Warner: We need the extra money

The concerns about the $500 and $300 tickets were first raised by Minister of Sports Roger Boynes in a strongly worded letter he sent to Warner, chairman of T&T/Germany 2006 Limited on Wednesday.

Boynes appealed to Warner to make the tickets affordable to football fans and supporters stating that government had already subsidised the costs of the tickets in their $45 million budgetary allocation to the Soca Warriors campaign.

But Warner in a letter yesterday sought to explain the reasons for the exhorbitant cost of tickets for the “farewell match” of the Soca Warriors before they leave for Europe and the World Cup Finals from June 9 to July 9.

Warner, who is also a vice president of FIFA, the world governing body for football, said the increases are to off-set a loss of $2.2 million suffered by the Football Federation in a warm-up match between Trinidad and Tobago and Iceland in London, England on Carnival Monday, February 28.

According to Warner, just back from FIFA business in South Korea and Canada, the increased price of tickets will also cover the cost of an additional warm-up match which will be played while the team is in Germany at the World Cup. He revealed the cost of the match will be $580,000.

Warner said the extra revenue, close to $8 million according to Boynes, will bring the best Peruvian football team for the match, as adequate preparation for facing the Paraguayans in Germany.

He said Soca Warriors coach Leo Beenhakker has requested the best Peruvian team to play in Trinidad, and the Football federation would have to foot the bill of the overseas-based Peruvians which would hike-up the cost of staging the match by a further $1.4 million.

Warner said money was also needed to cover the costs of World Cup match tickets which the football federation has decided will be allocated to the spouses and friends of the members of the national team.

Each member of the squad will be given two tickets at no cost.

In his letter to Boynes, Warner also stated that coach Beenhakker also wanted a de-linking of the TTFF’s German Office from the hotel where the Soca Warriors will be staying in Rotenburg.

It means that additional accommodation must be sought for the office at the World Cup in Germany at a cost yet to be determined.

He added that a cultural presentation will also be put in place for the match with Peru. Also the match will be broadcast live to over 100 countries around the world.

Warner stated in the release that the TTFF is concerned about what the Government has put in place to showcase the twin-island republic at the World Cup since no announcement has been made as yet.