Help feed T&T women footballers: Chaos as Princesses reach Dallas

The Trinidad and Tobago national women’s football team captain Maylee Attin-Johnson was scrambling to join her teammates in the United States today after a visa delay meant she did not travel with the “Soca Princesses” when they left yesterday for a pre-World Cup qualifying camp in Dallas.

At least, Attin-Johnson did not have to worry about today’s lunch menu, though.

In arguably a new low for the face of Trinidad and Tobago’s sport, national women’s head coach Randy Waldrum, a Texas native, took to Twitter this morning to raise donations to feed the Trinidad and Tobago’s women’s team and source equipment after the players landed in the United States yesterday with just US$500 ($TT$3,176) and no accompanying Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) staff members.

Photo: Trinidad and Tobago national women's team coach Randy Waldrum took to Twitter this morning.
Photo: Trinidad and Tobago national women’s team coach Randy Waldrum took to Twitter this morning.

“I need HELP!” Waldrum tweeted, just after 9 am. “T&T sent a team here last night with $500 total. No equipment such as balls, no transportation from airport to hotel, nothing…

“I don’t know how I’m going to feed these players starting at lunch today! If you know of anyone in Dallas area that will help with food, etc.”

Waldrum’s two messages were re-tweeted a combined 383 times and brought a flurry of sympathetic responses from American observers. Some people forwarded the messages to everyone from CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb to ESPN analyst and ex-2006 World Cup player Shaka Hislop and Chaguanas West MP and former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner.

Various US-based sport networks also followed the story.

Next week, the Trinidad and Tobago senior women’s team will play the United States in its opening 2014 CONCACAF Championship fixture at the Sporting Park in Kansas City. But, today, the Princesses are asking for charity from the host nation.

A weary Attin-Johnson spoke to Wired868 as she prepared for her afternoon departure from the Piarco International Airport. The national captain said she had just spoken to teammate Kennya “Ya Ya” Cordner and confirmed the authenticity of the Twitter posts.

Photo: Trinidad and Tobago captain Maylee Attin-Johnson (second from right) is congratulated by teammates after scoring in their 10-0 rout of St Kitts and Nevis during the 2014 Caribbean Cup. (Courtesy Jinelle James/Wired868)
Photo: Trinidad and Tobago captain Maylee Attin-Johnson (second from right) is congratulated by teammates after scoring in their 10-0 rout of St Kitts and Nevis during the 2014 Caribbean Cup.
(Courtesy Jinelle James/Wired868)

“How will we make it?” she asked rhetorically. “The same way we made out for the last ten years. We’re still going; we still have that belief…

“I don’t know what else to say. We are going out there regardless of the situation. The girls are hungry for success.”

The Princesses were hungry for more than success today.


The US$500—which was given to the women by a parent, Kenrick Hoyte, and a TTFA staff member from their personal accounts, just minutes before their departure—was spent last night to pay for transport and dinner while the players got a courtesy breakfast at their hotel this morning. But they started training today without even water.

A source told Wired868 that American well-wishers showed up during the session with two cases of water and financial donations for lunch.

“The players feel humiliated,” said the source. “They are sitting around with no food wondering if they are a charity case.”

However, TTFA general secretary Sheldon Phillips said the tweets were a result of miscommunication, which, he claimed, was subsequently resolved.

“They are embarrassing and the miscommunication from not knowing what the money was for paints an unfortunate picture of our preparations,” Phillips told Wired868.

Photo: Satirical account, Deadspin, does on gag on acclaimed rapper Nicki Minaj's suggestion that her upbringing in Trinidad was comparable to experiences of Zimbabwe refugees.
Photo: Satirical account, Deadspin, does gag on acclaimed rapper Nicki Minaj’s suggestion that her upbringing in Trinidad was comparable to experiences of Liberia refugees.

Phillips said, although the women travelled with just US$500, US$1,000 (TT$6,350) was wired to the team this morning while the TTFA supposedly collected a cheque for $250,000 (US$39,000) from the Ministry of Sport this afternoon. A further donation of $75,000 (US$12,00) is expected from Petrotrin.

“Yes, we sent them up with only US$500,” said Phillips, “but the feeling (from Waldrum’s messages) was that this was all they were going to be given for the remainder of the tour, which obviously wasn’t true.”

