Trinidad and Tobago national senior football manager William Wallace woke up today in St Kitts and Nevis to discover that he finally had money to pay for the laundry.
“The (Trinidad and Tobago Football) Federation got a couple of small sponsors to donate money to deal with the bills we incurred here,” Wallace told Wired868. “It will mostly go towards everyday expenses like food, water, Gatorade and laundry bills…
“For the last couple days, we have been using our personal money to purchase groceries and so on while we asked for credit for laundry bills.”
The “Soca Warriors” team is on Caribbean Cup duty in Basseterre and Wallace explained that the technical staff is doing its utmost to shield the players from the financial issues affecting their trip.
“At no time did we ask the players to contribute anything,” said Wallace. “We did not even inform the players as to what was happening. We just did what we had to do.”
However, the players would certainly have noticed the absence of their per diem of US$250, which works out to just under US$40 per day. Their match fees of US$250 per game also remain unpaid.
Sport Minister Anil Roberts promised Parliament, on 5 October 2012, that the Warriors would receive Government funding for the first leg of its 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualifying campaign.
The Ministry of Sport’s Permanent Secretary Ashwin Creed also assured the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) executive committee that money would be wired to the team in St Kitts by 12 October 2012 at the latest.
But time seemed to have proved the assurances from Roberts and Creed to be hollow.
A TTFF insider told Wired868 that the football body collected approximately US$3,000 ($19,050) from well-wishers, which was forwarded to the team to afford it some degree of comfort.
Today, a storm watch was issued in St Kitts and Nevis and the tiny two-island country is bracing for rough weather within 36 hours. It is likely that the Warriors would have to cancel its proposed training session this evening.
Trinidad and Tobago defeated French Guiana (4-1) and hosts St Kitts and Nevis (1-0) last Wednesday and Friday respectively and only need to avoid heavy defeat by Anguilla tomorrow to qualify for Caribbean Cup semifinal round.
Although Anguilla should be at the forefront of the Warriors’ thoughts, the cash-strapped team may be forgiven for worrying about what any travel disruptions might mean.
“It has been raining whole day and it is quite windy with lightening and so on,” said Wallace. “I know there have been travel disruptions for the last couple of days around here. If that happens, hopefully we will have enough funds to survive one more day.”
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