Soca Warriors Online Discussion Forum
Sports => Football => Topic started by: MilkyX on January 16, 2012, 08:59:46 PM
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After the ridiculous appointment of Mr Anton Corneal as Technical Director of the soca warriors, and the petition to fire those puppets of the TTFF executive committee on this forum, its obvious that we need qualified, experienced individuals, who actually love football and honestly want to take our game to a world class level. People who can bring our football back from the abyss. With that said, I would like to nominate Mr Everald 'Gally' Cummings ;D as the first member of the NEW executive. Please give your comments on who else your would like to see replace the traffic cones we now have!!
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Add - Keith Piggott- Tansley Thompson- Bobby Banfield- Marlon Morris- Patriot and Touches.
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Gally is ban, Jack disbanded him like a troll.
So all this talk, is just talk and sour grapes.
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Gally is ban, Jack disbanded him like a troll.
So all this talk, is just talk and sour grapes.
Ah fack off man! go suck on jack fig.
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When are elections due? Would the clubs be allowed to vote? I am amazed that all other sports executies could walk in in football, I understand the hockey guy is a decent person but wouldn't he best serve the hockey association? When would we have standards and ethics? Once you are someone pardner you could get in the dance! All this type of immoral behavior contributes to the deteriorating crime situation in the country! All institutions are being eroded! god put a hand!
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Gally is ban, Jack disbanded him like a troll.
So all this talk, is just talk and sour grapes.
Like Gally bull yuh gal or wha ?
Gally was de best local coach T&T ever had.
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corneal is more qualified than gally to be Technical director.
his resume and training is far superior.
That is not to say Gally cannot do a good job.
technical Director is a useless position in Trinidad.
if gally want to help trinidad football the best thing to do is go and coach some kids on the weekend.
technical director is a waste of time and money.
we need to put our best people in grassroots positions.
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When are elections due? Would the clubs be allowed to vote? I am amazed that all other sports executies could walk in in football, I understand the hockey guy is a decent person but wouldn't he best serve the hockey association? When would we have standards and ethics? Once you are someone pardner you could get in the dance! All this type of immoral behavior contributes to the deteriorating crime situation in the country! All institutions are being eroded! god put a hand!
We do the same with politicians. Man does come off the street & become Minister of Education etc etc
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(http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/400796_10150466461611455_541921454_8642083_1003710586_n.jpg)
met him today in Hawaiian Eye at Shoppes of Maraval
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Had the pleasure of meeting Gally' once and what a turn gentleman he is indeed. !
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Had the pleasure of meeting Gally' once and what a turn gentleman he is indeed. !
Well we share d same bday so what u expect.
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Gally sends football warning.
By TnT Mirror Online Editor.
“Players have their own needs, and also family responsibilities to which they’re committed.” – Everald Cummings.
SACKED national football coach Everald “Gally” Cummings has described his dismissal as a vindictive act, designed, purposely to denude TnT’s Strike Squad players from the international acclaim they received under his charge.
Cummings, however, called on all citizens with the country’s football at heart to rally around the Strike Squad players so that no effective dismantling of the team would take place under Alvin Corneal’s stewardship.
“The real issue has nothing to do with my reluctance to put a proper training programme in place for the senior national squad.
“I was sacked because I sought the players’ interest at all times.
“As far as I’m concerned, top priority must always be given to the footballers.
“They’re the ones who through blood, sweat and tears give their best to cushion the demands which are always placed upon them.”
From what Cummings told Mirror, he was fired simply because he stood firm in his belief that players’ needs must be put in the correct perspective.
“If the controlling football body (TTFA) makes a million dollars from any games, then the people who competed to make such a take possible must share in the pie.
“Players have their own needs, and also family responsibilities to which they’re committed.
“But I’m under the impression that those Strike Squad players who brought so much glory to Trinidad and Tobago were only used as instruments to pay the TTRA’s bills.
Cummings said that he himself received just about $40,000 TTD over the two and a half years he served as the country’s national football coach.
“Even by the poorest Latin American standards this was a pauper’s pittance only to cover my personal expenses.
“The Strike Squad players fared no better than I did, as they received token handouts while competing in their World Cup qualifying matches.”
Cummings emphasised it was this same lack of concern for the players’ welfare which caused TnT its crucial World Cup qualifier against the United States last November.
“It’ll be first to admit that it was a communal decision by the team to remain in Fyzabad before playing against the United States.
“But all this was in keeping with a position in TTFA had taken as having no money to defray expenses.
“The TTFA had even turned down a request for comfortable buses instead of the maxi-taxis in which the team travelled.
“Had the impression given been otherwise, surely I would have made requests for the squad to overnight in Port of Spain before meeting the Americans.”
Cummings said the records are there to prove that under his stewardship and the guidance of members of his technical staff (who were also sacked) TnT’s football enjoyed a highly successful competitive period.
“At the international level we defeated some of the world’s best including extremely skillful teams from Europe and South America.
“But the entire team suffered from a tremendous amount of undermining which has finally surfaced publicly.”
Cummings added: “I’m a particularly disappointed man today.
“On the other hand I’m happy to have succeeded in bringing together the best national football team this country has ever seen.
“I believe the nation’s football future is solidly entrenched from the levels of attainment by the Strike Squad.
“The ball is now in the peoples’ court to ensure no systematic erosion of the senior national team takes place.”
Concerning his own role in TnT’s football after his sacking, Cummings said he’ll now revert to his coaching job at the Sports Ministry.
“It’ll continue my message in the nation’s schools with the younger children, and village communities where my services are required,” said Cummings, who broached the cliché “Kaisocer” in keeping with the rhythmic structure he had hoped to maintain before his dismissal as TnT’s national football coach.
Cummings has been replaced by Alvin Corneal, national soccer from 1979 to 1982.
1990
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Interview with Everald "Gally" Cummings
T&T Express
Despite having appeared at its only World Cup in 2006 Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) holds a decent record at qualifying campaigns and barring controversial decisions both on and off the field, T&T may well have graced the stage of three World Cups. At least that the view held by decorated player and coach Everald “Gally” Cummings.
T&T began it venture into the World Cup arena in 1965 in a bid to qualify for the 1966 World Cup in England after not being a part of the previous seven qualifying campaigns. And Cummings, who had gotten a call for national duty at the tender age of 15, was not selected to the team that exited the competition in the first round.
His next call for national duty came two years later for the CONCACAF championships in Jamaica and at that time him, along with Warren Archibald, Leroy De Leon and Jan Steadman, were regarded as the best young players so during that tournament they were scouted by coaches from the North American Soccer League (NASL) and awarded professional contracts.
Cummings said that having gone on to play professionally with the Atlanta Chiefs in the United States (US) where he rubbed shoulders with a group of experienced footballers from Germany, England, Ireland and Israel, some of whom would have had a couple World Cup campaigns under their belts, he would return to T&T in 1968 for the FIFA World Cup Mexico 1970 preparations.
T&T did not do well at the campaign and Cummings is still upset over the fact that the then Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation sold its home rights to Haiti and Guatemala.
“We played both legs of our tie with Guatemala across there losing the first game 4-0 and securing a goalless draw in the return while against Haiti we split the tie with a win apiece.
“So as history would have it we came back home with our tail between our legs and the only difference is that the football association made some money from the sale of the rights but fans were denied the opportunity to see their team play at home.
He recounted that back then football had structure and there was always a national team in training which had a group of dynamic players so when the foreign-based players returned, it was the icing on the cake.
READ MORE... (http://socawarriors.net/mens-senior-team/senior-team-news/senior-team-news/14066-interview-with-everald-gally-cummings.html)
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1. He unite T&T.
2. And he bring out his own style and called it kaisoca soccer....
Tiki Tak, Samba etc etc... is other teams style.
Hart need to bring back the T&T flavor and modernize it with some Tiki Tak and Samba and call it teriyaki.....
Maybe Bacchanal Soccer good too.
Wha allyuh say?
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:D :D :D :D Sam U is the friggin greatest, oui :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
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Gally talks on 2014 World Cup, Warner and bonus-gate.
By Earl Best (Wired868).
“Ask me not,” Everald “Gally” Cummings says, “what he did for the game but what the game did for him.”
The former Strike Squad coach is responding to a question about disgraced former FIFA vice-president, Austin Jack Warner.
Inviting the normally outspoken national player to be “brutally honest,” we had asked him for “an honest assessment of Mr Warner’s contribution to local football.” Do you agree, we add, with the view that, for as long as Mr Warner remains in the FIFA doghouse, Trinidad and Tobago’s football has no chance of making it back on to football’s biggest showcase?
We are made to wait for his answer as he carefully considers what he should say. Then he treats us to the adaptation of John F Kennedy’s famous injunction.
”You know,” he continues, “people talk as if football in Trinidad and Tobago began with Mr Warner. It didn’t. And it wouldn’t end with him either.
“Do you know that if we didn’t get robbed in Haiti,” he asks, not quite as calmly as before, “we would have qualified for the 1974 World Cup Finals? 1974! Where was Jack Warner then?
“And it’s 1989 that launched Warner, not the other way around. Go and check the records. He used the Strike Squad, the Strike Squad did not use him!”
He takes a deep breath, striving hard to keep his cool.
“I think Trinidad and Tobago football needs Jack Warner…but not before we put competent people to run the football. What we need him for is just to tell corporate T&T that they can start to put their money where their mouth is again because the Special Adviser who eye longer than everybody else own no longer in charge… “
We have been discussing the recently concluded World Cup Finals in Brazil. Cummings points out that he supports two international teams, Brazil and Germany.
Long before 1989, long before David Rudder in 1986, Gally felt that, in football as in culture, “Trinidad and Brazil (…) have the same vibrations.” And he had also long admired the German discipline and mastery of technique. When he did coaching courses in both countries, his first-hand experience there reinforced his convictions.
So it was the best elements of the football of these two countries that were fused on to the essential elements of T&T football to yield the blend Gally dubbed “Kaisoca soccer.”
And that is why for him the final outcome of World Cup 2014, in which Joachim Loew’s men claim the coveted trophy after an unprecedented 7-1 rout of the hosts in the semi-final, was bitter-sweet.
But, according to Gally, the German win does not signify a reshuffling of the hierarchy of world football. Samba is definitely in decline, Tiki taka has come to the end of the line but don’t expect the footballing world to start saying “Tiki Kaiser” anytime soon.
Contrary to what many are saying, Gally argues, Die Mannschaft is not about to become the team that all the world’s young footballers want to emulate. Nor will they dominate world football for the next decade. His conviction is based on the results in the last half-dozen World Cups, which make it quite clear that German football has been at or near the top of the world for decades now.