Phillips revealed the team met a US$250 cost for transport from the airport in Dallas to the hotel. So the 11 women players who travelled, excluding the coach, would have been left with US$250 for dinner last night while another eight players joined the group today. Still, the General Secretary insisted that Waldrum overreacted in his plea for financial assistance this morning as lunchtime drew close.

Wired868 asked Phillips to clarify if the US$500 the team departed with came from the TTFA, as he suggested, or the parent of a player.

“It came from a parent,” said Phillips, “because, by the time we got to the airport, the team had gone through. So that person was reimbursed.”

Wired868 understands that, according to another parent, Hoyte was only partially reimbursed for the money he spent on the women’s team while funding still had not reached Dallas up to this afternoon.

Team manager Vernetta Flanders, an equipment manager and physiotherapist and the team captain, Attin-Johnson, are expected to join the women in Dallas shortly.

One person who will not make the trip is assistant coach Marlon Charles, who was sacked by Phillips for the second time in five months after his spotty attendance record during a recent two week national women’s live-in camp at Petrotrin, which was sponsored by the oil company.

Photo: Trinidad and Tobago women's players (from left) Rhea Belgrave, Maylee Attin-Johnson, Kimika Forbes, Arin King and Karyn Forbes pose during the team's pre-Caribbean Cup camp in Houston. (Courtesy TTFA Media)
Photo: Trinidad and Tobago women’s players (from left) Rhea Belgrave, Maylee Attin-Johnson, Kimika Forbes, Arin King and Karyn Forbes pose during the team’s pre-Caribbean Cup camp in Houston.
(Courtesy TTFA Media)

Charles, who is a school teacher at the Chaguanas South Secondary, claimed the TTFA never gave him a letter for time off to attend the camp.

“I cannot just walk off my job to coach the team,” said Charles, who was an unpaid TTFA employee and had not even received a stipend from the football body in three years.

However, Phillips and Flanders contradicted Charles’ story and wondered, if, as hinted, there was a problem with the date on the letter given to Charles, why he never raised it with the football body.

Charles’ no-show along with the frequent absences of a physiotherapist, affected the quality of the sessions at Petrotrin, which were conducted on a field that was far from international standards and without the team’s overseas-based players.

The women hoped that their 2014 Caribbean Cup triumph in September would have been a turning point as they sought support for their Canada 2015 World Cup dream. But that proved to be an illusion.

Waldrum, who agreed to coach the team for free at the Caribbean stage, appeared stunned by the lack of support for Trinidad and Tobago’s sporting ambassadors.

“Please let me know asap!” Waldrum tweeted to potential Good Samaritans. “And I’m suppose (sic) to qualify this team for a World Cup! I have to help these players somehow… They deserve better.”

Photo: The Trinidad and Tobago national team poses with the Caribbean Cup trophy in September. (Courtesy Jinelle James/WOLF)
Photo: The Trinidad and Tobago national team poses with the Caribbean Cup trophy in September.
(Courtesy Jinelle James/WOLF)

One person promised to send pizzas; others asked Waldrum to start a PayPal account to collect donations. Another suggested that, if the Princesses got to the 2015 World Cup, maybe Disney would do a movie on the squad.

Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) president Brian Lewis urged the TTFA to respond to the exchanges.

“Someone needs to clarify and communicate the facts,” Lewis tweeted to the TTFA account. “Don’t embarrass TTO.”

TTFA president Raymond Tim Kee, Phillips and no one else from the football association took up that challenge. Phillips said the TTFA would issue a release but did not say why he had not taken to Twitter or Waldrum had not publicly supported the football body.

Instead, plans are underway in Dallas to use crowdsourcing to raise money for the Princesses.

One Twitter account dedicated to glory for the United States women’s national team wondered if the farcical tale of disarray was a hoax. Had Waldrum’s account been hacked?

“Sorry, it’s the truth!” Waldrum replied.

For the national women, this month’s CONCACAF tournament represents a once in a lifetime opportunity to get to a FIFA tournament, since Canada’s hosting of the 2015 competition has opened up an additional qualifying spot for a country from this Confederation. No Caribbean women’s team has ever qualified for a FIFA tournament.

United States is expected to top Group A in the CONCACAF Championship but, if the Princesses can beat Haiti and Guatemala to the runner-up spot, they are guaranteed at least a World Cup Play Off berth.

