”

In response to the Government’s gesture, TTFA president Raymond Tim Kee said: “We would like to express our sincerest thanks and gratitude to the Ministry of Sport and by extension the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and its officials who have held discussions with us at the TTFA, for their unwavering support, not just to the women’s team, but all our various national teams which are engaged in international tournaments and continue to fly the country’s flag.”

The minister also added that tomorrow, he will be meeting with members of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to discuss ongoing matters relating to the pay dispute that led to the West Indies team pulling out of their India tour after the fourth One-day International last Friday, with one more ODI, a Twenty20 and three Tests still to play.