Often, they have had to settle to be the bridesmaid but they seemed to be always there or thereabouts.
Gally also disagrees with those who say that the recently completed World Cup in Brazil was the best ever. Conceding that it was “very entertaining,” the former Atlanta Chiefs and New York Cosmos professional is in no doubt that the best Finals he has ever seen took place in 1970. The sheer quality of that Brazilian outfit is something those who did not have the good fortune to see them play cannot really visualize.
And the opposition were no slouches either as becomes clear, says the soon-to-be-66-year-old Most Outstanding Player of the 1974 CONCACAF World Cup campaign, from “the greatest save ever made,” England’s Gordon Banks’ magnificent intervention to keep out Pele’s point-blank range header.
Talking footballing greatness, Gally says it is hard to separate Pele and Maradona but he insists that Messi runs a distant third. Both Pele and Dieguito, notwithstanding his left-footedness, were far more complete players than Messi, comfortable in any area of the field.
The Argentina campaign in the 2014 Finals underlined how much less effective the Barca Argentinian is when he is forced to operate outside his comfort zone, on the flanks.
Switching his attention to the domestic scene, Gally said he has “no confidence at all” in the current structure of national football to save the local game. He is certain that a Pro League “organized to cut the clubs off from their roots, from the communities,” is definitely not what local football needs.
Maybe something can be achieved with the Super League, he says. He does not, however, expect the men currently in charge of national football to make the necessary adjustments to the existing structure.
Asked for his thoughts on the current national coach and whether he thinks the 54-year-old can guide T&T football back to the World Cup Finals, Gally had little to offer.
“I know Mr Hart’s name and I know he came from Canada,” the former Strike Squad coach confessed. ”I know nothing about his credentials so I have no more to say about him.”
Here he stops to take a side-swipe at the TTFA which is “consistently hiring foreign coaches at inflated salaries and making no attempt to let the country and the fans know what they have achieved as is the norm all over the footballing world.”
“But do you think we have any chance of getting to Russia in 2018 or Qatar in 2022?” we enquire.
A broad smile is the first response.
“Well, if we get back the millions of dollars we collected in 2006,” he eventually says, “we might have a chance…”
“So you agree with the Soca Warriors’ decision to keep on fighting for their money in spite of having got from Government the $1.3 million they estimated was due to them?”
A frown furrows his brow.
“As long as we understand,” he says slowly, wagging a warning finger at me and through me, I recognize, at Shaka Hislop, Brent Sancho, Kelvin Jack and the ten others, “that that money belongs to Trinidad and Tobago football and not to 13 Soca Warriors.
“And that in going after it, they are acting not on behalf of the TTFA or on behalf of the Soca Warriors but on behalf of the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.”
It is an important point which much of the public discussion of the issue has completely missed.
Or ignored.
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Very interesting interview
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Asked for his thoughts on the current national coach and whether he thinks the 54-year-old can guide T&T football back to the World Cup Finals, Gally had little to offer.
“I know Mr Hart’s name and I know he came from Canada,” the former Strike Squad coach confessed. ”I know nothing about his credentials so I have no more to say about him.”
Here he stops to take a side-swipe at the TTFA which is “consistently hiring foreign coaches at inflated salaries and making no attempt to let the country and the fans know what they have achieved as is the norm all over the footballing world.”
Same old Same old with Gally ...
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While I agree we need to get the local coaches involve and at a hight level, the local game has gone and leave them in de dust and all they do is sit and hope someone bail them out or rescue them, they not doing anything to help themselves.
The only thing I don't like about we current situation is, before, de TTFF and de TTFA would do all in they power to give a foreign coach all he needs to do his work and the current TTFA treating Hart d way they treat a local coach and yes, it should not be divided, but why are we paying a foreign (locally born) coach a lump sum and he is not coaching or doing anything for our senior team on a consistent way?
We might as well had gone with a local guy? We can't hear from Mr Hart? I am not sure if he not realizing that his reputation is on the line which will leave Gally and company to say they were right all the time.
Hart not putting his feet down and taking action. We are paying a coach $10,000 - $12,000 USD a month (??) to coach a team for 6/7 games a year.
As for Gally, time to hang up your boots.
But you have a few good points, the money the 06 Warriors going after should be divided between all of T&T football, but then, all of T&T football needs to join the fight with them to get it.
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The issue with local or foreign is not very complicated. Before Jack, the TFA will bring a foreign coach basically for the WC and after a couple months he gone. So to entice him to come he got a big lump sum. A combination of govt and private donors. When Jack came in power and he was elevated in Concacaf he did both. He had Portafield coach for a long time. Portafield was a resident of TT, I believe. He paid Porta with Concacaf money, I presume. He did that with Maturana also. Beehhakker was a short term experiment. And to entice Beenhakker, they gave him the world. Then he left. For good reasons.
And I think you guys being unfair to Hart. You all know all the politics of getting games against decent opposition. teams looking at your FIFA rankings because they don't want to lose to a (shithong team) team like TT. What do you want TFA to do? Then if we get a game we can't get our best players because they are on the other end of the earth, they injured or their coach forbid them. Look at the case of Hyland. We playing officially Concacaf Cup and he had to miss the 2nd round because of club duties.
And trying to discredit Gally is disengenuous. He did his best with very little and got spit on. I don't agree with everything he says, but he makes sense most of the time. And what makes you think the game past Gally ? I see it have plenty old coaches at the international.
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While I agree we need to get the local coaches involve and at a hight level, the local game has gone and leave them in de dust and all they do is sit and hope someone bail them out or reduce them, they not doing anything to help themselves.
The only thing I don't like about we current situation is, before, de TTFF and de TTFA would do all in they power to give a foreign coach all he needs to do his work and the current TTFA treating Hart d way they treat a local coach and yes, it should not be divided, but why are we paying a foreign (locally born) coach a lump sum and he is not coaching or doing anything for our senior team on a consistent way?
We might as well had gone with a local guy? We can't hear from Mr Hart? I am not sure if he not realizing that his reputation is on the line which will leave Gally and company to say they were right all the time.
Hart not putting his feet down and taking action. We are paying a coach $10,000 - $12,000 USD a month (??) to coach a team for 6/7 games a year.
As for Gally, time to hang up your boots.
But you have a few good points, the money the 06 Warriors going after should be divided between all of T&T football, but then, all of T&T football needs to join the fight with them to get it.
but hart and his staff has not been paid
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Gally! is a damn good coach.
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Gally! is a damn good coach.
hart is a damn good coach as well...
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why doesn't gally offer his assistance to hart?
too much pride?
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why doesn't gally offer his assistance to hart?
too much pride?
You paying him?
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why doesn't gally offer his assistance to hart?
too much pride?
You paying him?
it happens all the time in other sports... attending a few sessions and meeting hart and giving advice... why should they have to pay for that?
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Good talking Contro.
Is only money, nobody eh doing nothing free anymore.
A few sessions eh go kill no one.
But Gally head hard, he still vex with de TTFF and Jack from 20 years now, he have nothing good to say, ever, you think Hart really want to hear from he.
Gally asking for credentials, what credentials he or any locals he calling for to coach have?
Even when we had coach with credentials Gally still find time to complain and discredit them.
Beenhakker took T&T to de WC and Gally still don't recognize de man.
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Any coach who gets 8 goals from El Salvador in an important intense regional competition cannot have my respect! It shows he is lacking in technical and tactical ability. Canada gets rid of him and TTFA thinks he represents a certain sector from which they will get funding .But that sector not that gullible. And government not giving PNM Tim Kee money just so . So they in a monkey pants! Bad decisions all around! Check and see how low key everything is now! Nothing to excite the population . I wish all of them luck. They catching at straws!
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Good talking Contro.
Is only money, nobody eh doing nothing free anymore.
A few sessions eh go kill no one.
But Gally head hard, he still vex with de TTFF and Jack from 20 years now, he have nothing good to say, ever, you think Hart really want to hear from he.
Gally asking for credentials, what credentials he or any locals he calling for to coach have?
Even when we had coach with credentials Gally still find time to complain and discredit them.
Beenhakker took T&T to de WC and Gally still don't recognize de man.
:beermug: :beermug:
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Allyuh is real jokers, oui. All the coaches get a King's ransom, but allyuh insist that Gally should volunteer his services. Allyuh friggin nuts!!!
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Allyuh is real jokers, oui. All the coaches get a King's ransom, but allyuh insist that Gally should volunteer his services. Allyuh friggin nuts!!!
How?
Ent King and Charles getting paid?
Why would we want Gally to work for free?
Gally want to come in public and talk, then take talk back.
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Any coach who gets 8 goals from El Salvador in an important intense regional competition cannot have my respect! It shows he is lacking in technical and tactical ability. Canada gets rid of him and TTFA thinks he represents a certain sector from which they will get funding .But that sector not that gullible. And government not giving PNM Tim Kee money just so . So they in a monkey pants! Bad decisions all around! Check and see how low key everything is now! Nothing to excite the population . I wish all of them luck. They catching at straws!
Its Honduras not El Salvador.
And every coach have bad days and yes, 8 goals is unacceptable, I woulda get vex to.
So who you sugesting we hire?
Because it dont matter who we bring Gally go still find a problem.
And yes, ah hate de low key thing, I remember Gally was very low key to while Jack was still riding him.
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And every coach have bad days and yes, 8 goals is unacceptable, I woulda get vex to.
Allyuh! Remember this statement by Sam. Everycoach has a bad day, sometimes. Even the great Scolari!
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But Gally head hard, he still vex with de TTFF and Jack from 20 years now, he have nothing good to say
Sam, your head just as hard as Gally. And do you have anything good to say about Jack after all the years you reading things about him.
Look, I have no issues with allyuh not wanting Gally to be coach. You all pointed out certain defficiencies he has. No credentials or coaching badges, etc. OK. But results is what counts. He did as good a job as most coaches who have coached TT. Right now, all TT coaches are being measured or will be measured against Beenie's achievement. That is the yardstick. And a good one too. Qualify the team for WC or you just another dud.
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And add Bertille St Clair who took de under 20 team to de WC.
Add Zoran Vranes who did de same.
And Anton with de Under 17 team.
Gally, did very good but he never achieve. Gally does act like he is de best and no one eh come close.
He was also one of Jack boys, but things get sour and now he sour for life, you think Jack studying he?