Photo: Trinidad and Tobago captain Maylee Attin-Johnson (right) collects the Caribbean Cup trophy from CFU president Gordon Derrick. (Courtesy Jinelle James/WOLF)
Photo: Trinidad and Tobago captain Maylee Attin-Johnson (right) collects the Caribbean Cup trophy from CFU president Gordon Derrick.
(Courtesy Jinelle James/WOLF)

Attin-Johnson insisted that, despite the struggles and neglect faced by Trinidad and Tobago’s women footballers throughout their careers, they will not give up.

“Our preparation was abysmal,” said the Trinidad and Tobago women’s football captain. “It was what we didn’t expect after being champions of the Caribbean. But that is water under the bridge now.

“We just have to see what we can do, now that we have all the girls together, to get to the World Cup.”

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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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174 comments

  1. Economics 101:
    The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) sent 19 national women players at camp in Dallas. (Team captain Maylee Attin-Johnson will join them tonight).
    The women went with US$500 they got from a parent and staff member; and, according to general secretary Sheldon Phillips, $250 from that money was used for transportation last night.
    That means 19 players divided the remaining $250 for dinner at roughly US$13 each. Presumably, coach Randy Waldrum, who is unpaid, walked with his own food allowance.
    Still, Phillips said he felt it was enough money to keep the team fed until they received money from the TTFA; and there was no need for coach Randy Waldrum to take to Twitter.
    Up until 2 pm today, no funds from the TTFA had reached the team in Dallas.

  2. The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) sent 19 national women players at camp in Dallas. (Team captain Maylee Attin-Johnson will join them tonight).
    The women went with US$500 they got from a parent and staff member; and, according to general secretary Sheldon Phillips, $250 from that money was used for transportation last night.
    That means 19 players divided the remaining $250 for dinner at roughly US$13 each. Presumably, coach Randy Waldrum, who is unpaid, walked with his own food allowance.
    Still, Phillips said he felt it was enough money to keep the team fed until they received money from the TTFA; and there was no need for coach Randy Waldrum to take to Twitter.
    Up until 2 pm today, no funds from the TTFA had reached the team in Dallas.

  3. I know you aren’t but the thing is ND would NEVER DO THAT… why? becuase organizations with scruples know how to treat people…. This TTFF have no clue about what it means to treat people with dignity… so why should he respond in kind…. is TTFF start this…. not the coach…. if he reach twitter means it was a last resort to get some response… and given the responses by PHILLIPS in Lasana article, it is clear that communication was going to be a problem….. so there you go…. Twitter it is…..

  4. Briggs – TTFA is not holding a gun to his head. If the conditions are unsuitable he can and should resign. Working for free doesn’t give you the right to embarrass a nation.

  5. True. I created a donation page but I don’t have the means to get d word out so it’s jus idling. I emailed the coach, but considering the headache he goin through it may be a while before he replies

  6. I’m not a supporter of the TTFA and they definitely contributed to this faux pas, but the coach over-reacted. If Notre Dame had made a similar mistake would he have sent out such a tweet – and kept his job? Absolutely not!

    • carlos.for to long we trini feel dont say nothing.and everything will be alright.the coach right expose tttfa.thats the only way people will know what going on.these non players who never play no football in trinidad running football.we like so.

  7. There is now a donations page.
    Look where we reach, begging for donations.
    National football teams usually don’t have to resort to this until after their countries are devastated by earthquakes.

    Apparently the Trinidadian equivalent to an earthquake is ineptitude!

  8. Carlos…the man working for free and because of this TTFA try to take advantage of his being in the US by not enacting the proper protocol for taking care of not only our NATIONAL TREASURES but also human beings…. Any organization that can see people as commodity and treat them as such do not and should not get the respect of professionalism since they were not able to display it across the board…. WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD…. yuh act like an ass (TTFA) and continue to act like an ass (TTFA), eventually people will treat you like an ASS….. so here you go….

  9. How bout we pitch in and try to help?

  10. Ummm….who embarrased our entire nation once again? TTFF if you use any logical analysis!

  11. Is this THE National women’s team?

  12. You don’t embarrass an entire nation like that and expect there be no repercussions.

  13. It’s our fault because all we do over and over again is complain and make joke. Also sports should never be overseen by government, public servants, politics and politicians. These entities and individuals are self-serving!

