The best of 2012: Haitian robbery, TTFF court room drama and satirical news clips


Is it too late to say goodbye? Wired868 looks back at a year in sport and satire.

Click on the highlighted texts and enjoy the first in our special four-part series on 2012:

January:

(Sport)

Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner swore an affidavit that he would turn up at the High Court with stacks of accounting documents on January 12 but was a no show. Warner also successfully batted away a joinder application from the World Cup 2006 players and was given an extra month to furnish the High Court with relevant financial documents.

Photo: National Security Minister and Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner.

Interim TTFF president Lennox Watson keeps the status quo by appointing assistant national coaches Anton Corneal and Hutson “Barber” Charles as technical director and national head coach respectively. No such luck for national under-23 team manager Norris Ferguson who claims victimisation after an EFA run-in with Watson.

A youthful “Soca Warriors” team fall 3-2 to a makeshift Finland outfit but rumblings continue around the squad as former technical director and local football icon, Lincoln Phillips, calls for FIFA to disband the TTFF executive.

Densill Theobald swaps Caledonia for Panaji and blogs on life as a footballer in India. Local CFU administrator Jason Moyo Sylvester made global news for less flattering reasons and he tells Wired868 how he ended up embroiled in the biggest scandal of FIFA’s history.

There was horrific news from Couva as W Connection captain and “Soca Warrior” Jan-Michael Williams’ fiancée Candice Worrell was brutally assaulted and left in a coma during a robbery outside her workplace.

(Satire)

Wired868 may never know if the Prime Minister takes sand to the beach but she did use taxpayers’ money to take a pundit to India.

Ex-Junior National Security Minister Subhas Panday described sex as a waste of two minutes, MP Vasant Bharath explained how he saved money by buying a Porsche and a primary school teacher decided corporal punishment was for wimps and flushed a 8-year-old student’s head in the toilet.

February:

(Sport)

Soca Warriors swoop in on the TTFF headquarters with a court-appointed marshall and seize computers, trophies, chairs and everything else that can move; except for boxes of unsold Jack Warner biographies.

Photo: Court-appointed bailiffs seize movable assets from the TTFF headquarters due to its failure to meet financial obligations to the 2006 World Cup squad.
(Courtesy: Kevin Harrison)

Not famed for delicacy, the TTFF engages in a tiff with Williams while his fiancée fights for her life.

Warner skips court again and the TTFF decides to sue him after no little needling from a High Court Judge.

The UNC Chairman did not have it all his way though as FIFA refused to pay his pension. And Warner’s dodgy accounting reaches a new low as the ex-FIFA vice-president is accused of failing to give Haiti earthquake relief aid from FIFA and South Korea. FIFA stops its subvention to the TTFF as a result.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and UNC deputy chairman Fuad Khan refuse to probe Warner though. And an irate Lincoln Myers opines that Warner might now be to Persad-Bissessar what Calder Hart was to Manning.

Photo: National Security Minister and ex-FIFA VP Jack Warner (left) and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar at the 2010 FIFA Women’s Under-17 World Cup opening ceremony in Port of Spain.
(Courtesy FIFA.com)

(Satire)

No love here; Kiss prices rise. Ex-Prime Minister Manning gets no special treatment at Mount Hope; maybe they mistook him for a Project Manager

POS Mayor and MP Chandresh Sharma get in bottle fight while ex-CLICO corporate secretary insists the bankrupt insurance company hasn’t failed but just has “liquidity woes.”

Environmentalist Wayne Kublalsingh appeals to PM’s logic and reason; strangely, it didn’t work. Stacy Harricharan, allegedly in her 20s, is hired as ERHA CEO although post demands 10 years’ experience as senior manager. But she avoids classic Reshmi mistake.

March:

(Sport)

If you can’t convince, the saying goes, it is best to confuse. Warner responds to Haitian accusations with a tsunami of documents to FIFA which, ten months later, still has not been verified.

National under-23 star Khaleem Hyland ruled out of Olympic qualifiers and the under-23 team fails to advance from its CONCACAF group.

TTFF general secretary Richard Groden and former president Oliver Camps served for contempt of court and Wired868 reveals exclusively that Groden swore to have seen Warner collect Bin Hammam bribe in his government office.

There was some good news in the football fraternity though as Williams’ fiancée, Candice Worrell, returned home for the first time since her brutal assault.

Photo: W Connection goalkeeper Jan-Michael Williams (left) with his fiancée Candice Worrell.

For good measure, W Connection clinches the Pro League title on the final day of the season and dedicates the gong to Williams after a stunning collapse from T&TEC FC.

Not so good for cricket though, as Texas tycoon and ex-cricket mogul Allen Stanford convicted of 13 counts of fraud while TV6 slammed for Crime Watch footage of deceased West Indies cricketer Runako Morton after fatal crash that took his life.

(Satire)

Warner rewards Kamla’s loyalty with a public proposal but subjects inquisitive German media to horror show.

Opposition Leader Keith Rowley’s “no confidence” motion did not unduly trouble the PM but the public did find out about a re-branded Reshmi.

PM’s Security Advisor Gary Griffith sets new speed walk record to “harass” PNM MP while policeman gets wrists slapped for turning away rape victim and Santa Rosa prison gets cable TV.

Lady PM does not do cheap dates, as taxpayers shell out $240,000 for her sister to accompany her to India.

Meanwhile, the Tunapuna Hindu school principal goes to farcical lengths to run her school while COP leader Prakash Ramadhar finds a lady worth fighting for; and it’s Marlene Coudray not Radica.

 

Editor’s Note: Did we miss anything in months January to March? What do you think of our review?

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About Lasana Liburd

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.

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One comment

  1. Just so you know, Stacy Harricharan, CEO of the ERHA has absolutely no management experience. She was Mary King’s secretary before her appointment as CEO. Before that she was a teacher at Blanchicheusse High School. Her resume should be open to the public. Why has no journalist checked into this??? Thus, the people of T&T suffer for poor health care and the environment of nepotism reigns…..

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