Official claims W/Cup bonus
By Walter Alibey (T&T Newsday)
Thursday, July 3 2008
FORMER manager of the Trinidad and Tobago Soca Warriors’ team Richard Braithwaite is claiming that both he and then coach Bertille St Clair are the only ones who did not receive cash bonuses for their services to the successful 2006 World Cup campaign.
His disclosure has come following a recommendation made by the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) in a recent press conference for him, St Clair and Assistant Manager Sam Phillips to get their deserved bonuses from Government.
And he claimed it was because their names were not submitted in the original list after the tournament for the bonuses by the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF). Yesterday Braithwaite told Newsday, “Bertille and I are aware that our names were never included in the original list of persons to receive bonuses for the last World Cup campaign. Why our names were omitted in the first place, I cannot say but as far as I am concerned that is now water under the bridge.”
Players and staff members who represented Trinidad and Tobago during the 2006 World Cup campaign all received bonuses totalling millions of dollars from Government. The Soca Warriors made their debut at the World Cup two years ago and won many fans after surprising results against top opponents.
In their first match the Soca Warriors held Sweden scoreless and similarly kept England at bay in their second fixture before allowing in two goals in the final ten minutes of the match. In the final group encounter the TT squad led by Dwight Yorke was defeated 2-0 by Paraguay in Kaiserslautern. However Braithwaite and St Clair as well as assistant manager Sam Phillips, are credited with playing critical roles in laying the foundation of the team during the early stages of the campaign.
“I did not expect any bonus then and I don’t expect it now. If it eventually comes then so be it. We were in charge of the team for 11 of the 20 World Cup games leading up to Germany and I think we made a useful contribution,” he said.
Meanwhile Braithwaite has said that he sympathises with national coach Francisco Maturana.
The Colombian coach has been heavily criticised after the team surprisingly was beaten at home to world minnows Bermuda 2-1 and needed to pull off 2-0 margin victory to advance to the next round of the CONCACAF Zone 2010 World Cup Qualifiers.
During the 2006 qualifiers the team progressed to the final round but had found itself in dire straits after losing to Guatemala and the USA and then drew with Costa Rica early. The technical staff which included both coach St Clair and Braithwaite and others were replaced by Dutchman Leo Beenhakker and his team.
Braithwaite has however admitted that it was a difficult process where few mistakes were made but claimed that his staff was able to provide the Dutch staff with the foundation on which they built.
“Certainly there were some mistakes but as the present technical staff is finding out, things can be very difficult in the early stages of a World Cup campaign. It gets a lot easier once a foundation is laid and the team gets into the final round of qualification” Braithwaite said.
He added further that building a team takes time and patience and once you get off to a late start, you have to play “catch up” and different stages in the process will begin to overlap.
In giving an example the top administrator now a consultant expressed the view that Maturana may still be trying to scout and identify players even after the competition has begun. This he said can be very risky because you may be forced to experiment and things may not always go as planned. “At the end of the day it is his neck on the line so he has to surround himself with people who are knowledgeable and supportive. He also has to be very strong and focused because there are all kinds of pressures especially at the start of qualification,” Braithwaite said.
