Scots supporting Soca Warriors
(Newsday)Friday, May 26 2006
SCOTLAND, the arch-rivals of England in football, are backing Trinidad and Tobago’s Soca Warriors in next month’s World Cup in Germany.
A quarter of the Trinidad and Tobago squad play for Scottish club teams, including Jason Scotland who scored the second goal in the 3-2 win over Austrian club champions Vienna on Tuesday in Graz.
BBC Scotland Channel 4 has done a series of light-hearted advertisements to be aired on television with the theme: “Against All Odds Scotland is going to the World Cup!”
The visual shows an empty bus coming to a stop and a lone passenger boarding. He is Jason Scotland, the Soca Warrior striker, and he is wearing a red Soca Warrior T-shirt, the back of which reads: “Scotland.”
The advertisement is accompanied by a song “Tartan Army and T&T.”
Jason Scotland formerly played for the Scottish team Dundee and now plays for St Johnstone and as a member of the TT team heading to the World Cup Finals. Scotland has become a celebrity in Dundee with many Scots supporting the Soca Warriors, who are regarded in Europe as the underdogs.
He has become the face of Irn-Bru, a popular Scottish soft drink, formerly known as the Iron-Brew. “I happen to love Irn-Bru,” Scotland said, “and have arranged for a batch to be sent over for my teammates.”
The leader of Scotland’s National Party, Alex Salmond yesterday pledged his support for Trinidad and Tobago at the World Cup Finals in Germany. Six Scotland-based players are in the 24-man Caribbean nation’s squad for the finals. But Salmond, in true political fashion, denied that his new-found allegiance had anything to do with Trinidad and Tobago facing England. He said: “I’m for TT, but for years I was the only practising Anglophile in Scottish politics.
“I don’t support teams against England, but I think Trinidad and Tobago have some interesting Scottish players playing for them,” he said. “That is the nearest we are getting to the World Cup.”
Also on the side of the Soca Warriors according to the Daily Record, Scotland’s number one daily for sport, is Scotland’s First Minister, Jack Mc Connell who said he won’t be supporting the “Auld Enemy” in Germany next month, but is joining thousands of his compatriots in cheering on TT.
“Scotland, my team obviously is not there and that’s disappointing. There are people who think that as First Minister I should automatically support England instead. But football is not about politics, so I will not be.”
His comments provoked fury south of the border with Tartan Army hate figure, Jimmy Hill, slamming Mc Connell but being more cagey about which team he would back.
“I will instinctively support the underdog.”
Mc Connell’s unneighbourly snub puts him at odds with UK Chancellor Gordon Brown who is backing England all the way.
Attempts have been made even to draw in British Prime Minister Tony Blair. This met with a stiff upper lip from the Prime Minister’s official spokesman. “That’s entirely a matter for Mc Connell,” was the response from Downing Street.
The Warriors team members who play in Scotland are Russell Latapy of Falkirk, Marvin Andrews of Rangers, Colin Samuel and Kelvin Jack of Dundee United and Jason Scotland of St Johnstone who ironically was refused a work permit by the British Home Office when Dundee United wanted to renew his contract.
Turnbull Hutton, a director and former chairman of Raith Rovers Football Club in Brown’s Fife constituency said: “By the time the World Cup kicks off, the vast majority of football fans in Scotland will be digging out a TT flag not the Union Jack.” There are already Jason Scotland posters around Scotland promoting local glaziers Sidey, said the Perthshire Advertiser, but now “Come on Scotland” billboards will be springing up throughout central Scotland sharing Irn-Bru’s humorous take on the World Cup.
BBC Scotland recently carried an indepth interview with TT’s High Commissioner to the UK, Glenda Morean.
Scotland will be going to the World Cup Finals even if the Scots aren’t.
