$4m lost on ‘mother of matches’

Revealing that the "Samba Boys" were indeed expected to face the Soca Warriors in the highly-expected friendly international, TTFF Special Adviser Jack Austin Warner said he was saddened by the development.

He also stated yesterday that the Football Federation " was is in serious financial straits."

Warner spoke at a press conference at the VIP Lounge, Hasely Crawford Stadium yesterday.

On Monday, the FIFA vice-president disclosed that the friendly was scrapped due to a new match calendar issued by the world body governing football.

Another friendly was planned for February 8, against Wales in Cardiff. But the match is now expected to take place in London, England on Ash Wednesday, March 1.

Warner noted that the TTFF is planning to have chartered flights to carry local entertainers "as a trial run for (the World Cup in) Germany" and national coach Leo Beenhakker will be utilising a number of British-born players who are seeking eligibility to represent TT. Other practice matches are being organised against Norway, the Czech Republic and Hungary, but Beenhakker has refused an offer to play Ghana.

With Trinidad and Tobago scheduled to meet England, Sweden and Paraguay in Group "B" at the World Cup Finals next year, Warner said that Beenhakker was looking to play teams with similar styles to England and Sweden. But he added that the coach was "dismissive of Paraguay" by not focussing on a practice match against a South American team.

Warner, who left late yesterday for Japan, also confirmed that the TTFF, on Monday, spent $2.4 million booking hotels in Austria, for the pre-World Cup training camp in May, and the Wachtelhof Hotel in Rotenburg, Germany for the team’s World Cup stay in June. The football administrative giant revealed that, by December 20, he plans to put a case to the FIFA Players’ Status Committee concerning British-born pair of Jlloyd Samuel and Bobby Zamora, as well as Brazilian-born Jose Luis Seabra, who have made themselves available to play for Trinidad and Tobago

On the issue of former assistant coach Theo De Jong, Warner stated: "Beenhakker felt that he had served a particular purpose and he needed a different kind of coach at this point in time. So his contract wasn’t renewed."

"It had nothing to do with his competence or such. He just felt that, at this particular level, he needed another coach," said Warner.

As far as De Jong’s replacement is concerned, Warner said, "I don’t know. I’ve not shown any enthusiasm or interest," he added. "Whenever Beenhakker is ready to tell us, he’ll tell us. But I don’t know. He hasn’t told me at least."

Concerning the allocation of tickets for TT nationals, Warner disclosed that the maximum allocated to the TTFF would be 2,200 which, according to FIFA, would be based on of the small population of the twin-island republic.

Stressing that first priority would be given to "the 201 persons who went to Bahrain" and an estimated 440 from Washington DC and New York City.

"You can’t buy tickets on black market because that’s an offence. You can be blacklisted worldwide," he said. "So you can’t go up there and buy outside, you can’t do that. And every ticket has a name."

"At the end of the day, if we have 800-1,000 tickets at our disposal, we’re lucky."

Franz "Kaiser" Beckenbauer, who is one of only two persons to win World Cups as a captain (1974) and coach (1990), and now heads of the 2006 World Cup Organising Committee, is expected to make two one-day trips to Trinidad in January and February respectively. According to Warner, the January 18 visit was confirmed on Monday.

Beckenbauer and fellow Germans Wolfgang Neirsbach and Fedor Radmann will make a stop in Trinidad during their welcome tour of CONCACAF qualifiers (January 16 in Mexico, January 17 in Costa Rica and January 19 in the United States).

And Beckenbauer would make another stop here, again with a private jet, on February 18 as part of the Coca-Cola/FIFA Trophy Tour.