Aanensen satisfied with German venues

Trinidad and Tobago have never faced England and since 1985 have only met one of the other teams in the group — Paraguay.

In March 1989 the two sides locked horns in two friendly fixtures, which ended 2-2 and 1-1.

Team manager Bruce Aanensen along with assistant George Joseph and members of the official Trinidad and Tobago delegation travelled yesterday by train for three hours from Leipzig.

Also on the trip was FIFA Liaison Officer, Dutchman Mark Boss to Nuremberg to inspect the match venue for the fixture against England — the Nuremberg Franken-Stadium.

By match date on June 15 at 6 pm (German time) the stadium will have a purchasable ticket capacity of 32,341 of which the TT Football Federation will be entitled to eight percent, just as the English FA.

The total seating capacity of the stadium is 36,898 but will be downgraded to fit FIFA specifications. The Nurem-berg venue will also host the Mexico/ Iran, Japan/Croatia and USA/Ghana encounters.

The venue’s last big outing was the 2005 Confederations Cup clash between Germany and Brazil and it also hosted the Germany versus Argentina encounter. The nearby Hilton Hotel, less than ten minutes drive away where TT will be staying at for the match, also hosted the Argentines earlier this year.

TT’s management team will visit the Westfalen Stadium in Dortmund this morning. This venue will host the Warriors opening match on June 10 against Sweden at a 6 pm kickoff.

For the group stage matches, there will be a 50,768 purchasable ticket capacity and like all group matches for the teams, TT will be entitled to eight percent of those tickets.

Aanensen and company will also visit the Fritz-Walter Stadium in Kaiser-slautern which will be the venue for TT’s final group fixture against Paraguay on June 20 at 9 pm. That match will have a purchasable ticket capacity of 41,513.

TT’s hotel for that encounter, the Dorint Kongress in Mannheim, was already inspected by Aanensen and Joseph on Saturday night.

"So far we are just ensuring that all the conditions are what we want for the team for these matches and they have been satisfactory. It’s just a case of us putting the final arrangements in place like sorting out the room bookings, ensuring the bedrooms, dining and fitness areas are fine, seeing that the training pitches are what we expect and that other things like transportation are up to standard," Aanensen explained to TTFF Media.

While yesterday’s hectic schedule was being followed, head coach Leo Beenhakker and assistant Wim Rijs-bergen were heading to Austria to finalise a training site their for the build-up. They are expected to return to Germany tomorrow to accompany the current TT team staff here on a site visit for the training base camp for the World Cup in Rotenberg.

Special Adviser Jack Warner left for Port-of-Spain on Saturday along with TTFF President Oliver Camps and he maintained that all will be done to ensure that TT’s conditions are first class for their World Cup preparation and participation.

"They will have the works from business class travel, to top of the line treatment at the hotels and the venues from the Local Organising Committee officers, to even having their own chef with them throughout," Warner said.

"We have of course several things to look after but we shall leave nothing short of top class. After all we are in a top class group with England and the others and we must ensure that we are well represented and mark my word, we will be true team of spirit. I repeat we shall be the smallest nation with the biggest passion in this World Cup," he said.