TTFA makes further payments to Soca Warriors, coaches and office staff, but still in arrears

The Trinidad and Tobago Men’s National Senior Team players have finally been paid off for the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifying series as well as for the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup qualifying round.

A source confirmed that, on Friday, players started receiving payment for outstanding match fees from outings against The Bahamas, St Kitts and Nevis and French Guiana. It could take days before the Soca Warriors can determine whether everyone was paid as promised.

However, at face value, the Fifa-appointed normalisation committee, headed by Robert Hadad, now appears to only be in arrears for Trinidad and Tobago’s three Gold Cup matches against Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador.

During negotiations that concluded just hours before they faced Mexico, the players agreed to defer payment until after the TTFA collected bonus money from Concacaf for the team’s participation at the tournament.

The Soca Warriors earned US$100,000 for the local football body by virtue of their Gold Cup qualification.

There was a boon for TTFA office staff and coaches as well as they were also paid a portion of their outstanding salaries.

Wired868 was informed that the normalisation committee paid staff salaries for July but not August. And, in the case of the coaches, the administrators allegedly paid wages for August and June but not July. The national coaches are due bonuses for the team’s performances at the Gold Cup in July.

At present, the Soca Warriors technical staff comprises Angus Eve (head coach), Reynold Carrington (assistant coach), Hutson Charles (assistant coach), Clayton Ince (goalkeeper coach), Adaryll John (strength and conditioning coach), Saron Joseph (performance trainer/massage therapist), Roger Ryan (physiotherapist), Dr Akash Dhanai (team doctor), Michael Williams (equipment manager), Shaun Fuentes (press officer) and Richard Piper (national teams director).

Adrian Romain (team manager) and Basil Thompson (logistics manager) were also listed as team members although neither travelled to the Gold Cup.

Fuentes and Piper, as salaried TTFA employees, are not believed to have been offered bonuses.

Neither Hadad nor acting TTFA general secretary Amiel Mohammed responded to queries from Wired868 on the alleged payments.

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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.