It turns out that it might be a good idea after all to attach the brand “Trinidad and Tobago” to a competition which attracted, according to the Limacol Caribbean Premier League (CPL), over 250,000 spectators and a global television audience of 36 million last year. So, the Trinidad and Tobago …

Chapter 4: How Mobsters João and Ricardo got rich  Baur au Lac hotel,Zurich October 2010 ‘Mr Teixeira, Mr ‘Teixeira!’ Ricardo turns to look. It is a scruffy, grey-haired man in a Joe Colombo-style beige raincoat shouting at him from the hotel gateway. ‘Mr Teixeira, did you take your bribes through …

The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) continues to operate at the edge of financial ruin as, despite general secretary Sheldon Phillips’ sunny disposition, the local football body seems clueless about how to pay its bills while it allegedly dodges debtors. In January 2014, TTFA president Raymond Tim Kee agreed …

Trinidad and Tobago national football team head coach Stephen Hart admitted that the “Soca Warriors” will struggle to keep up with its rivals if the present financial woes continue. Last month, Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) president Raymond Tim Kee and general secretary Sheldon Phillips promised camps for the …

Okay, I have just done some cleaning up and tossed out the garbage. How else can I make myself useful for the next few minutes? I know: how about helping to fix the passport office dilemma? This one is tricky. The passport offices are unfit for work and citizens will …

Earl Best recalls some occasions when the public language was not, ahm, parliamentary… Three years ago, Benjai’s monster hit “Trini” mash up the whole place. “And they like to hear Trini talk, talk, talk, talk, talk…,” he told us. There wasn’t one dissenting voice. That “they” includes me because, in …

Breaking news: Unconfirmed reports suggest that Argentina captain and 2014 World Cup Golden Ball winner Lionel Messi had three slices of toast with his dinner last night. Mr Live Wire understands that Diego Maradona could have put away five and still had room for bagels. Football discussion has descended into …

Earl Best discusses the new skipper’s support after the five-match New Zealand series And so, it is over. I refer, of course, both to the New Zealand versus the West Indies series which sought in vain to divert our attention from Brazil and to the 2014 World Cup that was …

Am I my World Cup brother’s (goal)keeper? Earl Best tackles a delicate subject with all the tact and finesse of an elephant in the Serengeti…or a police raid Behind the Bridge: There is a very real resemblance between Paul Pogba and Blaise Matuidi, the tall, handsome, articulate, intelligent, talented, black, francophone pair of …

So the ruthless Germans have won the Cup after all? It wasn’t the outcome Wired868 expert Lasana Liburd foresaw. But he has now decreed that tiki-kaiser shall henceforth succeed tiki-taka as football’s dominant style. Liburd’s opinion dovetails with the post-final view expressed by TV6’s Sweet Samba guru Keith Look Loy. …

The Black Butterflies: Chapter two December 8, 1992. It started to rain around the fifth of December, and kept at it for some days well. By the eighth it had slowed considerably, but the cold, dark atmosphere still hung around. In fact as I stood with my black parka zipped …

Presumably, the German footballers passed the World Cup trophy around at a good tempo with no unnecessary showboating or fumbles. The 2014 World Cup belonged to the efficient, unrelenting Germans in the end. And the baby-faced assassin Mario Götze, who drew ire last year for ditching boyhood club, Borussia Dortmund, …