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Any coach who gets 8 goals from El Salvador in an important intense regional competition cannot have my respect! It shows he is lacking in technical and tactical ability. Canada gets rid of him and TTFA thinks he represents a certain sector from which they will get funding .But that sector not that gullible. And government not giving PNM Tim Kee money just so . So they in a monkey pants! Bad decisions all around! Check and see how low key everything is now! Nothing to excite the population . I wish all of them luck. They catching at straws!
yea the cad players threw the match, what does that have to do with Hart? just like when our players throw the match against guyana to get back at the ttff...
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Any coach who gets 8 goals from El Salvador in an important intense regional competition cannot have my respect! It shows he is lacking in technical and tactical ability. Canada gets rid of him and TTFA thinks he represents a certain sector from which they will get funding .But that sector not that gullible. And government not giving PNM Tim Kee money just so . So they in a monkey pants! Bad decisions all around! Check and see how low key everything is now! Nothing to excite the population . I wish all of them luck. They catching at straws!
yea the cad players threw the match, what does that have to do with Hart? just like when our players throw the match against guyana to get back at the ttff...
Contro, How you know they throw the match? You have evidence.That team was not prepared properly. Otto complained about players going to Asia. Jack embroiled with his FIFA problems, which had an effect on the preparations. No warm up games. Oh! I forgot, we played India. You talking some crock dey Breds.
That whole WC campaign was heading down-under from the very start. You know that very well. But you just want to get at Gally. At least Gally get them to that final game. Otto team failed in the group stage. And he got plenty money. How much Gally get. Not blaming Otto because he was between a rock and granite when he accepted to coach TT. But he failed big time.
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And add Bertille St Clair who took de under 20 team to de WC.
Add Zoran Vranes who did de same.
And Anton with de Under 17 team.
Gally, did very good but he never achieve. Gally does act like he is de best and no one eh come close.
He was also one of Jack boys, but things get sour and now he sour for life, you think Jack studying he?
Again Breds. What is you measuring stick. We dealing with the senior team. Not dissing junior WC. Gally was not in charge of junior football(correct me). Is senior football we talking bout.
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Any coach who gets 8 goals from El Salvador in an important intense regional competition cannot have my respect! It shows he is lacking in technical and tactical ability. Canada gets rid of him and TTFA thinks he represents a certain sector from which they will get funding .But that sector not that gullible. And government not giving PNM Tim Kee money just so . So they in a monkey pants! Bad decisions all around! Check and see how low key everything is now! Nothing to excite the population . I wish all of them luck. They catching at straws!
yea the cad players threw the match, what does that have to do with Hart? just like when our players throw the match against guyana to get back at the ttff...
Contro, How you know they throw the match? You have evidence.That team was not prepared properly. Otto complained about players going to Asia. Jack embroiled with his FIFA problems, which had an effect on the preparations. No warm up games. Oh! I forgot, we played India. You talking some crock dey Breds.
That whole WC campaign was heading down-under from the very start. You know that very well. But you just want to get at Gally. At least Gally get them to that final game. Otto team failed in the group stage. And he got plenty money. How much Gally get. Not blaming Otto because he was between a rock and granite when he accepted to coach TT. But he failed big time.
get at gally??? have i ever attacked gally??? i support gally but not that garbage he write there about SH, that's pure bull.. the warriors throw the damn game... just like the CAD players, i know people very close to the team...
otto was a good coach, the players were embroiled in the jw battle, they throw the match... it was plain to see... birchall and dem didn't care.. i call them out for their comments and one big uproar on here with people making excuses for their failure... trinis too happy...
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Now Gally wants Strike Squad $$
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).
Twenty-seven years after the successes of the Strike Squad, its players are still clamouring for monies and medals owed.
Coach of the team Everald ‘Gally’ Cummings said yesterday that the players were promised $600,000 for the infamous November 19, 1989 match against the United States at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in 1989, which they lost 0-1. The agreement was made between the technical staff, led by Cummings and then manager Oliver Camps and T&T Football Association’s chief cook and bottle washer Jack Warner, and the outcome did not matter.
The funds were to be shared among 22 players and the five-man technical staff which comprised Cummings, assistant coach Neville Chance, trainer Ken Henry, physiotherapist Lester Osuna and Camps, but Cummings said yesterday they have not received a cent to date.
He lamented the disrespect meted out to the team months before the match, saying the team was awarded the Chaconia Silver Medal for its achievements in 1989 but when he went for the medals with his captain Clayton Morris at the President’s House, they received only one medal.
Cummings said he was shocked and disappointed as the players had to share the disappointing news.
“How can they give us one medal for an entire team?. The players have been asking for their medals, which they rightfully earned as well as the monies promised to them,” Cummings said. The issue, he said, was raised with President Anthony Carmona in 2014.
The Guardian was reliably informed the issue surrounding the money was discussed at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the TTFA last month and attempts are underway to obtain Cabinet Notes for it, since it was expected to have been paid by the former government.
It is understood the amount with interest has reached a whopping $8 million which, then was listed under accounts payable in the TTFA. The Guardian learnt the embattled football association has sent this matter, along with other questionable payments under accounts payable, to its corporate lawyer Sheraza Khan for advice.
Cummings said he has fought to get the money over the years but was not taken seriously. “People were side-tracked by other issues, such as the result of the match, the over-selling of tickets, the progress of Warner after the match and other matters and we were totally forgotten” he explained.
He was also told by successive leaders of the TTFA that they did not know anything about the payment. He described the now famous Strike Squad as the best team ever to wear the red, white and black of T&T, adding it would be nice if they can all get the medals and money owed to them during the coming Independence Day celebrations in August. He noted while he prefered the TTFA to have been fair and honour its commitment, it did not work out that way.
He reminded all that monies owed to the Soca Warriors were paid by the previous government.
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I can't hang my head low enough with this one.
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The problem in T&T is bigger than we care to admit!!
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Gally, go and sleep nah, Why de hell yuh didn't sue Jack? Ent he is de one who owe you?
These people just so f00cking dotish in T&T, is like them eh having nothing to do, they have to much free time.
Jack control T&T for over 30 years, yuh now come with this.
Ah hope yuh eh get a black cent or medal.
De thing is, these men were all Jack puppets and now, they get strength.
Gally, remind me of de women and them who say Bill Cosby drug them and f00ck them 30 years ago, but they come out now.
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dey should have a statute of limitations on Gally dotishness ..... this is not the first time with Gally. He did everything wrong on November 19th and still have a serious tabanca after over 2 decades.
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The only thing dotish move is he didn't go the media, bachanal route in the past, cause that's the only way to get results in TT, embarrass everybody , and yuhself loud loud, maybe he think he have to much class for that....and the tabanca must be toted, if yuh see yuh can't get yuh 600,000/ 22.. But millions paid to individuals.
But typical of we.. Screw he, he and he players serve we and lost..not a reward..winners here is everything..yet we want development. Yet we wonder why ppl not encouraged..maybe they scared of wasting their time and being wasted, cause there is always more losers than winners, though in many cases, the many losers sacrifice and work just as hard if not harder than the few winners... But ppl who don't even bother to try,give or sacrifice will NEVER know, and talk ah setta shit..nothing given, nothing lost..winning or wining on the backs of others.
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Let's see what becomes of this
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Launch of Gally's Football Finishing School (GFFS)
Gally's Football Finishing School.
On Wednesday May 18th, 2016, Football Legend Everald" Gally "Cummings will launch the Gally Cummings Football Finishing School at Trotters Restaurant on Maraval Road.
According to "Gally" the forerunner to this project took place in 2002 when he staged a live in camp at Halyconia Inn in Cascade.
Most of the participants then came from upscale neighbourhoods in Manhattan, New York where he was based at the time. It gave the participants an opportunity to experience our culture and establish friendships with some of the youngsters from Trinidad and Tobago.
Fifteen years later after calls from countless citizens to 'start his own thing' he has now established a non -profit company Gally's Football Finishing school (GFFS) to develop an elite group of skilful, technically sound and goal scoring proficient football players (boys and girls) within the age group of 9 - 16 years old while addressing their social, psychological, emotional and physiological needs.
He himself exhibited his football prowess as a 9-year-old youngster at Richmond Street Boys elementary school in POS in the primary school football league, a standout in Fatima College and instrumental in the school winning its First Intercol. He also started representing Trinidad & Tobago’s Senior National Football team at 16 years old.
Gally, the only Footballer to date to have won the prestigious Sportsman of the Year Award (1974), Individual of the year Award (1990) and two National Awards, in 1974 and 1989, would like to ensure sustainability of our natural and indigenous style of football which has won him international recognition as a player and coach.
His programme is nationwide and begins in Port of Spain and then moves to Chaguanas, Tacarigua , San Fernando, Siparia and in Tobago starting in the first week of July 2016.
Interested persons can contact us by email at gallysffs@gmail.com and check us on Facebook at Facebook/gallysffs and website gallysffs.com
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Wonder why non profit , he could charge a small enrollment fee ,and also gave free sessions if you qualify.
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Wonder why non profit , he could charge a small enrollment fee ,and also gave free sessions if you qualify.
Non-profit doesn't mean that you don't make a profit, it's what you do with the profits.
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Wish him and his organization the very best.
T&T is poised to enter a football renaissance of sorts.
Hopefully it will be sustained and won't be short lived.
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Gally has set up a finishing school in the past 2 months;
http://www.gallysffs.com/
Gally’s Football Finishing School is a recently established (March 2016) non-profit organization whose main goal is to develop an elite group of “Total Footballers” within the 9 to 16 age group and utilizing the camaraderie, joy, positivity and confidence gained from the fine-tuning of their technical attributes to strengthen values and counteract delinquency.
The concept behind the naming of my soccer academy, "Gally’s Football Finishing School" (GFFS) stems from the fact that as a player I was always exceptional at “finishing” (goal scoring) from anywhere on the football field. As a coach I have also moulded some of the best goal scorers in Trinidad & Tobago’s football history but an important understanding from this phrase is also borrowed from the classical meaning of "Finishing school" which focuses on helping the youth defy delinquency, develop positive attitudes and behavioural characteristics while promoting order & discipline in life.
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Youngsters pursue goals with ‘Gally’
bpartofit.com.
Hundreds of young budding footballers in T&T, boys and girls, have improved their chances of making it to their school, club or the national team after their involvement in Gally’s Football Finishing School (GFFS), put on by former national coach Everald ‘Gally’ Cummings and designed to create well-rounded individuals through the sport of football.
