$10M Carib brew for Warriors

The cheque was presented to Jack Warner, special adviser to the TT Football Federation by Andrew Sabga, chief executive officer of Carib Brewery of Champs Fleurs.

The function was staged at the Nelson Mandela Hall, CONCACAF Centre of Excellence, Tunapuna.

And Warner who is chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) and a FIFA vice-president has said that the money will do more good for the country than they will ever imagine.

Also present was Football Federation president Oliver Camps.

Sabga said the sponsorship deal will ensure that the team is properly equipped for next year’s World Cup and noted that the deal would include promotion of his product locally and internationally.

He pointed out that football has achieved what the politicians were unable to and therefore his company remains committed to the development of the country.

Warner made it clear that the majority of the sponsorship will go toward the 2006 Germany World Cup campaign.

He said an agreement was made for 30 percent of all the sponsorship monies that the team receives to be given to the players.

Warner said further that he had initially settled for the players to be given a minimum of US$20,000 and a maximum of US$100,000 for the campaign, because it was all his pocket could afford.

He said that in the last match against Bahrain, the local players went out and gave their everything against players who they knew were playing for cash, house and a salary and were able to succeed because of national pride.

In that match on Wednesday against Bahrain, Warner said that the players gave their all and didn’t know how much they were getting at the end of it.

He said Carib’s sponsorship deal was only a matter of course, since the beer giants were around when in 1973 the national footballers were attempting to qualify for the 1974 World Cup in Germany.

They were there again 16 years later, Warner said in 1989 when this country was attempting to book a place in the World Cup in Italy in 1990. He said 16 years later, in 2005 — Carib has again returned to the fold of national football.

He equated yesterday’s announcement to the life of the legendary Nelson Mandela in the hall named after the legendary South African leader.

Warner said that Mandela struggled almost single-handedly for the betterment of all people in his homeland which was torn by strife.

And in a similar way Carib’s donation of $10 million will change the lives of many in Trinidad and Tobago.

He also advised Commissioner of Police Trevor Paul, who was also at the presentation yesterday, that the more football that can be promoted locally, the easier his job of fighting the crime and violence will be.

Warner said he will make all the players available to the crime busters, so that they will go into the communities to speak with the young people.