World Cup dispute goes to court.
By: Lasana Liburd (Express).[/size]
Let Warriors play.
The 2006 World Cup bonus dispute heads to the Port of Sport courts today as legal representatives of 16 World Cup players and the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) meet for the first time from 11.30 am before Justice Gregory Smith in a preliminary hearing.
The hearing is the first official step towards deciding a case that looks to be worth in excess of $86 million to the players-half of the $173 million that, according to the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs, the T&TFF received in its successful World Cup campaign. The T&TFF claimed, last October, to have pocketed just over $18 million.
The T&TFF, who are represented by Om Lalla, want the financial disagreement to be settled by arbitration while the players, who are instructed by British attorney Michael Townley and will be led in court by Elton Prescott SC, want the matter to remain in the civil court.
The stand off between players and administrators has already run for 11 months, during which time the disgruntled "Soca Warriors" have been debarred from representing their country.
Townley, who claimed to be consistently ignored by the Federation, yesterday stressed that the T&TFF had a social responsibility as custodians of the national game and urged them to reconsider their blacklist.
"I find it quite extraordinary that the TTFF have been prepared to blacklist their best players," said the 45-year-old attorney. "These players must represent (Trinidad and Tobago's) 'golden generation' because they qualified for the World Cup. Whatever else is going on between the players and the TTFF, what madness it is to ban the best players you have.
"In England, they surely would not let a commercial dispute rob the country of its best players."
If the case goes to trial, Townley suggested it might not reach a conclusion until after the start of the 2010 World Cup qualifying rounds and he voiced concern at the damage being done to sport as a result of the dispute.
"Goodwill and political gestures and so on don't speak to kids in the same way as sport speaks to kids," said the attorney, who is also an active long distance runner with the Brighton Phoenix club. "But if sport becomes a political and legal battle ground, it loses its purity and it loses its ability to say to kids that this is something to aspire to.
"Right now this dispute must seem to say to kids that you can get involved in sport but it is just as tricky as if you get involved in (any other) business It says that you might become a Soca Warrior and achieve the highest aim but, six months later, you might be cast out."
There might be a sting in the tail from the players, though, as Townley revealed that he would discuss with his clients the possibility of legal action for loss of earnings as a result of the blacklist.
On Wednesday, the Football Players Association of Trinidad and Tobago (FPATT) sought to distance themselves from the court action by declaring themselves as interested spectators who wished only for an amicable solution between both parties. Still, FPATT interim president Shaka Hislop is among 16 players named in the suit.
The remaining players are Kelvin Jack, Ian Cox, Avery John, Cyd Gray, Marvin Andrews, Atiba Charles, Brent Sancho, Chris Birchall, Aurtis Whitley, Collin Samuel, Evans Wise, Anthony Wolfe, Cornell Glen, Stern John and Kenwyne Jones.
