Shabazz thanks Jack for new job

Former Trinidad and Tobago Senior Team Assistant Football Coach, Jamaal Shabazz has been reassigned by the Football Federation.

At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the TTFF on Sunday, it was decided that Shabazz be reassigned to the role of Technical Advisor of the men’s and women’s development programmes. Commenting on Shabazz’s new assignment, Special Advisor to the TTFF, Jack Warner said the TTFF Executive Committee is satisfied that the top coach “has served all the legal consequences of his travel violations.” Shabazz was detained by US Immigration authorities for 45 days on his arrival in Miami recently when a visa irregularity was detected on his passport while on the way to a football workshop. “And given the ruling in his case it is clear that the learned United States District Court judge Paul Huck wanted Shabazz to continue his career and work in football,” said Warner.

“By ruling that Shabazz performs 15 hours community service, in the field of football, the judge has encouraged Shabazz to continue to make a positive contribution through his expertise in the game. “And while the Community Service ruling was intended for Miami, we felt that the people of Trinidad and Tobago needed his services much more. “The fact that the Federation felt that his community service should start by benefitting the young people of Trinidad and Tobago first is therefore very commendable,” said Warner. “Shabazz would now be able to focus on football,” he said. Warner was the only person, besides the US lawyers,  to have visited Shabazz while he was incarcerated and sent several coaching books to him there.

Speaking of his reassignment Shabazz praised Almighty God for the opportunity that the TTFF have given him to continue to serve in the national effort. “I am always willing to serve my country in football, whether it is as a coach, ball boy, water carrier or adviser. “Both the TTFF Executive Committee and Mr Warner have demonstrated a very, very special quality in my situation, here,” said Shabazz. “It was easier for them to turn their backs on me but instead they have given me an opportunity to continue to do something positive with my life. “For this they have my love, respect and admiration because my life, my work, my service and sacrifice is for Almighty God and the people of Trinidad and Tobago,” the senior Jamaat-al-Muslimeen member said.