Honourable Roger Boynes, on behalf of the Ministry of Sport, presented a cheque worth $1, 684, 921.00 to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation at a media briefing held at the TTFF’s headquarters on Dundonald Street, Port of Spain on Friday.
This contribution, according to TTFF President Oliver Camps who accepted the presentation from Boynes, will go towards the Warriors’ “Journey to Germany” campaign as well as other needs of the Federation regarding the development of the sport.
A delighted Camps thanked the Ministry for its eventual delivery.
“I must say that are greatly appreciative of this provision made to us by the Ministry of Sport following several discussions with Government Minister of Sport Roger Boynes over the months. It will no doubt be well utilized in our efforts to get to the next World Cup and I can assure you that with all the assistance being provided otherwise especially from Mr Jack Warner and our other sponsors (TSTT, KFC, Busta), this latest sum will be a good addition to the package,”Camps said.
Boynes meanwhile said his Government felt the time was appropriate to assist the TTFF with the “Warriors” locked in final round battle for 2006 World qualification. Under new head coach Leo Beenhakker, T&T is preparing for the June 4 qualifier against Panama at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.
When asked to respond to having finally delivered after countless promises, Boynes ssid: “We always put it in place but how we approach football and sports in Trinidad and Tobago is to do it in a very professional manner. We have the requests there, we assess all that is asked of us because we have to ensure that Government’s money is spent properly. We have asked for a whole plan of the TTFF and we have got one with the breakdown of the expenses and as a result of that we have seen that Government’s money will be well spent.”
“We feel now more than ever that this type of funding is needed and we are asking Corporate Trinidad and Tobago to come on board as well. There is accountability and we are satisfied with what we see. We will be monitoring the spending of this money and we are asking the rest of corporate T&T to come on board and help football because it’s no a cheap thing. We have four beautiful stadiums and another one in the Hasely Crawford Stadium and we need to push football. Let us make sure together and use the necessary resources to have football being played in our country and produce a team that will be second to none in the world.”
He added that the Ministry of Sports have finalized the funding for total development of football with the TTFF and a sum of TT$18 million has been requested from the Ministry of Finance and he expects that release to be made soon.