Connection: T&TFF offered help after fact.
By: Lasana Liburd (Express).[/size]
Camps can't escape Jones transfer backlash.
Oliver Camps, the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) president, failed to escape allegations that he refused to help T&T's 2006 World Cup star Kenwyne Jones last month in his successful move from England Championship club Southampton to Premiership outfit, Sunderland.
The T&TFF issued a statement on Thursday which denied their alleged refusal to pen a recommendation letter that was deemed crucial to Jones' work permit application. Camps claimed he agreed to support the player's move but was told the letter was "no longer needed" by a "club representative".
However, Vibe CT 105 W Connection president David J Williams, who confirmed he was the club representative referred to by Camps, told the Sunday Express that Camps only offered help five days after Jones had already received a work permit, which facilitated his 6 million-pound (TT$75 million) move to Sunderland.
Camps' offer, according to Williams, came a full six days after he asked for a recommendation letter from the T&TFF on Jones' behalf and two days after the player's Sunderland debut against Manchester United, which was broadcast live on cable television last week Saturday.
"We requested him to do the letter on Tuesday August 28 and they only offered it after the fact (on September 3)," said Williams. "Camps said he spoke to his lawyers and they advised him not to do it at the time because the matter was sub judicial.
"I got a call saying that they would do the letter after the fact but I told him I didn't need it again."
Williams' assertion, which mirrored claims by Jones and Football Players Association of Trinidad and Tobago (FPATT) president Shaka Hislop, differed with a statement by Camps that was released on Thursday by T&TFF media officer Shaun Fuentes.
"At no time did we refuse to do the letter for the player," stated Camps. "When the club representative contacted me I told him that once it had to do with any of the players who are involved in a legal battle with the T&TFF that I would need to get advice from our legal advisers.
"We agreed to do the letter, but when I contacted the club, the representative didn't refuse the letter but said it was no longer needed.
"At no time would we try to prevent a player from making a move as it pertains to his club career," he added.
Camps statement, on Thursday, seemed to be at odds with his previous comment to the Express, four days earlier, when he claimed to have no knowledge of the Jones transfer. It was the same day, according to Williams, that the T&TFF boss called him to belatedly offer assistance.
"I really don't know what you are talking about," said Camps, when asked on September 3 whether he refused to assist Jones. "I don't know anything about that."
Jones, who failed to qualify for a work permit due to a lack of recent international appearances for the Soca Warriors, praised FPATT and his former World Cup colleague, Hislop, who wrote to the British Home Office and explained that the World Cup player was very valuable to his country's international future but had been blacklisted by the T&TFF over a bonus row.
W Connection are due a portion of Jones' transfer fee due to a sell-on clause in his initial contract with Southampton, although Williams declined to give financial details.
Last month, T&T Pro League club CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh accused the T&TFF of sabotaging a proposed move for the teenaged trio of Lester Peltier, Khaleem Hyland and Atullah Guerra to English Premier League club, Portsmouth, after T&TFF coaches Michael McComie and Wim Rijsbergen refused to pen a recommendation letter for Peltier.
