PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – Members of the Trinidad & Tobago national team that played in the 2006 World Cup are a step closer to receiving money owed to them by the T&T Football Federation. This follows a decision in the T&T Court of Appeal on Monday for money promised to them for qualifying for the World Cup in Germany four years ago.
Justice Rajendra Narine dismissed an application for a stay filed by the T&TFF.
“It just goes to show what (the T&TFF) has been doing is wrong,” Brent Sancho, one of the aggrieved footballers, told the Trinidad Express newspaper.
“This is the third time they are being told to pay up, and it is disappointing that this (lawsuit) has been going on for years. All I can do now is hope that we are closer to a resolution.”
The matter is now to be heard before High Court Judge Devindra Rampersad on November 26.
The footballers are claiming about US$300 000 in bonus payments, and their share of just under US$15 million, which the T&TFF claimed to have earned as World Cup commercial revenue.
This followed a promise made to them by T&TFF Special Adviser Jack Warner, now a T&T Government Minister.
The T&TFF have claimed that a breach of confidentiality by the players meant the governing body was no longer obligated to honour the agreement.
Last July, Justice Rampersad ordered the T&TFF to honour the payments, and absorb the legal costs of the players, after the players filed a lawsuit in the Port of Spain High Court demanding the enforcement of a judgment from the London-based Sport Dispute Resolution Panel, which also ruled in the players’ favour.
Apart from Sancho, the other players part to the lawsuit are: Marvin Andrews, Chris Birchall, Atiba Charles, Ian Cox, Cornell Glen, Cyd Gray, Shaka Hislop, Kelvin Jack, Avery John, Stern John, Kenwyne Jones Collin Samuel, Aurtis Whitley, Evans Wise, and Anthony Wolfe.