Digicel Cup kicks off in November

GUATEMALA CITY: Trinidad and Tobago’s footballers will get the opportunity to use the Digicel Cup tournament to warm-up for the final round of the 2006 World Cup qualifiers which run from February 9 to October 12, 2005. Once TT advance out of the upcoming semi-final round, they will then meet the rest of the top six teams in CONCACAF. Details for the Digicel Cup, which will also serve as a qualifier for the 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup in July 2005 were given by  FIFA Vice-President Jack Warner who is currently in Guatemala City. Warner who is here to watch Trinidad and Tobago play Guatemala in a friendly match spent yesterday meeting with officials visiting the UNCAF (Central American Offices) and Guatemala Goal Project office. Digicel’s new sponsorship is worth close to US $1.25 million over a three-year period. According to Warner, TT will host one of the six preliminary groups from November 24-28 from which two teams will advance to the knockout round which will be played on a home and away basis.

TT will come up against Puerto Rico, Grenada and the winner of the Suriname-Guyana tie. The top two teams from the other five groups will also advance to the knockout stage which runs in December. There will then be a second knockout phase from which three winners will join hosts Barbados for the final round in February 2005. The Caribbean Football Union Executive Committee meeting and Congress will also take place in Barbados in February. Warner, who also holds the position of president of CONCACAF and the Caribbean Football Union expects the Digicel tournament and the CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers to be intense and exciting. He is particularly anxious to see how his home team will fare. “The recent results, more so against South Korea, have confirmed the team’s self-confidence and self-concept away from home. The team has demonstrated the capacity to compete at a high level  in new and difficult conditions,” he said.

“While these results were achieved in friendly, and not competitive matches, their importance should not be underestimated. Success in any walk of life, football included is based largely on self-confidence and ambition with  the necessary talent being given,” Warner said. He is hoping that the TT public can come to grips with the current progress of the team. “The local football-loving public should be heartened by this development and the progress the team is demonstrating. These performances could also  result in more players being offered contracts, not only in Korea, but elsewhere,” he said. “It’s unfortunate though that  to date, no party, local or foreign has expressed any interest in assisting the team with any funding of any kind but we shall keep persisting and the team will continue to progress,” Warner added.