Footballers’ Miami trip off

TRINIDAD and Tobago footballers will now spend a longer period at home leading up to the Ash Wednesday (February 9) World Cup qualifier against the  United States. This as a direct result from a decision was taken yesterday to switch two  proposed friendly internationals on January 31 and February 2 from Miami to the Queen’s Park Oval, Port-of-Spain. The games will now be played  on February 1 and 3 dates for which the venue has now been made available to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation.

Both games will be  against Haiti and TT will have the services of requested overseas professionals, while Brazilian-born midfielder Jose Luis Seabra will also be kept in the squad. However, Seabra’s position regarding citizenship, allowing him to represent the country against the United States, remains in limbo. And the TTFF have  given up hope of getting his position regularised in time for the World Cup game. But the team’s technical staff decided  to go ahead in their preparations but will keep Seabra in the squad for the friendlies against Azerbaijan today, and Haiti, allowing the viewing public the chance to see the player’s worth.

TTFF special adviser Jack Austin Warner, on his return from Brazil late yesterday expressed disappointment that Seabra and the TTFF have been left waiting. “We have given up all hopes and I think it would be a lie if I said that we are not all disappointed that the matter has not been dealt with in favour of the country’s football team, now preparing for World Cup qualification, but football goes on and we are prepared to get over this obstacle.”