October 31, 2024, 05:56:50 PM

Author Topic: Ministry & TTFF meet to discuss stadium venue for centennial clash.  (Read 1098 times)

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Offline Flex

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Ministry & TTFF meet to discuss stadium cenue.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF).

     
The Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation met with Minister of Sport Gary Hunt at the Offices of the Ministry of Sport just around 2pm today following an invitation from the Minister to discuss the matter involving the use of the Hasely Crawford Stadium for the June 1 Centennial clash between Trinidad and Tobago and England.

Hunt issued a letter addressed to TTFF Special Advisor Jack Warner extending the invitation to meet at a suitable time and Warner, along with TTFF President Oliver Camps and Attorney-at-Law Om Lalla later attended.

Following discussions it was agreed that pending discussions, the Ministry of Sport will return with a second proposal on Friday.

Lalla did confirm though that the matter seemed heading to a positive outcome regarding the staging of the proposed match.  Prior to the meeting, Warner also confirmed that the Minister contacted him.

"We were in touch today and the Minister did say that he thought it was time to meet and that we should put this all behind us and move ahead. I will await the outcome of it," Warner said.
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Offline E-man

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Game will go on
Govt enters talks with TTFF over stadium lease for England/T&T friendly
Ian Prescott iprescott@trinidadexpress.com


Thursday, May 22nd 2008

SPORTS Minister Gary Hunt yesterday assured football fans that the England versus Trinidad and Tobago friendly will go on as planned at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on June 1.

He said this hours after apparently meeting with Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation president, Oliver Camps, and special advisor Jack Warner." Some concessions" are said to have been made to allow the match to go on in the wake of a contractual disagreement over the facility's rental.

"The Government has entered in talks with the TTFF with a position that we would like the game to go on," Hunt said at his office on Abecromby Street, Port of Spain, yesterday.

The disagreement stemmed from the Sport Ministry's demand that the TTFF pay a rental fee of $150,000 or 10 per cent of the gates for use of the match venue. Branding the fee exorbitant, the TTFF threatened to take legal action unless the Ministry reconsidered its position.

Prior to meeting with the media yesterday, Hunt had met with Camps and Warner. Hunt was in conciliatory mood stating, by way of explanation, that the TTFF had provided additional information on its contractual arrangement with the English Football Association. In the event, the Ministry may be willing, he said, to make some concessions when the parties have a second meeting at 9 a.m. on Friday morning. He believed `he TTFF was also in a mood to negotiate.

"They are willing," Hunt said. "There is legal posturing, but they are willing. That is the impression left with me today."

Moving forward, Hunt said that a proper lease arrangement had to be put in place to cover rentals of the Hasely Crawford. He stressed that the match was a commercial activity and should be treated as such with estimated gate receipts to the TTFF being $8.9m along with advertising revenue amounting to $650,000 and television rights to the rest of the region amounting to $40 million. Hunt also added that the friendly international was also costing the Government 1.3 million to renovate the facility and as such it too held a vested interest.

Hunt said the dispute was a simple one of sorting out a lease agreement. But he went on to disclose that a policy governing the Stadium's use was before Cabinet and because the Ministry saw the match as being commercial in nature, it was seeking to protect the rights of Trinidad & Tobago.

A review was possible, however, once the TTFF gave assurances that profits will be ploughed back into the country's football development.

"We are asking that the profits realised from this commercial venture be invested in development programmes to be undertaken by the TTFF, preferably in the high-risk and rural areas such as Toco, Point Fortin Tabaquite and Sangre Grande," Hunt said.

Hunt also touched on the TTFF's efforts to host the 2010 FIFA Women Under-17 World Cup, stating that the TTFF had not given government sufficient time to consider the matter. He said the policy was that sporting organisations inform the Cabinet a year before of their intention to bid for world championships. He said that it was only two weeks ago that the TTFF had submitted a bulky document consisting of 200 clauses and 26 sub clauses.
   

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Stadium stand-off close to resolution
Times Online and Agencies


Gary Hunt, Trinidad & Tobago's Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs, insists the friendly with England will go ahead despite a dispute between the Trinidad & Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) and its Government over stadium rental charges.

The game, which is scheduled to take place a week on Sunday, is part of an 11-day training camp that Fabio Capello has organised so he can work with an extended group of 30 players. There will be a match at Wembley Stadium against the United States on Wednesday followed by the trip to play Trinidad & Tobago in Port of Spain, which the England manager believes is vital for the development of his World Cup squad.

However, doubts were raised about whether the game would take place when Jack Warner, the Fifa vice-president and special adviser to the TTFF, threatened to take Hunt to court over demands for a rental fee of $200,000 (about £100,000) for use of the Hasely Crawford Stadium on June 1. The federation claims that previous matches have been put on there for a payment of $5,000.

However, following discussions between Hunt and Warner the game looks almost certain to go ahead.

"The government has entered in talks with the TTFF with a position that we would like the game to go on," Hunt said. "They [the TTFF] are willing [to talk]. There is legal posturing, but they are willing. That is the impression left with me

 

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