Soca Warriors almost got key to treasury

Some of your readership may think of me as being unpatriotic for expressing this point of view, but, I feel it needs to be brought to light.

As a developing country it is paramount that we put things in perspective and it is most important that our leaders make sure that the revenue we get from our natural resources is carefully invested for future generations to come.

When I heard our Prime Minister announcing that the whole of our football squad including the manager would get a million dollars each I almost collapsed!

I immediately thought of all those schools that are in desperate need of repair. The hospital in Tobago that is in considerable need of a cash injection. The hundreds of beggars we encounter in Port-of-Spain who live on the streets. All those people who live in areas that tell you stories that they have not had running water for years. The social services which need to be brought up to date with added funding. Police stations around the island that are in disrepair. The police force that desperately needs modern equipment to fight the escalating crime. The fire station in Belmont that the firemen abandoned due to the deplorable condition it is in. I could go on and on.

We must remember that many of our players practice their skills overseas and are earning much more than most or our highest earners in TT could ever dream of earning and good luck to them, they are getting the going rate. Take Dwight Yorke for example, I am sure that when he was at Manchester United he was earning well in excess of thirty thousand pounds per week which in our money is three hundred thousand dollars. The same also goes for Russell Latapy who would have been on the top scale of the Scottish footballers’ pay sheets, and let’s not forget all those other players who play in the British Premiership League like Shaka Hislop and co, who are earning thousands of pounds per week.

I dread to think what Mr Manning would have given the team had they qualified for the next rounds, possibly the key to the treasury. If we keep offering our athletes cash and material incentives, no more would they be competing for the honour of their country, that big passion that we so much talk about would not be there, it would be all about the big dollar.

Yes, we must look after our athletes that achieve on an international level, but in a more sensible and realistic way. It would have made more sense if the government had named streets or a square after the players, put up a statue or plaque in their honour so that generations to come would remember their achievements and try to emulate them, and take the millions they so generously gave them and invest it in a sport stadium or develop sport grounds where they could employ those of the team that are at home and not earning lucrative salaries abroad, employ them as coaches and managers, contract them as advisers, give them soft loans to buy houses and cars and make sure that they are secured for life. Let us award them not reward them.