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Senator David Nakhid, parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs, described the non-payment of match fees for Trinidad and Tobago Men’s and Women’s National Senior Team players as “unacceptable” and urged the membership of the local football body to intervene.
At present, the Soca Warriors are still owed match fees dating back to their 2026 World Cup qualifying win over Bermuda on 10 October 2025, while the women players are due fees for games against Honduras (4 March 2026) and El Salvador (17 April 2026).
The Soca Warriors are still owed match fees from that contest.
Photo: TTFA Media.
Nakhid, a former Men’s National Senior Team captain and Caribbean Player of the Year, said the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) should see its first duty as ensuring the welfare of its athletes—and by that yardstick, it is failing.
“It is madness!” Nakhid told Wired868. “You are talking about players waiting for fees from since last October—that is six or seven months, and that cannot be acceptable! Journalists have to ask: ‘where has the money gone?’
“The TTFA membership should be asking for accountability from the TTFA executive on this.
Photo: TTFA Media.
“Now, the TTFA can have a whole host of problems—as a lot of these NGBs have—but, first and foremost, they cannot have these things affecting the players.”
Nakhid stressed that the issues dogging the TTFA must be fixed by its own members, though. He noted Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s penchant for using the weapon of “normalisation” against countries that try to hold football officials to account, particularly in non-white nations.
The William Wallace-led TTFA executive was forcibly removed by Fifa in 2020, after then general secretary Ramesh Ramdhan vowed to audit the prior administration—led by the late David John-Williams—and publicly reveal its findings, including potential corruption in a Fifa-administered project.
Infantino installed Robert Hadad as normalisation committee chair for four years before current president, Kieron Edwards, was elected in 2024.
“The government cannot do anything to help [with internal TTFA issues],” said Nakhid. “The TTFA is a private institution and Fifa president, Infantino, is always very quick to call for ‘normalisation’ in so-called third world countries.
“For me, normalisation had an impact for the worse—because it was four or five wasted years. It was just put in place to keep Infantino with a vote, and aid his disgusting colonialist mindset.
Infantino showed up to support John-Williams, a week before the TTFA elections. However, members voted to replace him with William Wallace.
Photo: Allan V Crane/ CA-Images/ Wired868.
“He (Infantino) wasn’t sure if the people who won the election (in late 2019) were loyal to him, so he used that (normalisation) to keep us in check. We have had bad Fifa presidents before, but he is the worst.
“[…] So, it is up to the football stakeholders to address this. Don’t sell out the country and your athletes for treats and trips. If they do, then we get what we deserve.”
Nakhid said the TTFA, like other local entities, will never get all the resources it would like or it might need. But if the administrators in office are focused on improving local sport, they will find a way to do so.
Looking on are (from left) assistant coach Russell Latapy, head coach Dwight Yorke, Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Phillip Watts, and TTFA media manager Shaun Fuentes.
Photo: UNC.
If Edwards and his executive, just like officials in other local sporting bodies, cannot find solutions for their athletes, they should not be in their respective posts.
“Professional sport is for elite people, whether they be players, coaches or administrators,” said Nakhid. “They have to be elite thinkers who think out of the box and who have a lot of integrity. That is why the best players and coaches in the world are paid what they are paid, whether you are talking about Lionel Messi or Pep Guardiola.
“[…] If you put a bunch of people with no intelligence or low intelligence to run your association, and this is for all NGBs, you are going to have stagnation and poor results and players who are fed up and frustrated.
(via TTFA Media.)
“You need the best of the best working in your sporting institutions, especially football—because football is our most treasured sport.”
Nakhid used 2025/26 DNA League winners, Simeon Road, as an example of the importance of football in Trinidad and Tobago. He suggested that the village’s successful participation in the competition had a direct impact on crime in the area.
“They told us that in the last six months—and we checked it out—there was one murder in Simeon Road,” he said. “Crime went down in the last six months, in what was considered a hot spot area, because the community came together with this football.
“Football is very important for people on the [east-west] corridor. If you have charlatans running football, whether back then or now, it is a recipe for disaster. You have to have people committed to the sport for the benefit of the sport, not for their own benefit.
“One murder in six months—that should inform the policy of our government going forward, and it will. Cricket is very important, but football is our national sport in Trinidad and Tobago, especially on the east-west corridor.
“For our national cohesiveness, nothing brings us together like football.”
Photo: Daniel Prentice/ Wired868.
Nakhid’s son, Ali Kazim Nakhid, made his international debut with the Soca Warriors on 30 May 2026, as a second half substitute in a 5-0 friendly defeat to the Republic of Korea in Utah.
Nakhid said he wishes his son well and hopes he gets the chance to show what he can do at senior international level. However, he admitted that the national team does not have the available talent it once did.
“We like to say Trinidad and Tobago has a lot of talent, but I have not seen it when I’ve watched the team in recent times,” said Nakhid. “We are not producing talent like we did before: defenders who can defend, midfielders who can create—our passing is horrendous—and natural goal scorers.
(Copyright Concacaf 2015.)
“I went to a charity game for my former teammate, Dean Pacheco, this week and there were players from my era, some who even used to be on the bench, like Gary Glasgow, Arnold Dwarika, and Peter Prosper.
“We don’t have players like that anymore—and I’m not even talking about guys like Dwight Yorke and Stern John. We were really spoiled for choice in those days.
“At one point, we had almost our whole team playing away at a good level. And I’m not talking about even the second division but first division, and playing in top European leagues.”
Cardines was an unused substitute as Palace edged Spanish club Rayo Vallecano in the final.
At present, Cardines and Netherlands-based full back Deron Payne are the only Trinidad and Tobago players in top European leagues. National captain Levi Garcia is employed by famous Russian club, Spartak Moscow, but they are banned from European competition at present.
(via TTFA Media.)
Trinidad and Tobago, he said, must get players at top leagues again if we are to be truly competitive at the international level again.
“The other day, I watched a game between Spain and Iraq—and Iraq gave Spain a good run for their money,” said Nakhid. “If Trinidad and Tobago play Iraq right now, we are getting five!
“These teams have improved tremendously and are very competitive. I can’t say the same for us. But I am hoping we see some improvement soon.”
(via TTFA Media.)
The Trinidad and Tobago Men’s National Senior Team return to action tomorrow when they play away to Russia in a friendly contest at the Kaliningrad Arena.
Russia are ranked 35th in the world by Fifa, while Trinidad and Tobago are 103rd. Coach Derek King’s troops are emphatically underdogs for the exhibition match.
At present, the Soca Warriors are on a seven-match winless streak, which stretches back to their 3-0 win over Bermuda in Hamilton last October. King has three losses and one draw (although it finished with a penalty shootout defeat) in his four games at the helm so far—albeit against significantly higher ranked nations.
Photo: TTFA Media.
But, results notwithstanding, Nakhid believes Trinidad and Tobago would only truly be on the road to improvement when the country’s football administrators start putting the welfare of their players first.
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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.
