England's Trinidad friendly in doubt
By Sam Wallace, Football Correspondent, Independent
Thursday, 22 May 2008
Fabio Capello's end-of-season England friendly against Trinidad and Tobago has been plunged into doubt over a bizarre dispute between the Caribbean nation's most powerful football figure, Jack Warner, and his government. The two sides are in a bitter disagreement over the cost of renting the government-owned stadium for the match on 1 June.
The Football Association were last night urgently seeking clarification over the game after Warner was quoted in the Caribbean as saying that he would rather call the match off and repay ticket-holders than bow to the demands of the government. The dispute is likely to re-open the debate over why the FA have done a deal with Warner in the first place, whose involvement in a ticketing scandal at the 2006 World Cup finals and his open hostility to a World Cup being staged in England have made him a controversial figure.
The match is of little use to television audiences in the United Kingdom because it kicks off at 10.30pm English time on 1 June, a Sunday. Instead the game is viewed as a way the FA can secure the support of Warner, a Fifa vice-president and a key figure in deciding whether the FA's bid for the 2018 World Cup will be successful. The FA are also eager to smooth over relations with Warner following remarks he made last August that "nobody in Europe likes England" and that he would oppose any English World Cup bid.
Yesterday, Warner, who is the president of Concacaf the football region covering north and central America and the Caribbean and effectively head of the Trinidad and Tobago football federation (TTFF) went on the attack against his country's sports minister, Gary Hunt. Warner accused Hunt of reneging on an official deal to lease the Hasely Crawford stadium to his federation and raising his demands to 10 per cent of gate receipts a figure he estimates at US$780,000 (£397,000). Characteristically dramatic, Warner was quoted in Trinidad newspapers as saying: "Never has an evil been perpetrated on a country in the field of sport and more so football, than this present minister of sport. And for me, enough is enough."
The game had been arranged to mark the TTFF's centenary celebrations and had been billed as "A Score to Settle" in reference to Trinidad's defeat to England in the 2006 World Cup finals group stages. Now Warner has told the government that he will serve what is described as an injunction under the islands' law tomorrow morning. "If I win, the match is on. If I don't, it's off," Warner said. "We would have to give people their money back."
All of which is likely to bemuse Capello, whose 30-man squad meet today for an 11-day end-of-season camp which the England manager views as crucial in preparing for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers that start in September. England will play the US at Wembley on Wednesday and are scheduled to fly to Port of Spain the following day. Privately, the England manager is not thought to regard a game against Trinidad as the ideal preparation for his players.
There are also disagreements between TTFF and their government over advertising rights at the stadium and a ban on adverts for alcohol and cigarettes. A statement from the federation said that the government had been "disingenuous" in their dealings. The cancellation of the game, the statement said, "will cause irreparable damage to the reputation of the TTFF and subject each and every citizen of T&T to shame and humiliation and will result in a breach of contract with the English FA and may result in a cancellation of the match."
Warner has found himself involved in controversy before. In 1989, TTFF printed 45,000 tickets for a World Cup qualifier against the US played in a stadium which held 28,500. In 2006 he was accused of profiting from illegal sales of World Cup tickets issued to TTFF which were sold by his own travel company. Fifa did not find him guilty of wrongdoing but his son Daryan was fined £500,000 for selling tickets that had come from his father for a mark-up on their face value.
Warner was also involved in a bitter court case with senior members of the Trinidad 2006 World Cup squad over their bonuses. Led by former West Ham goalkeeper Shaka Hislop, England-based players such as Sunderland's Kenwyne Jones and Southampton's Stern John pursued Warner and TTFF for bonuses they said they had been promised of around £125,000. An arbitration panel in London found in the players' favour last month.
Stadium stand-off threatens Fabio Capello plans
Martin Samuel, Chief Football Correspondent, Times
The final match of Fabio Capello's first season as England manager is in jeopardy after a dispute between the Trinidad & Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) and its Government over stadium rental charges.
The game, which is scheduled to take place a week on Sunday, is part of an 11-day training camp that Capello has organised so he can work with an extended group of 30 players. There will be a match at Wembley Stadium against the United States on Wednesday followed by the trip to play Trinidad & Tobago in Port of Spain, which the England manager believes is vital for the development of his World Cup squad. Until now, he has had no more than three days with the players at one time.
Now the second part of that plan is in the balance, with Jack Warner, the Fifa vice-president and special adviser to the TTFF, threatening to take Gary Hunt, the Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs, to court over demands for a rental fee of $200,000 (about £100,000) for use of the Hasely Crawford Stadium on June 1. The federation claims that previous matches have been put on there for a payment of $5,000.
FA officials expressed surprise at the developments yesterday and said that it was in the dark about whether the match would take place. We have not been advised of any change, a spokesman said. Until we can find more information, we can only proceed as normal.
Yet Warner's stance is hardly conciliatory and this is the latest in a series of fallouts with government officials. A qualifying tournament for the under-17 women's World Cup was scheduled to be held in Trinidad and Tobago in July, but a back-up host venue is being sought after another dispute between Warner and Hunt.
The meeting with England is to celebrate a century of football on the islands and all tickets have been sold, but Warner claims that the Government has reneged on an agreement struck on March 15 that the stadium would be available at the usual rate. With the stadium full to its capacity of 23,000 for this match, there is no chance of using a smaller venue, such as Queen's Park Oval.
Om Lalla, an attorney working for the TTFF, has given Hunt until tomorrow to resolve the issue or he will be taken to court and Warner said: If I don't win, the match is off and we would give people their money back. For me, enough is enough. We have 23,000 tickets sold and the Oval cannot hold that number. The minister knows that and he believes he has me over a barrel, but if I lose I would prefer to refund the money rather than pay for this stadium. He cannot put my back to the wall like this, so I am going after him. This is the most vindictive minister ever and he shall pay.
This development is a huge embarrassment for Capello's employers at the FA, too, with the match already a divisive one, in the light of recent claims against Warner over World Cup payments to Trinidad & Tobago players and World Cup ticket sales. A controversial figure, Warner paid Trinidad's 2006 World Cup squad a bonus of £498 per player, when government officials placed the income from the tournament at £13.86 million. He was also implicated in a ticket scandal, with Fifa's executive committee expressing disapproval that tickets allocated to Trinidad & Tobago were sold in packages by a company run by Warner's son, Daryan. Yet as a Fifa vice-president, Warner is one of the most influential figures in world football and the FA has been desperate for his approval since electing to bid for the 2018 World Cup finals.
It is no secret that England's mission to Port of Spain is heavily influenced by Fifa politics and if no resolution between the TTFF and the Government can be reached, some suspect that the FA will make up the difference.
With arrangements in chaos, however, Capello is likely to be unhappy if one of the rare opportunities to work with his players falls apart because of the unsuitability of hosts chosen by little more than realpolitik.
