Federation

The Trinidad and Tobago national women’s football team represented the country’s best chance to qualify for a FIFA senior tournament since the men’s Germany 2006 World Cup. Today, it arguably represents something else entirely.

Trinidad and Tobago national football team head coach Stephen Hart admitted that the “Soca Warriors” will struggle to keep up with its rivals if the present financial woes continue.

INDEPENDENT Liberal Party (ILP) chairman and Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner yesterday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar urging her to fire Sports Minister Anil Roberts from the Cabinet, over findings in the Finance Ministry’s Life Sport Programme audit.

With World Cup 2014 now but a memory, this is a good a time to reflect on the state of Trinidad and Tobago football. Two World Cups ago, this country was the toast of Germany as the smallest to make it onto football’s biggest stage. Whatever hopes this nation had for building on that momentum were dashed as T&T’s fairytale appearance in World Cup 2006 petered out without the storybook ending. Instead, we endured the sorry spectacle of the 2006 Soca Warriors having to battle tooth and nail through the courts to get money owed to them. To date, not even the court ruling in their favour has succeeded in forcing the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) to make good on its debt to the players. Alongside this has been the embarrassing collapse of the TTFA to the point of bankruptcy.

The President's Righthand

Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) General Secretary Sheldon Phillips was such in good spirits recently that he decided to do a total football public interactive dialogue with fans of T&T football in-particular, the Soca Warriors Online (SWO) members, a first of any of it's kind by any association member.

The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) is the only avenue through which 13 members of the 2006 World Cup team feel they can have its former special adviser, ex-FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, account for funds raised during the World Cup campaign eight years ago.

The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) continues to operate at the edge of financial ruin as, despite general secretary Sheldon Phillips’ sunny disposition, the local football body seems clueless about how to pay its bills while it allegedly dodges debtors.

Former national defender, Brent Sancho, the spokesman for the 13 2006 World Cup players locked in a legal battle with the T&T Football Association (TTFA) said he was unsure when the US$1.3 million (TT$7.8m) offered by the Government to settle the bonus dispute will be paid.