Sepp Blatter's impending triumphal re-coronation – AKA the FIFA Presidential Election – is right around the corner and as this is the last week for candidates to file their worthless, pointless, useless petitions (more on this sterling field of the hapless and the hopeless in a moment, as if it matters) the situation down in Jack Warner's former personal fiefdom is highly illustrative of why none of it is ever going to change.
Most of us are familiar by now with at least the basics of the kleptocratic CONCACAF and T&T regime of Uncle Jack, who stole everything he could get his hands on including, but not limited to, a large athletic complex and hotel, a million dollars in Haitian earthquake relief funds and untold bags full of US$100 bills intended as bribes for everything from FIFA presidential ballots to highjacked World Cup tickets.
By the time that even the notoriously shame-free group of criminals who run FIFA were forced, reluctantly, to bid him a sad farewell – without of course asking him to give any of the stolen money or real estate back – the T&T federation had no offices, no filing cabinets, no phone and, thanks to a court judgement against Warner for stiffing the national team players out of $16 million, not a soccer ball, roll of tape or shinguard to it's name.
Your local rec league U7 team was, quite literally, better funded than the Trinidad & Tobago national side.
Still, everybody agreed that it was a small price to pay for getting the program into the hands of some responsible people and headed back to respectability.
Or so they thought.
Unfortunately, as chronicled by my good friend the courageous Lasana Liburd of wired868.com (give the guy some hits), you wouldn't blame them if they went to Warner and begged him to take the job back.
It's hard to disagree, and not just because the CONCACAF Center of Excellence has reportedly become dirty, decrepit and badly in need of repairs. (One recent guest at the Sportel hotel on the site reported that the sheets and towels were "rags", paint was peeling everywhere and the whole place smelled like decaying animals.)
Which hasn't prevented the Australians from being drawn up on charges by the Ethics Committee for giving Jack $450,000 supposedly to resurface the artificial turf on the practice field. Said field is currently unuseable and FIFA is calling the money – which Warner obviously (predictably) pocketed – a bribe in return for his World Cup vote.
(Australian government officials want some answers about this too; not because they wonder about the practice of giving "development grants" to deserving third world nations who also coincidentally have ExCo votes but rather because anyone who'd give Jack Warner a large check is an imbecile and anyone who believed that Warner was ever going to vote for Australia is certifiable.)
Anyway, I'm not going to give you chapter and verse on the situation in T&T. It's too long, too sad and Liburd does it way better than I ever could.
Rather, let me briefly describe two events which are typical:
In June, T&T arranged to fly to Argentina for a friendly. The government tourism ministry gave the federation T&T$400,000, which they demanded as a "licensing fee" of some sort.
The money was duly handed over to federation officials and promptly "disappeared". They claim they never got it despite the fact that it was hand delivered by a former national team member who got a signed receipt. Forged, they claim. We have no idea what you're talking about.
Then, in November, the Caribbean Union sent out notices to all regional FA's that MLS was holding their Caribbean combine and invited everybody to nominate two national team players to attend. As it happens, T&T has a number of likely candidates.
The CFU asked them to please submit their nominations by 5 PM on November 28.
The deadline passed and no T&T players were named. The fed simply blew it, which might be forgivable if they hadn't done the same thing last year. T&T has never sent a single player to the MLS combine because they're simply incompetent.
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