T&T players reject Warner offer.
English barrister Michael Townley and several "Soca Warriors" yesterday rubbished suggestions from FIFA vice-president and Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) special adviser Jack Warner that financial settlements were reached with the "majority" of 2006 World Cup players regarding their bonus dispute.
The Express can confirm that the TTFF will make payments to World Cup team captain Dwight Yorke, Russell Latapy, Dennis Lawrence, Carlos Edwards, Clayton Ince, Jason Scotland and Densill Theobald, who were not a part of the legal action taken against the body.
Thirty-two-year-old Scotland-based defender Marvin Andrews, who has been without a club since May, has broken ranks with the rebels and would settle, while there is speculation that Scotland First Division winger Collin Samuel will do likewise.
But the remaining 14 squad members, according to Townley, are "prepared to stand the course" and rejected a sum understood to be $186,000 (US$30,000) per player.
Townley's clients are Shaka Hislop, Kelvin Jack, Ian Cox, Cyd Gray, Atiba Charles, Brent Sancho, Avery John, Chris Birchall, Aurtis Whitley, Evans Wise, Anthony Wolfe, Cornell Glen, Kenwyne Jones and Stern John.
The TTFF have been at odds with 16 players from their 23-man World Cup squad since October 2006 when they offered $5,644.08 each to the players, who were verbally promised half of all revenue from the country's Germany adventure.
Most of the Warriors refused and hired Townley who led them to a victory over the TTFF in the London-based Sports Dispute Resolution Panel in May 2008.
The arbitration body ordered the TTFF to open their accounts for scrutiny, so as to ascertain what the players are owed, but Warner attempted to offset their judgment as he met with several World Cup players at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Port of Spain on Monday and told the media, two days later, that the dispute was over.
 "We have come to the dawn of a new era through the initiative of Peter O' Connor...to settle the outstanding dispute since 2006," said Warner, on Wednesday. "Today we have done just that and we have agreed to a settlement out-of-court figure, which the majority of players have agreed to and which sum we shall pay today or in a couple days time."
Townley denied Warner's claim.
"There is not any inkling of truth to his claim of a settlement," said Townley. "I have spoken to my clients and they said they have not settled and I have never been involved with settlement talks with Mr Warner or his lawyers.
"There was a meeting at the Crowne Plaza on Monday night with Mr Warner and (TTFF general secretary Richard) Groden where a settlement was offered but not accepted."
Gray, Sancho, Hislop and John (A) confirmed they did not accept Warner's offer and knew of no one, apart from Andrews, who had done so. The Express was told by an anonymous source that Samuel also chose to end the protracted legal battle with the TTFF.
"We deserve more than that," said Gray, who played in Wednesday's 3-0 2010 World Cup qualifying win over Cuba. "I didn't agree with it so I didn't accept it."
Sancho, who has not been selected to represent his country since the World Cup, agreed.
"After coming this far along and after what we have won in the arbitration court," he said, "the offer put on the table is absurd."
Six months ago, when the Sports Dispute Resolution Panel ruled in favour of the Warriors, Townley requested an interim payment of $44 million from the TTFF, which he described as "a tiny fraction of what the players are due based on the limited information made public by TTFF".
Warner's latest offer, on Monday, is $41 million short.
"I think the offer is not sufficiently generous," said Townley.
It seems that the majority of his clients agree.
New twist in World Cup bonus battle.
More than half of Trinidad and Tobago's 2006 World Cup squad could face a fresh legal battle in their bonus dispute with the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF).
English barrister Michael Townley, who is the instructing attorney for 15 members of the historic 23-man squad, told the Express that the TTFF made an application to bring the case before the Trinidad and Tobago High Court. A decision is expected from the local courts on January 7, 2009.
In May 2008, the London-based Sports Dispute Resolution Panel (SDRP) ruled in favour of the players and ordered "sufficient inspection" of the TTFF's accounts. Townley described the TTFF's alleged new legal posturing as an attempt to circumvent the decision of the arbitration body.
"It is an attempt to distance themselves from the judgment in the UK," said Townley. "We intend to resist it on the grounds that once an arbitration rule is made it is final and binding.
"It will go one of two ways--either the High Court in Trinidad will accept jurisdiction and there will be a retrial or they will not accept on the basis that there is an arbitration ruling which is binding and we will return to London."
Townley declined the opportunity to reveal the legal figures incurred by the "Soca Warriors" thus far but it is expected to easily exceed half a million dollars in local currency. The TTFF are believed to have paid at least double that sum.
Om Lalla, the instructing attorney for the TTFF, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The bonus battle looked set for local courts last year after the players refused to accept that the TTFF's offer of $5,644.08 each, which was made in October 2006, fairly represented their share of World Cup revenues.
The TTFF requested that the battle be taken to the London arbitration instead and the players agreed. Six months ago, the SDRP decided in favour of the Warriors.
"It appears to be the case that the TTFA has yet to provide an account to the applicants which complies with its contractual obligations under the commercial revenues-sharing agreement," stated arbitrator Ian Mill QC. "Obviously, I hope that the effect of this decision will be that a proper account will expeditiously be rendered, together with the payments shown as due by that account; and sufficient inspection of the TTFA's records to enable the applicants reasonably to be satisfied that they have received that to which they are entitled.
"In that context, I should observe that any agreement entered into prior to qualification for the World Cup finals but which resulted in revenues accruing to the TTFA in consequence of qualifying should be disclosed by the TTFA to the applicants (even if the TTFA would wish to argue before me on another occasion that the agreement is not one in whose revenues the applicants are entitled to share)."
Townley, who requested an interim payment of $44 million from the TTFF in May, is anxious to begin a court-ordered examination of the Football Federation's accounts. He alleged that the process has been delayed by the TTFF's insistence on a second opinion from the local courts first.
Source: By: Lasana Liburd (T&T Express)