  14. Stay focus Maylee and team. Let the managers handle it. When you all conquer we will see the bandwagonist .

  15. Such a sad situation

  16. “@FOXSoccer: T&T women’s national team sent to World Cup qualifying tourney with only $500.

    You can help: http://t.co/h7LPrQ7AHL http://t.co/lBIpibv1UK

  17. Serious like ah heart attack. Smh

  18. you cyah be serious Carlos? really?

  19. Why is the women’s coach intentionally trying to embarrass our small nation? He should be given his walking papers forthwith. He obviously is only concerned about himself and his reputation. He could and should have handled the situation with greater tact and professionalism.

  20. From athletix to football to cricket, we r inundated with nincompoops as administrators. Lord help us. Dis is too embarrassing.

  21. How can we get Raymond Tim Kee and Sheldon Phillips out of there ? Seriously

  22. from lasana’s article… “Yes, we sent them up with only US$500,” said Phillips, “but the feeling (from Waldrum’s messages) was that this was all they were going to be given for the remainder of the tour, which obviously wasn’t true.”

    Wired868 asked Phillips to clarify if the money came from the TTFA, as he suggested, or the parent of a player.

    “It came from a parent,” said Phillips, “because, by the time we got to the airport, the team had gone through. So that person was reimbursed.” …. I love the women… because there is no FLICKIN way I playin for ANY country that has no respect for me as a human being, far less an athlete…. Doh know why Phillips wasn’t de man who slap de girl in KFC… he good for a pot ah hot oil about now….steups…

  23. All that money could have been used now for all the teams that have qualifying games coming up..

  24. Keep saying it. Corruption pays in this country. Anywhere else they make a jail.

  25. I wonder how Adolphus Daniell and Anil Roberts doing these days. Hope they’re okay…

  26. Hahahahahahaha Lasana you are so right.

  27. No. This is Sparta… Or something so.

  28. Kurtwyn Baird, because the same coach could get them to use training facilities there for free. They then have to fly to Kansas from there.

  29. Thanks Bro,but I may still have to find which one in Dallas

  30. I was going to say this is unbelievable but it’s actually not !

  31. Sometimes I wonder where we went wrong and why we just can’t get it right.. Smh

  32. according to TTFA , COMFORT INN..Kurtwyn Baird

  33. How the arse could that be a misunderstanding? This is absolute nonsense.

  34. Where are they staying in Dallas?

  35. “@CoachWaldrum: All can donate now! Thank you so much! @keepernotes has been in contact w/ @CoachWaldrum for this donation page http://t.co/PnPVwbmtiB

  36. Calling on our boy Shaun Fuentes…..please assist us regular folk in the comprehension of this debacle???

    • Shaun would not give $50 or 50 cents from his per diem for these girls. He has and always will remain a leech. He has his maintenance company in south and his nice SUV.

      I am so glad that Jack has left local football for Fuentes and other fools to run.

  37. Gordon Pierre and Shari John… I’m waiting.

  38. Mark De Silva $36 million of Sport money is in another account 🙁

  39. “Yes, we sent them up with only US$500,” said Phillips, “but the feeling (from Waldrum’s messages) was that this was all they were going to be given for the remainder of the tour, which obviously wasn’t true.”
    Wired868 asked Phillips to clarify if the money came from the TTFA, as he suggested, or the parent of a player.
    “It came from a parent,” said Phillips, “because, by the time we got to the airport, the team had gone through. So that person was reimbursed.

  40. Hear nah! Sport Ministry have no money?

  41. I am flabbergasted. And the best TTFA could say, it was a misunderstanding…
    When are they going to get it right ??? Doesn’t it dawn on anybody in charge that the T&T national image is being dragged through the mud ???.
    I wonder how these poor girls are feeling right now. They have given their all and still have to fight with their own people who are supposed to be assisting them in this endeavour.
    What kind of selfish people would send them to the US and expect them to survive on $ 500.00 US.
    Where is the Minister of Sport in all of this ?? Will our government respond and help these girls ??
    I should hope so. They deserve better than this.

  42. I’m in Houston and have been trying to get the girls help too. Great article. I’ve been in contact with Randy and the girls are currently using the FC Dallas facilities for now, but they have to be there for a full week. Its ashame those girls are sent there homeless. They deserve better.

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