Soca Warriors assured of $27M

FIFA will also pay business class air tickets for the teams to come to the finals and will pay up to 400 Swiss francs (US$305) per day for hotel costs for a squad of at least 45 members.

In addition each of the 32 qualifiers will also be given one million Swiss francs (US$750,000) to cover the cost of preparations.

These incentives were revealed by FIFA following yesterday’s World Cup Organising Committee meeting in Leipzig at which FIFA Vice President and Deputy Chairman of the Finance Committee Jack Warner was present. Warner has been in Germany since the weekend as FIFA prepares for Friday’s Grand Draw for next year’s finals.

The Trinidadian has been among the most followed officials as the story of TT’s qualification has been one of the highlights of the tournament so far.

It was also announced that aside from the guaranteed $6 million Swiss Francs for the opening three matches, if TT advance to the second round of sixteen teams, they will collect a further $2.5 million Swiss Francs per match and for each successive match the fee will rise by $.5 million Swiss Francs.

The winners of the 2006 World Cup will take away a $24 million Swiss Francs.

An excited Warner added: "The pace is picking up by the hour here and you can feel the kind of excitement that is associated with a World Cup ahead of Friday’s draw. The Organising Committee and by extent everyone else who is involved in this venture continues to go all out to ensure that this event and particularly Friday’s major event is second to none.

"I don’t think there’s anyone else here at the moment who is more excited to be a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago because of what the country is set to be part of on such a massive stage," he told TTFF Media.

Warner will today welcome a nine-man TT contingent for the draw in Leipzig including TTFF President Oliver Camps, General Secretary Richard Groden, Team manager Bruce Aanansen, Press Officer Shaun Fuentes, team assistant manager George Joseph, Cultural Liaison Officer Terry Joseph, Security Officer Roy Augustus, Tracy Davidson, and Dr James Hepple of the Tourism Development Company.

Head coach Leo Beenhakker will also be there to witness the draw. Added to the earnings that were assured to the Soca Warriors, Warner also emphasised that a first class hotel has been selected for the TT team in the build up to the Finals.

Beenhakker has opted for a training camp in May in Austria and will then switch over to the Five-Star Superior Hotel Landhaus Wachtelhof and the municipal sports facilities In der Ahe which is located in Rotenburg.

"Embedded in nature with green forests, rare moorland and heath you will find our hotel right in the middle between the business centres Hamburg, Bremen and Hanover. It only takes an hour by car to get to any of these cities airports," the hotel’s official website stated.

Beenhakker made the selection from a catalogue put up by FIFA of possible hostings.

The catalogue contains more than 100 towns which apply for the accommodation of one of the nations taking part in the Finals.