unless they can get out of the deal we stuck with dem....
check warner comments on yorke at btm too...
By Nigel Simon.
17-Jun-2004 - The local football Federation has sealed a four-year US$1 million deal with Finta, to supply this country’s national teams with sports apparel.
The arrangement between the local federation and Finta, a leading Brazilian sports company, will see the disbursement of merchandise valued at US$250,000 per year for the next four years, with the uniforms to be worn by all of T&T’s national teams.
The teams include the senior men, Olympic (Under-23), Under-20 and Under-17 boy’s, together with the senior women, the Under-19 women’s squad, and the national men’s futsal side, the inaugural Caribbean Football Union Futsal champion team.
The deal was announced by Brazilian Irisleuton Bertolini, owner and chief executive officer of Finta, at a media briefing held yesterday at the Queen’s Park Oval.
The senior men’s team has already worn the new uniform in a 2-0 win over the Dominican Republic in last Sunday’s first leg Concacaf World Cup qualifier.
The sporting apparel to be worn by the local players include uniforms for matches, training, casual wear, travelling, t-shirts, bibs, track suits and sweat suits, football boots, track shoes, shin pads, goalkeeping gloves and captains’ armbands.
Other equipment supplied to the T&TFF by Finta are travelling bags, footballs, cones, saucers, ice coolers and medicine kits.
Finta also sponsors the Haitian national team, as well as Brazilian clubs Paysandu, Santa Cruz, Nautico and Botofago — to name a few.
In his turn at the podium, FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF president, Austin Jack Warner lashed out at local corporate companies, who he described as being lethargic when it comes to financial support to sport.
Warner was also critical of former national player Dwight Yorke and stated: “One of the errors of using the Tobago-born striker against Northern Ireland was that it was being played at a venue built in his name and yet he continues to show total disregard and disrespect for his country.”
While Yorke, the local television stations and corporate T&T came in a for some knocks by Warner, national coach Bertille St Clair was given a vote of confidence by Warner.
“Those who are not on board now will want to join in later on, but they have a next thing coming.
“We will like to see companies like Finta in with us from the start and, to coach St Clair, I will say also that I’m here with you for the long haul.
“These are times when you know who your friends are,” added Warner.
“Finta did not wait until the day the team becomes successful, but they came on board when the team is perceived to be down” Warner said.
Others in attendance were Kenny De Silva, the Carnival Development Comission chairman and former middle distance track runner, who is owner of Kenny’s Sports, which will sell the kits; Oliver Camps, president of the local Football Federation, and vice-presidents, Raymond Tim Kee and Lennox Watson.
