Warner: I’m going all the way with Warriors
By Francis Joseph (T&T Guardian)
Jack Warner, Special Adviser to the TTFF, said yesterday that he was going all the way with the Soca Warriors in their quest to reach the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa.
He has already spent $24 million of his money on the team and although the government gave the TTFF $2.1 million on Wednesday to pay the technical staff for the months of October to December, a lot more money will be needed as the Warriors prepare for the final round of qualifying beginning with an away game to El Salvador on February 11, 2009.
Warner, president of Concacaf, said he did not expect to be refunded what he had spent, but he felt the government could make a bigger contribution to the Warriors as they prepare for the 2009 campaign.
On Wednesday, Minister of Sports, Gary Hunt, handed over the cheque to Oliver Camps, president of the TTFF, saying it would cover salaries for the 13-man technical team for the period October to December 2008. It comes from an overall grant of more than $8 million which the government pledged towards the team, but only after the TTFF produces its annual audited accounts.
Speaking from Japan yesterday, Warner said: “I paid all the salaries, rents, travel, etc from since November 2007 to the present time which amounted to a little more than $24 million in total.
“The TTFF was able to absorb some of this from gate receipts amounting to about $10 million. The Ministry did not pay a cent, despite the 2006 promise of the Prime Minister to do so, until yesterday when they paid the salaries for two months only—November and December, 2008—and, even then paid it late, so that I was forced to pay the salaries for November 2008 as well.”
Warner said: “Mr Hunt says that he is not paying any money since he’s awaiting the submission of the TTFF’s 2007 accounts which the TTFF has consistently advised him will be late due to the pressure of work of KPMG.
“It’s now ready as of yesterday. It is informative to note that the Prime Minister’s promise never depended on any such caveat.”
The FIFA vice-president said while the TTFF had not produced any audited accounts, the Minister of Sports dispensed taxpayers’ money to his friends and his friends’ organisations without any audit of any kind.
The Chaguanas West MP claimed that the Minister gave FPATT some $99,990.00 without any audit. FPATT, he said, is the body that was fighting the TTFF in the courts right now and purports to represent football players in a union which the T&TFF does not recognise.
He said the executive director of SPORTT, Darren Millien, is an executive member of FPATT and, moreover, even played a football match with them last year.
He claimed that that money was given to FPATT to assist them in paying their legal fees to fight the TTFF, which is before London arbitrators.
