TT$6M artificial turf

The Mexicans will be one team in the four-nation tournament, at the newly opened FIFA facility.

This was announced at the formal opening of the facility on Friday, as the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) proudly launched their FIFA Goal Project 2 following months of planning and construction.

CONCACAF president Jack Austin Warner announced that Mexico is among the teams carded for the tournament which will involve hosts Trinidad and Tobago and two other nations, at a date to be announced, in May.

FIFA director of development Mary Harvey came to Trinidad from the CFU congress in Curacao on Thursday night, specially to open the facility which is the first of its kind in the Western hemisphere.

Also at the opening were TTFF president Oliver Camps and executive members of the TTFF, FIFA development officer (Caribbean) Harold Taylor and other football officials and guests.

Harvey praised the “Champions League” standard facility similar to those in Holland, Norway and England.

“Today we inaugurate a project that will result in lasting change in the region. Today we open the first ever FIFA 2-star artificial turf right here at the Marvin Lee Stadium,” Harvey said.

She thanked Warner for his vision and commitment as well as Taylor and his deputy Daryll Warner and specially Domo, manufacturers of the state-of-the-art pitch, FIFA consultant and artificial turf specialist Dr Eric Harrison, local-based company Terra Forma, the TTFF and all site workers for making the new surface a reality.

“This product is world class and among the best the industry has to offer and we are so pleased to see its realisation here in Trinidad.

“Thanks to Jack Warner whose dogged determination to see this project through, working through the bumps and hurdles tirelessly, has resulted in the beautiful pitch that you see today,” she added.

A natural field can have up to 300 hours of football played on it per year whereas the new artificial surface at the Marvin Lee Stadium can now accommodate 2000 hours of action per year.

Warner boasted that the Centre of Excellence is now the premier facility in the Caribbean for development and excellence.

He reminded those at the launch that when the FIFA Goal project for TT was to be inaugurated back in 2002, like all other associations, government received a request for the lease of land for the construction of a national training centre in Forest Reserve which would be funded by FIFA.

However, to date, the site remains abandoned and as such, the local governing body since went ahead in constructing an indoor Futsal facility at the Centre of Excellence in the first phase of the Goal Project and have now followed that up with the construction of artificial turf, on Warner’s request, which the TTFF intends to use for the development of their national teams.

“They didn’t give the land because if they give the land to football, it is believed they give the land to Jack Warner,” said the TTFF special advisor.

When the TTFF ran the risk of losing out on the US$400,000 funding from FIFA due to failure in getting the training centre off the ground, the local body then decided to construct the artificial surface which Warner revealed cost an estimated US$900,000 (TT$6 M) with the US$400,000 coming from FIFA.

In order to accommodate larger audiences for matches, stands have been erected behind the northern goal posts and bleachers will be put up around the playing area which Warner made clear will be for use only by the Joe Public football club as it has used the venue as their home base in the past.

“First of all this is not a Joe Public facility. This is a facility which is in a sense owned and controlled by the TTFF and the Centre of Excellence.

“It is a football only facility because we don’t want it to be destroyed. You will have no fetes here, no calypso fiesta, no Carnival shows here,” Warner added.