The programme, supported by the blink | bmobile Foundation, was held during the August holidays, starting with approximately 60 young players at St Mary’s College Grounds in July and making keys stops at the Eddie Hart Grounds in Tacarigua, Lange Park Recreation Ground in Chaguanas and Guaracara Park, Pointe-à-Pierre where participants received certificates of participation.
TSTT’s Chief Marketing Officer Camille Campbell praised Gally for the work he has done, noting his initiative is synonymous with her Company’s goal to assist in the development of our young people and thereby guiding them in the right direction for the future. She said it was because of this similarity that her Company grasped at the opportunity to support, and further explained that through the avenues of sport, culture, education and health, the blink | bmobile Foundation will continue to seek to chart the way forward for our youth.
At Guaracara Park, the players between the ages 7-16 years were put through basic goal-scoring drills before being asked to put that training into practice, in game situations. Participants at the clinics were exposed to the fundamentals of the game by a number of former national players turn coaches, including Ron La Forest, Selris Figaro, Curtis Orr, Michael Grayson, George Romano and Allister Ramdoo, and received words of advice from former football greats Brian Williams, Shaka Hislop and Sammy Llewellyn among many others.
Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Darryl Smith made an appearance on the opening day at Serpentine Road, St Clair having represented St Mary’s College, under Gally’s coaching in 1991, and advised players to use the opportunity wisely and find a blend between the sport and academics.
Gally said the academy was confirmation of the enormous talent that exists in T&T that should be nurtured and put to use in making the country proud. He said the clinic has been a tremendous success, but GFFS directors must now decide on the way forward, having received numerous requests for his coaching in other Caribbean islands.
“I have also been working on forming partnerships with the New York Cosmos, the Club I played for in the US, and Tiburones Rojos de Veracruz, the Club I represented in Mexico, to take the clinic international, but before that we have to conduct a session in the sister-isle of Tobago, as we also have a request from them as well.” Gally said.
Before the distribution of certificates, little Maya Wong, a 12 year old who attends St Peters Private School in San Fernando said the clinic has been a huge help for her as a striker. “I have been learning how to score goals better and it will help me when I am playing for my school. I particularly like the game situations at the camp because I received so much more experience playing” Wong said.
Another young player Ronaldo Adolphus, named after the famous Brazilian footballer ‘Ronaldo’, said he is using the training at the clinic to enable him to make his school team at East Mucurapo in the new school term. “I think Gally is a very good coach and from him I have already seen improvements in my game. I am a utility player but I like playing in the midfield more” Adolphus said.
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Gally: Local coaches can do the job.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).
Everald “Gally” Cummings, the former national player and coach has said the country does not need a foreign coach to turn around the fortunes of T&T football.
In the wake of Tuesday’s resignation of national coach Tom Saintfiet from Belgium, the ex “Strike Squad” coach said, “We have the technical capacity right here among our local fraternity, but the problem is that they have been fighting and undermining each other for decades and has created a space for others to exploit.”
He called on local coaches to stop and take stock of themselves. Cummings who guided the T&T “Strike Squad” to within a point of qualifying for the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy, believes the T&T Football Association (TTFA)under president David John-Williams has been throwing away money by the hiring and firing of international coaches.
“We cannot be throwing away money, especially in times of scarce financial resources and with the TTFA in debt.”
According to Cummings: “This is not 2005 as there is no Dwight Yorke or Russell Latapy.
“It was Russell who changed the momentum and gave us that chance after his outstanding game against Guatemala.
“Before that coach, Dutchman Leo Beenhakker had suffered a 5-1 away loss to the Guatemalans.”
“Gally” is calling on the TTFA to appoint people who understand the players; know intuitively their special traits; our style and turn the team into an attacking dynamic and cohesive force in a few weeks time, saying he did it back in 1987 in a space of two weeks, when the country had lost to the United States.
He believes the time has come for locals to remove themselves from the shackles of colonialism and have confidence their own strength and talents.
He explained the country has been making the same mistakes for the last 20 years and more, yet expect different results.
“We need to ask whether we are getting the best technical advice and to let the population know what is the vision for football,” Cummings asked.
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Anyone at the Convention??
https://www.nscaaconvention.com/ehome/183993/417749/
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That 5-1 loss was under Bertille. Gally stop talking shit
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He does have a point though..I feel if Gally, Bertille, Jan, Dick Furlongue, Latapy, Hutson Charles, all work together , in a perfect world the result would be positive.
(not Shabazz)
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Now lets put things in place—Gally, Barber.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).
It was 28 years ago that the American football team turned a sea of red shirts at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo into a river of tears, after a hurtful 1-0 win prevented what seem a certain passage to the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy for T&T’s Strike Squad which at the time needed just a draw.
Heartbroken players and fans struggled to cope with this memory any time a TT/USA encounter appeared at any competition.
But on Tuesday night at the new home of football at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Balmain Couva, this ghost was finally put to rest, not only because of an impressive 2-1 win by the Soca Warriors over the USA, but because the victory prevented the CONCACAF giants from qualifying for the world cup for the first time since 1986.
The US football fraternity has since struggled to cope with this loss, as one commentator described it as a catastrophe. Strike Squad coach Everald ‘Gally Cummings and midfielder Hutson ‘Barber’ Charles refused to joined the euphoria and instead called for a serious development programme to be introduced by the T&T Football Association.
Both expressed satisfaction with the result but preferred the implementation of a system that would prevent TT from finishing bottom of the standing, as it did in spite of the win.
In a confident showing in front a bare crowd in Couva, T&T snatched the lead when striker Shahdon Winchester got the slightest of touches to direct a right-side Alvin Jones cross past US goalkeeper Tim Howard for the lead in the 17th minute.
But it was Jones’ thunderous right footer from some 30 yards out that confined the US to fifth on the standing with 12 points, as their nearest rivals Panama and Honduras won their respective encounters against Costa Rica and Mexico respectively.
The ex national coach and his player said they were happy for the win in the midst of a failed campaign, but believe the sport had made very little strides since the famous November 19 match.
“What we should focus on now is our position in the CONCACAF region and our achievements in the Caribbean over the past few years.
“We finish bottom of the table in the campaign and after 28 years in which so much has happened, still we are in need of improvement” Cummings said.
He joined with Charles in calling for coach Dennis Lawrence to build his team from home here in T&T, saying the core of the team should be based here in T&T and only include international players who could add value to it for key tournaments.
This team, they believe, should focus on dominating regional football as it did in the past first, before it can consider Concacaf achievements.
According to Cummings, authorities should consider selecting an all-local staff that consists of knowledgeable coaches who are aware of the type of football that will be best suited to the country, as well as a technical committee to critically analyse matches.
Charles called on Lawrence to make use of all the FIFA breaks by having international friendly games and urged the TTFA to support him in this venture.
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Real innovative. really ? Excellent local coaches who have no foreign expertise, reminds me how I studied computer programming, 30 years ago, it still on my resume, yet I now trying to learn C#, Java, .net.. hey I was good at fortran and typing the cards.
And what happens as locals get good, offered real money foreign, like many JA players, they go, so yuhbring in replacements, what happens when yuh reach 3rd and 4th string replacements due to work, injuries, age, life..do you pick yuh best team or best players you presently working with locally, and when we win, do we not celebrate cause we serious now, and when we loss, do we get vex, because of the weaknesses of the players cause of the localization of the game, blame players, coach, admin, and flip the script once more, "last time, we promise " but we need to blah, blah blah.. they say a lot, but hear and see no one, not even themselves.. all experts in outta timing
I played in a game with A bunch of world stars, does that mean i'm a world star ? What if they were in their 40's and 50's and I was 18. I handled them in spite of their experience ? Did US have a mostly local team, Lott sa technology, money, GPS system, facilities, etc
Mexico, Panama, Honduras.. what they had ? Where they better players played or playing, where coaches from, everybody else move ahead cause they pull together, especially when things get tough.. we does want to pull apart MORE, and expect more positive results..
Let Lawrence ask for help when he needs, but support him, even if he don't, even if yuh disagree with his method, even if he fired, yet learn from his mistakes, but if you already know everything you could and have nothing to learn, then you cannot preach or teach development , you can only preach your accomplishments and your greatness. And oh gorm, per capita we have so many great ones. It is no coincidence that many top coaches in sports were not the greatest players themselves. Maybe Egos gets in the way, I dunno. All ah we is experts, ent
I ain't finish my noise, cause is just noise. I will stop here doh, cause I might mess up my paragraphs. I hope Lawrence listens to everybody and develops himself, and makes the decisions to better our football, in spite of our deficiencies. Our Natiional issue doh isn't just our football, it's might be and i'm not saying it isn't, but could it be our attitudes ? Cause, I see many more critical issues in the way we live together. We have evolved to a "just do it" society, all about the I and I. The rest of my opinion will be expressed over the beers I laugh or cry over, these days I don't have that many (beers) in front of me. Life gets in the way. When I support TT, when we win anybody or any positive event, be it sporting, political or cultural, I have a moment of hope not just for that event, but for our country, 2 islands, many peoples, different backgrounds, ONE nation.
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He joined with Charles in calling for coach Dennis Lawrence to build his team from home here in T&T, saying the core of the team should be based here in T&T and only include international players who could add value to it for key tournaments.
Had Kevin Verity adopted that approach, perhaps Gally, Barclay, Tony Douglas, Archibald, Steve David etc would not have been on the 1973 World Cup qualifying squad in Haiti
Matter of fact, Verity definitely would not have been coach and some other deserving, excellent. -and knowledgeable local coach would have been in charge of that squad.
Doh even talk about the 2005/06 soca warriors that went to Germany. Shabazz or Stuart Charles-Fevrier woulda coach dem to Victory there for sure.
And of course that team would have been without Shaka, Lawrence, Dog, Carlos Edwards, Avery John, Birchall, Yorke, Latas, Stern John, Kenwyne Jones, Evans Wise, etc too
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The very first thing Alvin Jones say after de game is that he hope he get a foreign contract
So he would no longer be local based and therefore could not be a part of the core of the squad.
But we have a endless supply of local based talent on the production line so no scene.
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He joined with Charles in calling for coach Dennis Lawrence to build his team from home here in T&T, saying the core of the team should be based here in T&T and only include international players who could add value to it for key tournaments.
Had Kevin Verity adopted that approach, perhaps Gally, Barclay, Tony Douglas, Archibald, Steve David etc would not have been on the 1973 World Cup qualifying squad in Haiti
Matter of fact, Verity definitely would not have been coach and some other deserving, excellent. -and knowledgeable local coach would have been in charge of that squad.
