Yorke, Latas among embittered W/Cup heroes.
By: Lasana Liburd (Express).[/size]
Disenchanted
The absences of 2006 World Cup captain Dwight Yorke and football icon Russell Latapy, a past national skipper, from the June 1 Centennial match against England at the Hasely Crawford Stadium is, according to a source, another indicator of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation's (T&TFF) poor relationship with its star players.
FIFA vice-president and T&TFF special advisor Jack Warner promised Yorke, T&T's most celebrated player, a 45 minute cameo for the exhibition match but his participation was eventually ruled out in mid-week. The Sunderland player and ex-Manchester United treble winner, according to the source, failed to agree on an appearance fee with the T&TFF while he was also unwilling to join the "Soca Warriors" in camp.
The 36-year-old player preferred to link up with the squad on the eve of the contest, which apparently did not go down well with the present technical staff headed by Colombian coach Francisco Maturana.
Latapy, who refused to even discuss the possibility of playing with T&TFF special advisor and FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, is understood to be furious at being passed over for the post of national coach. The 40-year-old Falkirk player initially refused to play under former coach Leo Beenhakker unless he was made an assistant coach but relented in time to help the Warriors book a place in the prestigious German tournament.
Both players were understood to have agreed different match contracts than their 21 teammates for the 2006 World Cup and, according to the source, are yet to be paid in full.
The T&TFF's 100-year existence is littered with such divisions between players and administrators.
Midfielder Leroy De Leon, the country's first international football star, refused to play in the 1974 World Cup qualifying campaign after growing disillusioned at the local governing body's failure to settle their debts to him. His gifted contemporaries, Everald "Gally" Cummings and Steve David also saw their international careers end on bitter terms unrelated to their ability on the field.
And, although there is expected to be a T&TFF tribute to Yorke on Sunday, his World Cup teammates are unhappy at their exclusions.
Thirty-year-old defender Brent Sancho, whose dreadlocks were infamously tugged before Peter Crouch scored the opener in England's 2-0 win in Germany, will gain admittance to the Hasely Crawford Stadium on June 1 but as a television commentator.
His World Cup counterparts, Densill Theobald, Chris Birchall, Ian Cox, Anthony Wolfe and Cyd Gray were left to source their own means of entry.
"I think it is disappointing," said Sancho, who was blacklisted after the World Cup and has not represented his country since the tournament. "You would think that we would have been invited for such a big occasion. And not just us but the 1991 (Under-21) and the 1974 teams and so on who also fought hard and did their nation proud."
Gray was even more forthright.
"I was trying to get a ticket but, if I don't get one, I won't go," said Gray. "I have no interest in paying to watch a game after what I did for this country."
Yorke and Latapy's unique talents have always enjoyed a degree of latitude from Warner who admitted to allowing them various perks including bookings in separate hotels to their teammates.
But Yorke refused to play in the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup without his blacklisted teammates and felt disenchanted enough to effectively rule himself out of Sunday's friendly although Warner instructed Maturana to play the star.
It is uncertain whether the absences of past and present football heroes would make any difference to the T&TFF's party on June 1.
