well i must be having it wrong.
$173 million is the figure assumed to be the total collected by the TTFF for WC2006
from this the whole WC experience was paid for.
from this the players were to get a % to be divided up for their bonuses
1 equal share was to be set aside for donation to charity.
so by my thinking the charity money was to come from the WC2006 money, we all agree there is serious concerns about how the WC2006 money was spent and where it gone.
how then is this issue of the charity money being paid out of a Concacaf or CONCACAF account unrelated.
we should jus be happy that Jack pay some money and not question it? not me.
It's an interesting point.
The TT$5000 (~US$840) for each player was what the TTFF initially offered, but the players claimed not all profits were being taken into account/hidden/whatever.
They expected more.
Now they get 23 checks for US$1,685.45. That's 23x1685.45 = US$ 38,765.35. So that is 1/24 of the bonus money - the portion that will go to charity.
So is the TTFF now saying (by way of issuing checks in that amount) that the bonuses should have been US$ 38,765.35 per player rather than ~US$840 they initially said?
Apologies in advance, in order to be thorough this will be a little long, but should clear up a lot of confusion. There are two pots of money here that are being muddled together.
1. There is the players share of the WC money...namely the money earned (per FIFA, not per the TTFF) for having played in the tournament, let's call that
the FIFA bonus. E-man on this your math is correct. The FIFA bonus amounts to $930,368.40 to be shared among the 23 players or $40,450.80 (US) per man. Rather than accept this full allottment, the players apparently agreed that instead of 23 ways, they'd split it 24...with the 24th share going to charity. Counting 'charity' as a 24th man, everyone got $38,765.35.
Having paid each of the 23 players their $38,765.35, that final share (of the same amount) was being held pending the directives of the players. According to the TTFF no consensus could be reached on whom to pay the money to (which charity), so they held onto the money. Now apparently the players (since the bad blood came about) have been asking for this money to be repaid to them, to no avail. Whether this is accurate remains to be seen, but if it is I really wouldn't be surprised that it wasn't (or couldn't be) repaid, since it is evident that the TTFF spent the money rather than put it in escrow. Otherwise they would have repaid it out of their own account rather than CONCACAF's.
Now to some this is evidence of yet another crime committed by the Jack/TTFF cabal. I personally don't see it as that big of a deal. Was it:
- Bad Accounting
- Poor Business Administration
- Unprofessional
- Unethical
- Unscrupulous
....find an adjective and fill in the blanks, likely that too will fit. YES IT WAS...all of the above. Personally I'm not saying any of this was right, but in the grand scheme of things this is the proverbial molehill we're dealing with here. Understandably to the players it may not seem that way.
That said, let's not forget that the TTFF is very much a victim in all of this as well, their own complicity aside. They are under the thumbscrews of Jack, and pretty much whatever he says goes...nothing new there, we all know this. If Jack is indeed thiefing then he's thiefing the TTFF first and everybody else second. So as I see it, at times the TTFF has to resort to less than stellar methods to stay solvent and keep their affairs running. I am positive that meant taking that $38,000 US that was just sitting there and spending it on some something or the other, figuring that they'd cross that repayment bridge whenever they meet it. Well now with arbitration in sight, they meet it. Whether people want to see it as I do as a minor transgression, borrowing from one pool of money to put into another, or whether they want to see it as some major wrongdoing, that is up to you.
As I understand it this money owed to the players never was in dispute, because it could be traced directly back to the source....FIFA. I won't personally do it, but I'm sure that if anyone goes back and look at that TTFF spreadsheet that was posted last year, there'll be an item (probably listed as World Cup bonus) in there for some amount close to $930,368.40 US. The TTFF is smarter than to go before CAS looking guilty so they made sure to take front and pay back the undisputed amount they owe. Now, this brings us to pot #2...
2.
The "Jack" bonus....I'd call it the TTFF bonus, but we all know what that story is about. In the midst of the heady euphoria and in attempt to prevent the Manning gov't from stealing some sunshine, Jack jumped in front the microphone (not literally) and announced that he'd pay the team a bonus. Then of course he backpedaled, retracted and subsequently disavowed any knowledge of any such bonus. His fall back argument being, even IF there was such a promise, the fiscal realities of the post-world cup campaign made paying that amount untenable.
It is this second "World Cup bonus" that is at the heart of the dispute...this is the contested money...maybe that's the $173 million people are referencing. The two should not be confused.
Now seeing that I wasn't privy to any of the actual dealings it very well could turn out that I talking ah pack ah ass...but having closely followed the events from then 'til now and objectively noting what's been happening, this is the situation as best as I could make it out.