Doh even talk about the 2005/06 soca warriors that went to Germany. Shabazz or Stuart Charles-Fevrier woulda coach dem to Victory there for sure.
And of course that team would have been without Shaka, Lawrence, Dog, Carlos Edwards, Avery John, Birchall, Yorke, Latas, Stern John, Kenwyne Jones, Evans Wise, etc too
He joined with Charles in calling for coach Dennis Lawrence to build his team from home here in T&T, saying the core of the team should be based here in T&T and only include international players who could add value to it for key tournaments.
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So how is what you highlighted in bold any different from what has happened in the past?
More accurately, which foreign based T&T players, in your opinon, DO NOT ADD VALUE TO THE TEAM? And what would you consider to be a non key tournament?
How are you going to form the core of the team with local based players, yet bring in foreign based players for "key tournaments"?
Maybe I should ask, what is your definition of core?
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Had Kevin Verity adopted that approach, perhaps Gally, Barclay, Tony Douglas, Archibald, Steve David etc would not have been on the 1973 World Cup qualifying squad in Haiti
Palos, with the exception of Archibald and Figaro, all the players were local. Gally was back home. He, Barclay were playing with Malvern. Tony was with Civic Centre, Steve was with Police. Dilly was not there. After Haiti, Gally went Mexico and the rest mentioned went to various clubs in the NASL. I understand where Gally coming from, but it would not work today. The access to overseas contract is much more opened today than before. In the 60s and 70s, the NASl was the "only" option. But Gally played both NASL and Mex. Part of the success of that 73 squad was that, the core of the team were home based. Edgar and Ken Henry molded that team together. They got them in the Hex, and TTFA decided that they needed a foreign coach to take them to the WC. They got Verity. With the exception of Archie and Figgy, everybody was home-based.
Then when Gally was coach, he had mostly local players, because hardly anybody was playing overseas except in US universities. He molded that team together. Can that be done again. Somewhat..maybe. If the good local in the core of the national team get contract overseas now, they will go. And there goes your local based scheme. Then if we get a good English player or players, you would want to include them. So Gally will have to change course in today's world of football.
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Gally Cummings set to launch autobiography.
By Jelani Beckles (T&T Newsday).
FORMER T&T coach and player Gally Cummings, 72, will soon release his highly anticipated autobiography. The book, Gally Cummings: The Autobiography, took three years to complete. The date of the launch has not yet been announced.
A media release from Gally’s Football Finishing School said the book offers some critical life lessons and is extremely timely as the country attempts to reset the administration of football. The autobiography provides football fans with an on-the-field view of some of the most exciting and extraordinary moments of T&T’s rich football history. Fans yearning for live football action can relive some of this country's glory moments.
“If they can’t see exciting and entertaining football, right now, in T&T, they can read about it,” said Cummings in the press release.
Gally Cummings: The Autobiography chronicles 60 years of football brilliance as it traces a trajectory of excellence in sport. It explores a legendary journey which began when an eight-year-old Cummings, considered a sports prodigy because of his natural talent, was selected from his primary school to represent the prestigious North Zone All Stars in zonal primary school competitions.
The book captures some of the most intriguing moments of football as Cummings recounts being selected, at 16, for the national senior team; his life as an 18-year-old pioneer of professional football in the US, playing with the Atlanta Chiefs in Georgia, during the heights of the Civil Rights Movement, in the 1960s; a championship career, in the North American Soccer League (NASL), with the New York Cosmos; and the spectacular performances and injustices he faced as the MVP of the 1973 CONCACAF Championships in Haiti. At the 1973 CONCACAF Championships, Cummings and his national team-mates had five goals infamously disallowed against Haiti and as a result fell two points shy of qualifying for the FIFA 1974 World Cup. It is considered one of the biggest regional football scandals that denied one of the greatest TT teams a place at football's biggest showpiece.
Cummings was also a star for Fatima in the Secondary Schools Football League. As national coach for the 1990 World Cup campaign. the Strike Squad fell agonisingly short of qualifying for the World Cup, drawing 1-0 against the US at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain.
T&T has recognised Cummings for his service to sport as he won the Chaconia Medal Silver in 1989 and the Hummingbird Medal Gold in 1974. The former midfield maestro, who has won multiple T&T Footballer of the Year Awards, has also given back to the next generation of footballers. In 2016, he launched Gally's Football Finishing School in an effort to develop the goalscoring ability of young footballers.
The autobiography is an extensive work that also examines his professional years playing in the Mexican Primera Division, exclusive details of his coaching career and culminates with his analysis of the current state of T&T football. It is described as a riveting and revolutionary story, at the intersection of professional sports, civil rights, players rights, and a vision for T&T football that united a nation.
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I wonder if he remember our heart to heart conversation on the docks at Toronto Caribana, even if he didn’t know me. Felt like I was exchanging ideas with a big brother. He was, maybe still is, quite Influential in my view of football and life. Crawfie did, even after 18 years, shocked the hell outta me. :-[ Humility and Grace is how I classified those 2 greats.
But Gally probably was the 1 st youth football star I was impressed with in football playing for Fatima, against my QRC stars. I saw him at Paragon practices in the 60’s but never saw him play another game.
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In primary school days we heard and read a lot about Gally, Dilly, Archie, and the long list of excellent footballers of the 60s. I first saw Gally played in 68 on CIC ground for Paragon against Maple, POSFL. It just so happened the QRC first formers were playing CIC formers that same evening. Our game started before theirs, so we were able to see the final 30 minutes of their game. Maple was winning 3-1 or 2-1. But the speed and ball control of Gally was amazing. All the the things I was hearing on radio, word of mouth and reading on the newspapers was true. He was friggin damn good.
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In primary school days we heard and read a lot about Gally, Dilly, Archie, and the long list of excellent footballers of the 60s. I first saw Gally played in 68 on CIC ground for Paragon against Maple, POSFL. It just so happened the QRC first formers were playing CIC formers that same evening. Our game started before theirs, so we were able to see the final 30 minutes of their game. Maple was winning 3-1 or 2-1. But the speed and ball control of Gally was amazing. All the the things I was hearing on radio, word of mouth and reading on the newspapers was true. He was friggin damn good.
rightfully so, the reason I could relate was as he was not so much older than me, like a Sharkey or Jap...then I saw Archie and Twinkletoes...Deeks, that's when in my mind I went from Track to Football Field. Unfortunately I wasn't a good athlete. Talent without dedication to training.. I didn't see what guys did to be what they were. Today, many youths are similarly enamored by highlights, they play but they don't specific train. They are bombarded with many techniques in this information age, but in many instances do not have the experienced support and advice to help them best choose the technique that is suitable to them. Many trainers, many coaches, but the Elites need Elite coaches. Coaches must learn when to give up and separate the lion that managed to grow with the pack of wolves, they(the Coaches) sometimes tend to not let go, for their own benefit, and they themselves trying to gain their own experience working with a lion, not realizing they restricting that lion from being the beast it could be.
Not every good player will be a star, and some may just be shooting stars, that burn out way to soon.
All to say, environment,support and pertinent advice, are very critical components of any good player development.
I happened to observe some excellent community workers and coaches with youths (Dada comes to mind) from different areas, the only issue I saw very lacking was the support. Those coaches could work with the pack, but with the numbers they were working with, they had very litlle time for separating the best from the herd. The local experts need to volunteer to assist, and not necessarily run their own show. Happened to meet one guy from Patna Village who operated in that capacity, however, as an ex-drug addict and a non-athlete he actually gave all of his time, even if his experience was lacking. We need the experienced guys to play a supporting role, and not just stand aside and comment or criticize if their own ideas are not adopted. jmho.
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Those coaches could work with the pack, but with the numbers they were working with, they had very litlle time for separating the best from the herd.
Very true.
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‘Gally’ tells his story
By Ian Prescott (T&T Express)
Everald “Gally’ Cummings is a national icon.
Cummings has thrilled Trinidad and Tobago through his football skills since his days as a Fatima college student. He was a senior national team player as a 16-year-old and one of the country’s first players to play overseas in the days when there were few Caribbean professional footballers.
Before a team captained by Dwight Yorke and coached by respected Dutch coach Leo Beenhakker finally qualified T&T for their only FIFA Men’s World Cup in 2006, Cummings had figured in two T&T national teams to have come to the brink of such an achievement.
Cummings was one of three pros in the T&T team which in 1972 faced the world’s greatest player Pele when Santos Football Club of Brazil touched down in the country. He was also a key member of the 1973 team which was subject to dubious refereeing in Haiti when just failing to qualify for the Germany 1974 FIFA World Cup.
Even after his playing days were done, Cummings would cement his legacy as coach of the equally-iconic “Strike Squad”, the T&T national team which in November, 1989 - 21 years ago yesterday, failed by a single point to reach the 1990 World Cup when losing 1-0 to the United States before an overcrowded National Stadium in Port of Spain. A draw would have sufficed. And for the past few years, Cummings has also passed on his experience to youths through Gally’s Football Finishing School.
Cummings is now documenting his life in a 400-page book, which is to be launched at month’s end.
“I think it is about time I tell my story,” Gally said, the autobiography being a glimpse into his inner world and a look beyond the national icon he has become.
“I am letting people know who I am as a person,” Cummings added, “ I want them to see the kind of family structure I belonged too, where I came from, the trial and tribulation I endured.
Cummings hopes his autobiography would be taken in an historic context and that the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Sport, and other such institutions, would see it as instructive reading material for youngsters aspiring to rise above the circumstances into which they were born.
“I am hoping that the Ministry and other social institutions would buy the book, to show people the struggles and different things I had to go through, and the kind of exposure I got playing abroad to inspire people. It’s a kind of historic account with historic and memorable pictures.”
The autobiography took Cummings three years to complete and provides football fans with an on-the-field view of some of the most exciting and extraordinary moments of T&T’s rich football history. Fans yearning for good football will be thrilled.
Cummings believes his book offers some critical life lessons, on the state of play, and is extremely timely as the country attempts to reset the administration of football.
“If they can’t see exciting and entertaining football, right now, in Trinidad and Tobago, they can read about it,” said Cummings.
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Everald “Gally’ Cummings not optimistic about T&T football.
T&T Express Reports.
Nothing’s changed
FORMER national footballer and coach Everald “Gally’ Cummings sees very little light at the end up of the tunnel when it comes to football in Trinidad and Tobago and blames a series of poor administrators for taking the game to its current low.
“I don’t know where we can go,” Cummings said, “What I know is where we are at this time. It’s something that I predicted.”
