Remember de following incident:
Corneal gets the axe, Camps sides with Jack
By Lasana Liburd (Trinidad Express)
May 1 2001
Corneal was appointed to the post on April 3, 2001 after the “Soca Warriors” lost their second World Cup 2002 qualifying game to Costa Rica 0-3 in San Jose.
However, within 48 hours of the appointment, Corneal fell out with his new employers when he called for the removal of national coach Ian Porterfield and the immediate reinstatement of his predecessor Bertille St Clair.
Corneal attended just one official meeting with the T&TFF and never spoke to Porterfield in the build-up to T&T’s World Cup qualifier against Mexico on April 25.
“We have decided to suspend the appointment of a technical director for the time being,” said Camps. “The decision was made at an executive meeting on Saturday.”
Camps also denied that the T&TFF had decided to keep Porterfield because of financial considerations.
He explained that there was an escape clause in Porterfield’s contract which allowed the T&TFF to sack him if they were dissatisfied with his performance before his contract expired in 2002.
St Clair’s contract had the same escape clause but the Tobagonian, who was fired for the team’s “inadequate performances” after the 2000 Gold Cup in the USA, was paid for the remaining time on his contract.
Camps said, though, that this did not mean that St Clair was fired for reasons other than the team’s performances.
“You deal with each situation in a different way,” said Camps of St Clair’s dismissal and subsequent payoff. “The Executive Committee made that decision.”
On the heated topic of Fifa vice-president Jack Warner’s role in the T&TFF, Camps conceded that Warner does do a lot of the talking for the Federation. But, he argued, the Concacaf president does not have too much say in the running of football in the country.
Warner, whose official T&TFF designation is “Special Adviser”, has been openly instrumental in and vocal on national football matters—from the hiring and firing of national coaches to the pricing of World Cup football tickets.
In an interview published in the Sunday Express, Warner gave some hint of the power structure within the T&TFF when asked about his feelings on Porterfield.
“If I am dissatisfied with him (Porterfield),” Warner told News Editor Clevon Raphael, “he would be the first to hear it, through Mr Camps, of course.”
But Camps denied that he was a “rubber stamp” and insisted that Warner did not have undue influence over T&TFF decisions.
“We seek his advice on many things,” said Camps. “And I think we would be stupid to have a vice-president from Fifa here and not ask for his advice. But the decisions that are taken are not taken by him alone.”
Camps said that such suggestions did not bother him at all and, on the contrary, he felt lucky to have Warner in his corner.
“That has been said for some time,” said Camps. “That does not really bother me. There are some Caribbean countries that are envious of us having a Fifa vice president here. Even Mr (Horace) Burrell (president of the Jamaican Football Federation) said that it was Mr Warner’s plan that he used.
“So why shouldn’t we seek his advice and use his plan if other people are using it and are successful with it?”
Camps did admit, though, that the T&TFF were heavily indebted to Warner although he was unable to give the precise quantum of the indebtedness which he estimated at “a few million dollars”.
“We have an arrangement with him to reimburse whatever we can whenever we can,” he said. “It is no secret that we are financed by him.”
Camps explained that the Football Company of Trinidad and Tobago (FCoTT) was formed to find alternative sources of finance for the T&TFF. However, after six years of existence, FCoTT has made minimal headway in this regard.
Camps also found nothing improper in Warner’s position as chairman of FCoTT—the company formed to give the T&TFF financial independence from the Fifa bigwig in the first place.
“He doesn’t have control of it (FCoTT),” said Camps. “He is just the chairman. There are five other board members that run the affairs of FCoTT, including Mr Ameer Edoo, Richard Groden, Dr Iva Gloudon, Clive Pantin and myself.”
The T&TFF president believes that FCoTT may be finally on the move now, though, powered by the marketing skills of new Chief Executive Officer, Peter Miller.
