Letter to the Trinidad Express
I am an avid football fan. Even after the fiasco of 1989, I continued to follow T&T football hoping for a return in standard to that of pre-November 1989. I eventually got a glimpse of it in the match against Mexico.
I am one of those that felt that Jack Warner needed to be brought to justice for the 1989 fiasco; in the end he escaped relatively unscathed. However after the victorious match against Bahrain, I was moved by his self-effacing and even selfless display when sharing the same platform with those who sought to get political mileage on the success of the team. He thanked all and sundry, including the Government of the day. I thought to myself that this man has much more substance than I previously gave him credit for.
I looked at the Prime Minister's reaction after Mr Warner spoke and he too seemed taken aback with the generosity and unselfishness of his words. I felt proud that he could separate the politics from the sport which he has undoubtedly given his life too.
Despite the above I am under no illusion that Mr. Warner's commitment to the cause of football is not for personal gain, and nothing is wrong with that as the Government normally only "comes in at the death" - when all the hard work has been done. They are yet to prove to be proactive. I am also aware that T&T's accession to the world stage is worth much more to Mr. Warner than the T&T public realises.
Firstly, Mr Warner stated in the media (and there are tapes to prove it) that he does not know where all these other agencies are coming from or going with their offers of World Cup packages to the public, as Simpaul's is the only authorised promoter of World Cup packages and this exclusivity was purchased from TTFF for $500,000.
A couple of days ago his tune changed somewhat when he stated that the tickets that Simpaul will be packaging are from a European source. Is it that he is implying that Trinidad and Tobago supporters can have access to more than 7,500 tickets for the T&T matches i.e. the 3,000 tickets that will purportedly be provided by Simpaul plus the TTFF's 4,500 allocation?
If there is really transparency surrounding the tickets, why is it that Mr Camps is indicating that he has been muzzled? Why can't the public know exactly what is going on? For those of us who have friends and siblings in Germany, why can't we be allowed to purchase the tickets alone?
Mr Warner seemed to want to drag politics into the football business, almost implying that Government is playing games by its persistent request for a budget for the Soca Warriors World Cup preparations, and as a result 'they' will go it alone without the help of Government. The next day he retracted his statement and apparently now gives TTFF permission to accept Government's offer. It is almost like the Dookeran/Yetming election affair. One day he is in their corner and the next he is in Panday's corner, stating that a man must be allowed to change his position.
As he vacillates intemperately he is doing immense damage to his creditability; much more damage than that caused by the few articles that Lasana Liburd wrote. If he has such penchant for wavering, it makes one wonder what type of Government Minister he would make.
G HOMES
San Juan