Cummings was speaking on TV6’s Morning Edition (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7y3ioq) on Tuesday where he was highlighting his 386-page autobiography, a document of his 60-year journey in local football, which saw him selected to the national team as a 16-year-old Fatima College schoolboy.
His son, former St Mary‘s College standout Gabre Cummings, was responsible for the technical aspects and research on the book which is available nationwide at Nigel R Khan bookstores; Metropolitan book store, located at Capital Plaza , Frederick street, Port of Spain; Charran’s Book Store, Main Road, Chaguanas; and the Paper Based Bookstore, located at Normandie Hotel, St Ann’s.
Cummings lamented the decline over time from when his 1989 “Strike Squad” filled the National Stadium, to now when football lovers are more interested in foreign club teams than the T&T side.
“We have no more loyal spectators in Trinidad and Tobago,” Cummings declared. “We need to bring back the kind of football we played...and that was the type of football we played in 1989.”
Cummings also said there was great need for an administrative reset in local football.
“We need honest people coming into the fray and doing their best, not just for Trinidad and Tobago football, but for Trinbagonians,” he insisted. “We need young people getting involved and understanding the history of Trinidad and Tobago football, so we could get your own (football) administrators—just as we have young professionals.” In his book, Cummings catalogues a long history where local administrators have failed both football and its supporters. He remembers resisting attempts by a team administrator to turn him into a messenger boy in 1966 rather than being a teenage footballer who was selected to the national team. Having been ostracised for making a stand then, Cummings was often at odds with local administrators over his long career as both player and coach.
“I thought they were always about themselves, not the players,” said Cummings, “and that is the same way it is today.”
On Page 269, Cummings referred to the overselling of match tickets for T&T’s World Cup qualifier against the United States on November 19, 1989 as being cruel and criminal.
“If the stadium had crumbled on that day, as the architect confessed to in the Seemungal Enquiry, my entire family, other people’s family and spectators would have all died,” Cummings surmised.
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No room for grey
By Fazeer Mohammed (T&T Express).
Every single person who has ever lived to the age of 40 or beyond has at least one story worth telling.
Obviously only a very tiny minority ever get around to telling that story or attain such prominence that others feel it incumbent to portray that presumably remarkable life and re-tell that particularly unique story every so often and place it in the context of the changing times.
There doesn’t appear though to be a great regard academically for life stories told by, or on behalf of, significant sporting personalities as they are perceived to be quite boringly formulaic with chapters devoted to variations of My Greatest Moment, My Greatest Disappointment and the odd controversy, or even the occasional scandal thrown in to add some spice to what is really a quite tedious narrative.
On the other hand, the really thoughtful, heavyweight contributions seem to lean too heavily towards impressing the professorial types. Take CLR James’ Beyond A Boundary as an example. Since first published in 1963, it continues to be celebrated as a masterpiece of sports writing and socio-political commentary by the celebrated Trinidadian academic and activist.
My simple mind found much of the first half of the book to be very insightful and thought-provoking while the rest of it was a real struggle to make sense of James’ apparent attempt to impress his English audience with references to themes and subjects which could be loosely defined as European classical education.
With Everard “Gally” Cummings’ autobiography, there are no subtleties. Almost every page reverberates with the barely-concealed anger and impatience of someone who feels the story must be told first-person to defend his name and present the “true facts”—Colm Imbert’s trademark phrase which “Gally” repeated in our discussion on Morning Edition on TV6 last Tuesday—because too many have misrepresented too many issues for too long (at least in his eyes) and if it takes 387 pages to address the perceived injustices, so be it.
Somewhere in the Lange Park home of the former national footballer and national coach is an axe handle. Why just the handle? Because the blade has been ground down to the wood and the dust of what appears to be an enthusiastic and long-overdue endeavour is sprinkled liberally across the 25 chapters. If the sub-title as The 60-Year History Of A T&T Footballing Treasure comes across as presumptuous, it is only because the man who broke new ground for this country in the professional game, who starred on the field in the midst of the glaring injustice in Haiti in 1973 and then as head coach when the eventually failed “Road to Italy” campaign in 1989 galvanised the nation as never before, tells his story with the thinly-veiled rage of someone who feels his achievements in the game have been deliberately misrepresented and marginalised across the decades by an array of personalities with an assortment of nefarious agendas.
In what jumps off the pages as “Gally’s” binary perspective there are no shades of grey, just plain old black and white. This in stark contrast to the conciliatory, almost apologetic tone of another former national footballer (and cricketer) and national coach Alvin Corneal, who breezed through a lifetime of experiences on and off the field of play in just 160 pages in 2012 and even when touching on his own encounters with discrimination and injustice seemed inclined to offer the wrongdoers the benefit of the doubt.
While Corneal, a senior national footballer when still at Fatima College more than ten years before Cummings brought similar honour to the same Mucurapo Road institution, is apparently no favourite of the younger man, the real indictment is saved for the irrepressible “Jack” Warner, whose admission of over-selling tickets for the decisive World Cup qualifier against the USA on November 19, 1989 at the then National Stadium is condemned by “Gally” as “one of the most cruel, criminal and treasonous acts ever committed in the history of our small nation.”
By the way, if your intention is to be cast in a good light by the Most Valuable Player at that ill-fated World Cup qualifying tournament in Port-au-Prince, it is clearly useful to be a supporter of the People’s National Movement.
Before getting a copy of the book—gifted by “Gally” himself—I told media colleague Garth Wattley that I expected the autobiography to be like ANR Robinson’s: free of any genuine admission of error of judgement. I was wrong.
“Gally” states that starting Dwight Yorke in the critical USA game was a mistake, yet in explaining that he felt the striker “was trying to preserve himself for his bright professional career,” there is still the inference of selfishness by someone else.
If Everard Cummings was a boxer, I can’t imagine too many fights going the distance.
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Gally kicks off book tour in Point Fortin.
By Jelani Beckles (T&T Newsday).
EVERALD “Gally” Cummings presented the Mayor of Point Fortin Saleema Mc Cree Thomas with a copy of his just released autobiography.
Thomas is the niece of Tony Douglas, a former team-mate of Cummings. Cummings and Thomas played together on the national football team and for the Cleveland Force professional football team in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) in the late 1970s. Cummings, who was the coach of the Strike Squad, began his official book tour at the Victor Chin Kit Park, Point Fortin.
Cummings said, “Point Fortin is the birthplace of other legendary footballers such as Steve David, Warren Archibald, Wilfred Cave, Leroy De Leon and the Douglas brothers. I’m a part of their story and they are a part of mine. Those connections are well documented in my autobiography which is not only my story but the story of some of the most legendary moments of T&T’s football.”
Cummings added, “Every football player, football administrator and football fan should read this book because it will forever change the way you see the game. And you have to read the book to know why.”
Gally Cummings: The Autobiography is available at Paper Based Bookstore, Normandie Hotel, St Ann’s; Metropolitan Bookstore, Capital Plaza, Frederick Street, Port of Spain; Nigel R Khan Bookstores nationwide and Charran’s Bookstore, Main Road, Chaguanas.
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Gally's Strike Squad mask (https://www.socawarriors.net/images/Everard-Cummings-presents-book.jpg) doh look to bad...
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Life and times of the great Gally Cummings
By Andy Johnson (T&T Express)
HIS parents grew up in downtown East Port of Spain. On St Paul Street, to be exact.
His mother’s name was Ramirez. It was she who told him to love unconditionally.
He was born at the Port of Spain General Hospital, and grew up on the corner of Dundonald Street and Melville Lane at in the heart of the residential and business district in West Port of Spain. His mother told him about loving unconditionally.
He grew up two blocks from the Queen’s Park Savannah, which was at the time the sporting mecca in the city. From early, he was fascinated by the roars and sounds emanating from there. At Richmond Street Boys’ teachers recognised his natural talent from early.
He was proficient all round. In athletics, cricket and football. He ran from the 100 metres to the 400 comfortably. But it was with football that he scaled ordinary heights, effortlessly, even though it required hard work and dedication.
But this autobiography Gally Cummings, The Autobiography is more, much more than the ascent from the streets which in today Trinidad and Tobago, and in Port of Spain in particular, are as mean as they have ever been, to the heights of international fame, respect and adoration wherever he has been. But what stands out above it all is the manner in which Everald “Gally” Cummings narrates a script from which can be learned many of life’s most important lessons along this road, richly, frankly, unsparingly told.
He talks right at the beginning of having “also admired and gained inspiration from some of the renowned sportsmen and artists at the time”, such as Pat Gomez who lived a couple houses away from him. His brother Marcus saved for Shamrock in the Port of Spain Football League (PoSFL). Mike Agostini, the national 100-metre champ of his day, was in the mix. The Lord Christo, known for his popular calypso about the women caught with the “cold box ah chicken chest, under she nylon dress, one morning at Hi-Lo”, was his great-uncle. Bert Inniss lived next door. Christo was also a natural in the role of emcee, and some of that definitely found a place in Gally’s genes, the way he describes many of his encounters and interactions with people at almost every juncture.
How ‘Gally” was born
He talks about being taken to the Savannah with father and falling in love with the game of football.
He went to the venerable Richmond Street Boys’ school, a breeding ground for young talent back in that day. The Gamaldo brothers, his two elder brothers Ellis and Philbert, coming right down to Russell Latapy, are included here.
He describes what it was like as a youngster in his early teens playing for North against South, with players such as Kenny Joseph, Warren Archibald and pros and the like. Fr Knolly Clarke, then a young Anglican priest, played an influential role in his overall development.
He was deeply influenced by the prowess of a man named Anthony Gouviea. “He was known all over town,” Gally writes. “I would hold his gears while on the way to a game, and looked on eagerly as the other boys cleaned their boots and prepared for the game.”
He was six years old when he got the nickname that would follow him until now. A man named Leonard Gilbert thought he looked like a famous boxer of the time, named Galiento. He had also liked boxing. It was, as is usually the case, got shortened to Gally.
He first got his name in the papers after scoring two goals in the Richmond Street Boys’ 4-1 win over Rosary Boys’ in the north zone Primary School championships.
Everyone in the neighbourhood bought the paper to see his photo, another huge motivator for him to do better.
Love for the game
Growing up on Dundonald Street was like a blessing in disguise. Life wasn’t easy at home, but being so close to the Savannah provided him an outlet for his talent and for his ambitions and his dreams, and for the exposure to others who were of merit.
He was ten when he was observed by a Brazilian man watching at the Savannah.
