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Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) president Kieron Edwards has promised that the National Under-15 team will get to Aruba to play in the Concacaf Boys’ Under-15 Championship, which kicks off on Saturday.
Trinidad and Tobago are scheduled to face Barbados from 9am at Oranjestad on Monday 4 August. However, up until this morning, coach Densill Theobald’s team did not have a confirmed booking to travel.
Photo: TTFA Media.
Edwards assured the team and football fans that they will get there, though.
“We will reach in [Aruba] before the deadline for the tournament, which is 2 August,” Edwards told Wired868. “We will be there for certain.”
Edwards did not respond when asked whether the team would travel to Aruba on a chartered flight. Wired868 understands that the TTFA and the Barbados Football Association (BFA) are trying to partner for a charter, with costs split between the two bodies.
Photo: TTFA Media.
The cost of a charter, according to a travel agent, could be anywhere from US$50,000 to US$125,000.
Wired868 understands that more than half of the participating Caribbean nations do have bookings to Aruba already in place. However, a few are in the same situation as the Trinidad and Tobago team.
The TTFA started shaping the National Under-15 team in December 2023, when the first screening sessions were held under the High Performance programme umbrella.
Theobald steered a 20-member team into the CFU U-14 Boys Series last August in Tobago before resuming training this May.
On Sunday 20 July, Theobald selected an 18-member squad for the Concacaf Championship, although the names have not yet been released to the public. However, manager Nigel Roberts quickly encountered issues as he tried to book flights in the middle of Aruba’s busy tourism season, which put the team on the brink of withdrawal.
Photo: TTFA Media.
Edwards insisted that the National Under-15s will not miss out on the Concacaf experience. The cost for their late travel arrangements remains uncertain.
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Lasana Liburd is the managing director and chief editor at Wired868.com and a journalist with over 20 years experience at several Trinidad and Tobago and international publications including Play the Game, World Soccer, UK Guardian and the Trinidad Express.
Are any of the other participating countries experiencing a similar problem?? Surely it can’t be just TT!