Bunji Garlin pens ‘Soca Warriors’ battle song

TWO-TIME Soca Monarch champion Bunji Garlin (Ian Alvarez) has penned a jingle entitled ‘Stand Up For Warriors’, the official song for the national football team’s ‘Journey to Germany’ campaign. The song, which is a remake of his 2005 hit ‘War Cry’, will be featured on the team’s website, at match venues and promotional activities. This disclosure was made by Ian Joseph, vice-president, Mobile Services, Telecommu-nications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) at yesterday’s press conference at the Local Organising Committee (LOC) Boardroom, Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) Technical Department, St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain. The media briefing was also organised to launch a number of promotions and sponsorship initiatives by the telecommunications firm towards the ‘Journey to Germany’ drive.

Joseph also announced that the TTFF and the team’s technical staff will now benefit from 30 mobile phones and TSTT’s High Speed Internet Access Services for their offices. “These communications tools will certainly assist them in staying on top of the critical elements necessary for our national team to have a successful campaign,” Joseph noted. As far as the team’s website is concerned, Joseph stated: “with the help of the (TTFF), a website will soon be launched which profiles our national squad and makes use of interactive features, such as ring-tone downloads, to give the public more opportunities to show their support.” And a People’s Choice Award will begin today whereby the public can “send a text message of their predictions for the outcome of the matches, with the winners earning valuable hampers and gifts.

Joseph also revealed that “part of the proceeds of the cost of each text message will raise funds to further aid our Warriors in their preparations on this Journey to Germany. “Given the planned frequency of it,” Joseph added, “we estimate that the football loving fans in Trinidad and Tobago will help us as much as $500,000 over the duration of all of the qualifying matches.” Jack Austin Warner, special advisor to the TTFF and chairman of the LOC, declared: “we’ve spent $11-12 million to date, and we’ll need another $9 million (to fund the team). “The team will not be short-changed and we (the TTFF) will not allow the team to feel below their best,” he added.

Warner, who also serves as president of regional bodies CONCACAF and CFU, as well as vice-president of FIFA, revealed that the team will now be known as ‘Warriors’ instead of ‘Soca Warriors’. “We deliberately dropped ‘soca’ from the team’s title due to the seriousness of the (team’s) task,” he admitted. “Soca is for the Queen’s Park Savannah ... and after we qualify.” TT team manager Richard Brathwaite emphasised that “we have players all over the globe and we have to be able to keep in touch with them,” hence the need for the phones for the team members.

Also making a statement at the press conference was national football team coach Bertille St Clair, who thanked TSTT for their support and “re-assured the public that the team will do well. “Because of some of the publicity that I get with the media, I urge the public to support the team,” added St Clair. Sharing a similar view was midfielder Angus Eve, who urged the media to support the team instead of “emphasising on the negatives.” Expressing his gratitude to the telecommunications firm was TTFF Technical Director Lincoln ‘Tiger’ Phillips. “My job is a long-term one,” said the former national goalkeeper, who added that his plan is to see national teams involved in all FIFA World Cup competitions by 2014. “It is extremely important that we do well on this campaign,” he stressed. “People say that St Clair is stubborn but all winners must be stubborn.”