He played mas as a boy in All Stars with his father. The family moved to Nelson Street, and the Dry River was the boys’ playground. “Nelson Street had a lot of life back then. The only small threat of violence was the preserve, exclusive, of the panmen from Renegades, Desperadoes Sun Valley and Tokyo in their territorial wars,” he writes.
He begins talking about his love for the game and how his talent continued to develop. It was in a period in which his parents separated and he moved back to Dundonald Street with his mother. Again closer to the Savannah, the canvas on which he would continue to paint the tapestry of the rest of this charmed life.
He starts going to Tranquillity Intermediate and meeting a lot of older talented boys. On the school team, in an early encounter, he scored four of the six goals they netted against St George’s College. He was 14, but was playing for the under-17 team as well.
At this age he was being propositioned by Paragon, in the PoSFL first division.
“My older Paragon players were very comforting given the circumstances. They gave me the support I needed and respected my talent at that age,” he writes.
He conveys delight at going to Grenada on his first plane trip, at age 17, his side beating the Grenada national team five-nil and then walked over the Grenada league champions four-two. His name was well known over there already, and he describes the experience of being mobbed for his autograph, for the first time.
Turning point
In 1965, at age 17, he was named T&T National Footballer of the Year. It’s important to hear him say this. “When I was coming up you had to put in work playing good for your community and minor league football teams and if you were good enough then you might play for your district in the Port of Spain Football League. If you excelled at the PoSFL you could gain selection to play for the North Zone team against the league All Stars from the other region of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Moving to Fatima from Tranquil and helping the team to win their first Intercol title in 1965 was also a major turning point. He scored both goals in Fatima’s 2-1 victory over St Mary’s, the second one coming after having been dealt a cut over the eye by a St Mary’s “hatchet man.” The joy which came with that, on the jump up from the Oval back to Mucurapo Road was like Carnival Tuesday. “When I saw this huge crowd lifting me up while dancing, laughing and crying, I truly understood what Intercol football was all about,” he writes
Again, there’s something in him that finds expression in his assessments of people. He says of Conrad Braithwaite, that he was someone who was soft-spoken and kind, as a national coach, and what he lacked in terms of tactics and strategy for the ground game, he made up for in kindness and encouragement.
Here is where he describes as The turning Point. It was 1970.
He got married to his childhood sweetheart in January that year, and got involved in the Black Power protest which swept the country at the time. His wife was a dougla girl from Central, going to Bishop’s and staying with relatives in Port of Spain. He had been home after playing professional football for the previous three years in what he called the Jim Crow South, living in Atlanta. This was during the height of the civil rights movement, with Dr Martin Luther King’s operations head-quartered in Atlanta.
The marriage counsellors advised and warned them of the sure disaster which lay ahead. They thought they were too young. He was 22. And there was what he describes as a slight clash of cultures because of her biracial heritage.
“They predicted disaster but we were determined to show them the most successful relationship they had ever seen. Well 50 years later, it’s still standing.”
‘Patriotism builds’
The marches in Port of Spain may have been new to people at home, but not to him at that point. He had been living it. “I marched the streets with Geddes Grander and Dave Darbeau as they were known at the time,” he says.
He defied the advice of the Atlanta coaches to stay off his knees, both of which had been operated on, and joined Malvern in the PoSFL.
In a chapter he calls “Patriotism builds,” he talks about being invited to and taking up the offer to join the New York Cosmos, the team that Pele had played for, when the US went into professional football.
He says in comparison to other teams in the then US pro-league, the Cosmos was like the United Nations, a kind of exception. He recalls the famous game at the Oval against the Brazilian team, with Pele. It was dinner at the Hilton and the Prime Minister, Dr Eric Williams, asking to speak with him. The discussion led to the start of the plans to build a national stadium.
With his meeting Jack Warner for the first time, we get an insight into the mind of the ultimate dealmaker. Thirty-five dollars and a picture of Gally and Pele, if he would play in a benefit match for a player in the Central League. He agrees to play. He accepts the priceless picture but foregoes the $35. It is the start of a long relationship between them.
There’s a whole chapter on the famous game against Haiti in 1973, when T&T was cheated out of our first real shot at the World Cup finals.
He was awarded the WITCO Sports Personality of the Year award in 1973. Meeting Sir Gary Sobers and Rohan Kanhai who presented him with the award at that function. He shared the award with Bernard Julien.
He kept a lot of newspaper clippings, such as one from Trevor “Burnt Boots” Smith, essentially questioning how the panel could have equated Bernard’s performance with that of Gally’s, notwithstanding Bernard’s own achievements.
“After winning the CONCACAF Most Valuable Player in December 1973 and then receiving the Sportsman of the Year Award 1974, I was exhausted from the associated media attention and awards ceremonies,” he writes.
Opportunity denied
Then he went to play in Mexico.
“My grasp of Spanish was weak, but I improved my understanding from watching TV and talking to the Brazilian players who spoke Portuguese, Spanish and a bit of English.”
He would then be nominated for the Humming Bird Medal Silver. Whereas he had a special audience with the Prime Minister at dinner after the game with Pele and company at the Oval, he would be invited to meet with the Prime Minister privately.
While on a tour in Suriname, he hears about an opportunity to play for Ajax Amsterdam, reported in the Surinamese press, but nobody in T&T appeared to know anything about it. “I may never know exactly what happened, but it’s certain that I was denied a special opportunity to advance my professional career in Europe. My disappointment felt even more agonising because the ‘lost’ opportunity came at a time when I really needed a professional team to play for. The opportunity of a lifetime escaped me all because of an unknown entity’s contrasting vision of my future,” he writes.
Eric Williams was known for showing his appreciation to progressive women, who were passionate about sports, he writes, reporting on the story of how one Euadne Gordon was appointed secretary of the National Sports Council, and played a pivotal role in setting up the first professional football team in the country, the Pro-Pioneers football club.
There’s also the story about deciding to go to Toronto when his wife was appointed Vice Consul at the Consulate in Toronto in 1977, making the determination to give his children the benefit of that experience.
Juicy inside stories
There’s also this narrative in the book about an experience with Alvin Corneal being appointed national team coach because Edgar Vidale had been sent on training in Germany. Corneal hired his friend Ken Butcher as his assistant, and sent word that if players such as Gally would come to him personally he would consider him.
“I was appalled by his suggestion because players qualify for national selection based on merit not from flattery. At age 31, I had been a national senior team fixture for the past 16 years and I was one of the most recognised and accomplished professional footballers in the CONCACAF region.
“Alvin and I were both Fatima College alumni but different life experiences gave us contrasting perspectives on most important social issues. People should be able to have differences in opinion and still respect each other, value someone else’s talent and appreciate their contribution. I felt disrespected by Alvin’s proposal because I understood exactly what his intention was.”
You must read on from here to see where he went with that. And then there are those tales of the experiences he had with being the head coach of the national team, including the development of what he himself coined Kaisoca Soccer. Also, of being a single parent when his wife took up a scholarship to pursue advanced diplomatic studies in Spain.
There are other juicy inside stories, never really told, such as the one about how Lincoln “Tiger” Phillips defected while the Trinidad and Tobago national team was on tour, in transit, passing through the US, and of how he embarrassed his 12-year-old son during a football camp in DC. He referred to it as a most disgusting affair.
Overall, one gets the sense that this is someone grateful to have had the opportunities to live the life he wanted, pursuing dreams and passions, wisened by learning to handle whatever was thrown at him, remaining rooted, grounded and committed to high ideals, graduating at the top of the class in the school of life.
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Gally Cummings: a national treasure
By Professor Theodore Lewis (T&T Express)
Gally Cummings paid me the high honour of reading a draft of his autobiography as he readied it for publication. When someone entrusts you with the task of reviewing and editing his life story, and that person is national royalty, you feel a great weight of responsibility.
I do not think he understood when he handed over his work that I already had the highest opinion of him as footballer and person—an opinion now greatly enhanced having read it, and seeing the depth of his reflective power.
My great task was not to alter in any way the purity of what this remarkable talent and patriot had to tell us about his life. He had earned the right to tell his story in his own voice. He had travelled the world pursuing his gift and passion. You do not interfere with a line laid down by Kitchener. You might make a suggestion here and there, respectfully.
This was phenomenology at its best, a movie of Gally’s life, made by him, played back on the pages of his text with greatest detail, with intelligence, and perceptive insight. This was a life of richness. It could have been so much better had the local FIFA establishment (with other Concacaf countries) not agreed in 1975 to play all our World Cup home games in Haiti! Even so, we got to the final game, in Port-au-Prince, winner goes to Germany. The FIFA cabal, in their heyday then, had it all fixed. We had three goals disallowed in the deciding game.
Gally was voted the outstanding player of that Haiti tournament, and it is a crime that he and other players, among the best we have ever produced, did not get a chance to play in the World Cup.
In 1989, Gally’s Strike Squad was to come up against an American team with Chuck Blazer, their FIFA man. The game brought together Blazer and our own FIFA man Jack Warner. Both were to become bigwigs in Concacaf.
Both to suffer ignominy.
I am happy that Andy Johnson has reviewed the now-published work, Gally Cummings—The Autobiography, in a recent issue of the Express, and think that he did justice to it, and to the man Everald Cummings, who has accepted “Gally” as a name of endearment.
This work transcends football. It is about the life and times of a boy born in Port of Spain in 1948 under what, on the surface, are harsh circumstances. He is kind to his father, who leaves the home.
I share that circumstance with him.
He speaks kindly of his father’s carpentry skills, to be seen on display in the living room. His mother is the rock. His elder brother is his footballing role model.
It is the picture of the life of a young, poor, African boy in Port of Spain that Gally paints—life in the 1950s in Port of Spain barrack yards, that makes this book so much more than football, and so much a contribution to our literature. As this boy grows up, he is seeing Eric Williams go by, and has encounters with him. The founding father of this country waving to this boy each time they encounter each other. Later in his life he was going to have conversations with Williams and would suggest to him the need for a national stadium.
In his boyhood he sees a host of people, now known to be luminaries, go by—Olive Walke, sprint champion Michael Agostini, Bertram Innis, Pat Gomez, national goalkeeper. Lord Christo is a relation. So, on the surface it is a harsh life, in Port of Spain. It is different from a life on the edges of Port of Spain, in places like, say, St Clair or Cascade. But what he sees around him, the people, their talents, is qualitatively rich, and I think a key to understanding why this boy held the memories of this across adulthood.
Then there is the family move to Nelson Street. Here Gally describes football played inside the Dry River, and the river is coming down one day, and a man raises the alarm, causing the boys to scamper up its steep banks, because their lives depended on it. I have seen that Dry River come down—the turbulence reflective of the surrounding hills.
