No match-fee for FPATT players.
By: Walter Alibey (Newsday).[/size]
Only four months away from the team’s first qualifying match for the 2010 World Cup, Trinidad and Tobago’s Soca Warriors are still locked in a battle with their employers the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF).
Newsday learnt yesterday, that players who are members of the Football Players’ Association of Trinidad and Tobago (FPATT) received no match fees following Ash Wednesday’s international friendly against Guadeloupe at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain.
This is all because they refused to sign a match-fee contract before the match offered to them by the federation.
A senior member of FPATT said the players resented being rushed to sign the one-match contract which was expected to land them US$400 each.
The players allegedly refusing to sign, include Sunderland striker Kenwyne Jones, Southampton’s Stern John, Swansea’s Jason Scotland, Collin Samuel of Toronto FC, Marvin Oliver (Caledonia AIA) and goalkeeper Clayton Ince.
Newsday also learnt that the players were being offered US$700 for a draw and US$1, 000 for a victory against the French islanders yesterday.
It was alleged the players were told that if they did not sign the contract, then they would receive no payment for their performance against Guadeloupe.
According to the FPATT official, his association wants to offer the players something that will prevent them from experiencing similar situations that many of the country’s national players have gone through.
“We want to offer them a package for the entire campaign and not something that they will not benefit from if they are not selected on the squad,” the official said yesterday.
He expressed the view that if the players had signed for Wednesday’s match- fee, it would have been what they will be paid for the entire campaign.
“What would be even worse is the fact that the football federation has a squad of 40 players in training, and therefore if you are excluded from the squad for matches, then you will have nothing to get,” the FPATT official said.
FPATT has since called an emergency meeting for their players where they will be informed of some of the benefits to be derived from their proposal to the TTFF.
The FPATT official also revealed that they intend to meet with the football federation to discuss financial rewards and incentives for future matches.
“Although we have our own package to offer the players, we wanted to see what the football federation was offering before we could have made any demands, add to it or agree with it,” the official said.
FPATT have been representing the Soca Warriors for what they claim as “outstanding money from their participation in the 2006 World Cup in Germany,” and are awaiting arbitration in the matter.
Both FPATT and the TTFF agreed for the process to go through an English arbitrator late last year with an expected response by the end of March.
The FPATT official also pointed out that the players all want to play for Trinidad and Tobago in the World Cup qualifiers leading up to South Africa. The Soca Warriors will take on the winners of the Cayman Islands/Bermuda clash on either June 14 or 15 in their first qualifying match.

Star Trinidad and Tobago striker Kenwyne Jones who plays for Sunderland in the English Premier League is closely marshalled yesterday by three Guadeloupe players in the friendly international at the Queen's Park Oval, Port-of-Spain. (2008-02-07), Author: Rattan Jadoo.