In his prize-winning book, While Gods are Falling, Earl Lovelace paints pictures of Laventille, and talks about the water, but not just water, flowing down the hill, into the city below.
What does a young boy do today if he lives on Nelson Street? Where does he play? Gally reminds us in this book that Port of Spain was once a cultural centre where poverty was the wellspring of creativity, not crime. Where a boy could play.
Has the society not declined?
In 1965 I started travelling from South to attend John Donaldson and made it a point one day to see Gally play for Fatima in an Intercol game. This was a man among boys. An African prince, playing a game different to all others on the pitch. He trapped a ball on his chest. The ball remained there until he shook it off. I had never seen that. He played in an unhurried manner, with lots of time. When I went back to South that evening, I told my Marabella team-mates and friends what I had seen.
Fatima became a nationally known school because of Gally. He was at the heart of their fund raising. And yet, sadly, he writes of the principal, Fr Ryan, ostensibly writing a “recommendation” letter as part of his quest for a football scholarship at an American university, only to find out that the letter cast aspersions on his character. He writes of the principal; thus, “Father Ryan was a Catholic priest of Irish descent. I’m sure he was a good man... but his colonial thinking and racial bias towards me was obvious” (p26).
Some of these prestige schools want the footballer but not the boy. Use them up: spit them out. St Benedict’s under Dom Basil saw both the boy and the footballer. Now the Catholic establishment wants to demolish St Benedict’s, which many believe to be a heritage school.
Why is that recreation ground on Mucurapo Road opposite Fatima not Everald Cummings Park?
On Page 21 of the book, Gally talks in two paragraphs about the biggest game I have ever seen locally. This was national Intercol final between Fatima and St Benedict’s, in Skinner Park, 1965 or ’66. The game was scheduled for 4 p.m. I was there at noon. Rain. Water in my socks. Yes, the roof of one of the stands did come down, with people on it, as Gally describes. Gally was the reason for the crowd. He alone against St Benedict’s. Fatima scored first, but Benedict’s won the game 2-1, with the winning goal by skipper Adrian Chandler coming late.
Gally Cummings’ autobiography is a seminal contribution to our literature, one of the deepest phenomenological accounts we have had. It is a reading on the social history of Port of Spain—an inspiring story about a boy who realised his dream of being a great footballer, travelled the world, then returned home with his family intact, his childhood sweetheart as he calls his wife Roslyn, his anchor; his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren never far. And he, still with that big, warm smile. Still here in this country.
A gentleman to the core. Here, because is here that conceived him. This man, indeed, a national treasure.
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Ex-Cosmos player, former Trinidad and Tobago national coach Everald Cummings experienced racism first-hand with Atlanta Chiefs in 1968
By Michael Lewis (FrontRowSoccer.com)
Racism can come in many shapes and sizes. It could be overt; it could be covert. It could be systemic.
As a 19-year-old rookie with the Atlanta Chiefs in 1968, Everald Cummings experienced it up close and personal several times.
After one practice, Cummings, who was about to become a member of the Trinidad & Tobago national team, and several African and Caribbean players journeyed to a downtown Atlanta restaurant for milkshakes and hamburgers. They mistakenly sat in the white section.
“People were standing and looking at us like, ‘Are you guys crazy?’ ” Cummings said in a 2018 interview. “Then, one guy came over and said, ‘You guys can’t sit here.’ We were soccer players. We were starting soccer in the United States, so we didn’t know. That’s what made the success in 1968 so beautiful. We had so many obstacles, but we made it.”
Needless to say, Cummings’ first professional season in the United States certainly was an eye-opener and a half.
Not only did he find himself a stranger in a strange land with some new and strange customs while performing for the Chiefs, he was thrust into the American South, which was still in the midst of lingering segregation and racism.
He and the Chiefs’ black players experienced it firsthand while the team was establishing itself as the first NASL champions in 1968.
That included four African players (Zambia forwards Freddie Mwila and Emment Kapengwe, Kaizer Motaung and Ghana defender Willie Evans) and three Caribbean players (Jamaican forward Allan Cole and midfielder Delroy Scott and of course, himself.
Cummings, who later played for the Cosmos for two seasons eventually coached his country in the game in which Paul Caligiuri’s goal boosted the U.S. into the 1990 World Cup, remembered several unsettling incidents that made for one huge culture shock.
“I didn’t know about Martin Luther King, racism, segregation and bigotry,” he said, although he would learn about the American legend soon enough. “So, when I got there it was sort of a reality check for me.”
He discovered how different things were in the USA early on when the team booked Cummings into a downtown hotel. He discovered quite quickly that the hotel essentially isolated him from other guests.
“For the first week, I thought was the only guy staying in the hotel because they put me in an area where I couldn’t come in contact with anyone,” he said. “The only time I saw people was when I came downstairs to have breakfast. They were so strategic.”
Eventually, Cummings moved out of the hotel into a residence with several Jamaican players.
The Chiefs’ African and Caribbean players lived in the black area while the Europeans housed in the white area, he said.
“It was difficult for us to communicate after practice,” Cummings said. “If the white players from Scotland or England and had a function and their wife had a baby and they had a christening. We couldn’t go. We couldn’t go to the white area.”
After one practice, Cummings and several African and Caribbean players journeyed to a downtown
When he had to buy two suit and a sports coat at a well-known downtown clothing store, Cummings received another shock and insult.
“It was sort of an expensive store and I had an Atlanta Braves credit card,” he said. “When I presented the card, the manager took the card and went upstairs. I was there for one hour. They called Atlanta Braves stadium to find out where did I get this card from. They had to explain to the manager that this guy is one of the soccer players with the Atlanta Chiefs. I found out the next day what [they] did. … They didn’t know I was from the Caribbean. They saw me as a black person. We had those teaching problems all the time.”
Ironically, Cummings said he felt more at ease at the team booster club functions after games at the stadium.
“I felt very comfortable,” he said. “Those were white people. They saw us as soccer players. What was very strange was we were on six month working visas, So, when six months were up, we had to go back to our country. When I came back to Trinidad, everything was normal. Everybody lives together [there]. When I had to go back to Atlanta, it was something different. It was like changing of the guards all the time. This was difficult for me at that age.”
Well, at least Cummings had a home where life was normal Some players, such as South African standout Motaung returned to a country that thrived on apartheid, even though blacks outnumbered the white population by an 8-to-1 margin.
Cummings, nicknamed Gally, remembers Chiefs head coach Phil Woosnam, who went on to become NASL commissioner, telling him a story when he traveled to South Africa to sign Motaung.
“He had to sign him in a taxi,” he said. “He was in the front seat and Kazier was in the backseat. He couldn’t go to a restaurant, how it’s supposed to be done. What was amazing, I got to understand the white people in Atlanta and how it was back then. I also got to understand my brothers from their homeland in Africa. I got to find out how they lived and how we sort of were indoctrinated because of colonialism in the Caribbean. They were just Africans, and nobody could tell the difference.”
During his four years in Atlanta, Cummings said he learned countless lessons from that “reality check.”
“It made be a better player,” he said. “It made me more conscious, understand people a little more and make me understand myself as a human. So, Atlanta, even though it had problems, I learned a lot. It was a lesson for me. Today, I can associate with anybody and have a conversation. As you grow older you understand the system and it makes you a better person.”
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Fatima Class of '75 honours Gally.
T&T Guardian Reports.
Fatima College was on Wednesday gifted 50 copies of Everald ‘Gally” Cummings’ autobiography.
The Fatima Class of ’75 made the presentation to Principal Father Gregory Augustine in the presence of national icon Gally Cummings, who was honoured by the recognition.
Cummings, “Thank you, Class of ’75. I will be forever grateful to Fatima College for what they have done for me and others," said Cummings, a former national player and coach of the Strike Squad.
"I thank them for setting the example for me being a successful and good human being. Fatima College through Clive Pantin, Fr Gerard Farfan, Noel Pouchet, Mervyn Moore and others have inspired me to always have a clear conscience, the courage to speak the truth and the importance of being authentic. Nitendo Vinces. By striving we shall conquer.”
The group believes that Cumming’s story of determination, discipline and resilience should be heard by young people, saying: "The Fatima Class of ’75 wants our young people to learn more about Everald “Gally” Cummings and what is possible when you add hard work and honesty to whatever talent you have."
Several other schools will be presented copies of Gally's autobiography including Mucurapo East Secondary, Mucurapo West Secondary, St James Secondary, Woodbrook Secondary, Tranquility Secondary, St Mary’s College, Queen’s Royal College, St Anthony’s College and all schools in the Secondary Schools Football League's (SSFL), Premier Division.
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Cummings, Morris remember Rudd-Ottley
T&T Express
Coach of the 1989 national football team Everald “Gally” Cummings was yesterday mourning the loss of a key member of his technical team, behavioural psychologist Shirley Rudd-Ottley.
Cummings confirmed that Rudd-Ottley died yesterday.
She was part of the unit that got within one match of qualifying for the 1990 World Cup in Italy, only to fall short after a now infamous 1-0 defeat to the United States at the National Stadium.
Ottley had also worked with the Trinidad and Tobago team in 1973 when Cummings was a player on a squad that was controversially denied a chance of reaching the 1974 world Cup during a qualifying series in Haiti.
“A lot of the development of the players in 1973 and 1989 was because of her being part of the technical staff,” Cummings said.
He added:”She instilled confidence in the players. She used to have a lot interaction with the players. When players had personal problems in the camp and they went to her, when they came back they were 100 per cent better in spirit. All I had to do was put them on the field,” noted Cummings.
He also spoke further about Rudd-Ottley’s influence on his own work as the Strike Squad coach.
“Before I select my team I would talk with her,” he said.
“She helped me a lot as a coach. That insight helped me. She was always there. If I had a problem she would guide me accordingly. I had a lot of confidence in her.”
He described the psychologist’s professional relationship with the coaching staff as “near perfect.”
Also reacting to Rudd-Ottley’s passing yesterday was Strike Squad captain Clayton Morris.
“The first time I was exposed to psychology was with Shirley Rudd-Ottley,” he said yesterday.
Speaking of the sessions the Strike Squad had with the woman Cummings described as the “mother” of the team, Morris said:”We used to be planning our short medium and long-term goals. She really put the icing on the cake in bringing the practical together with the theory. He described her death as a “big loss.”
“Very, very nice person, very passionate in what she did. A beautiful soul. Wherever we go (Strike Squad players) she is in our heart,” he noted.