Archive for the ‘Football’ Category
Friday, March 16th, 2007 |
The Daily Mail reports that daddy’s dearest aka Daryan Warner was secretly fined almost US $1M by FIFA (of which $250,000 had been paid) which represents the profit he would have made on the sale of 5,400 World Cup tickets for England, Mexico and Japan games over the course of last year’s tournament.
Last September the Daily Mail’s Andrew Jennings (Warner’s nemesis) revealed that Warner was being investigated for suspected shady dealings concerning World Cup tickets. Last December FIFA announced that they had cleared Jack Warner of all wrongdoing saying:
“It could not be evidenced that Mr Jack Warner had knowledge of the resale of these tickets at a higher price.
“The resale is certainly forbidden, but the person who did the reselling is not subject to the FIFA jurisdiction, because it is the son of Jack Warner.”
FIFA did recommend however that Jack Warner be scolded and reprimanded which Warner took as vindication.
Jennings says now that Warner was not only reprimanded, but been secretly fined during last December’s executive committee meeting and that FIFA stipulated that the $992,652US be donated to the charity SOS Children’s Villages. Jennings added that Daryan Warner’s company Simpaul Travel has been banned from dealing in tickets. The secret deadline for full payment of the fine is on March 22, but Jennings suggests that there won’t be any further action if Warner decides not to pay since Jack Warner controls 35 crucial votes that will ensure Sepp Blatter gets a third term.
Of course these are all allegations made by Andrew Jennings who seems at times to have an axe to grind with Warner. You can see the full stories here and here (including “secret reports that FIFA suppressed”).
Posted in Corruption, Football, Sports | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, January 16th, 2007 |
Choc’late Allen
There is little I can say about Choc’late Allen that hasn’t been said by someone smarter and more eloquent than I.
The first time I heard her talk my jaw dropped. I had never before heard a child speak so articulately or confidently. What dey feeding that chile? I think I found out that she was home schooled. Which may explain a thing or two. At 13 my conversation was to the effect of “ummmm, yeah, eh heh, yeah daiz de man”. In fact if you read over this blog, you’ll find that my speech hasn’t changed much in over a decade and a half.
I’m going to resist the temptation to make puns out of her name like the other newspapers, but I’m just going to say I wish there were more Choh’lates in the world (I promise that is not an attempt at a pun).
Faith Williams
Nowadays we’ve become used to people meeting untimely deaths. And because we know the killers just don’t care, we don’t expect anything more from them. But what should we say when 3 year old Faith Williams dies after undergoing a routine hernia surgery because as it turns out the “health professionals” used faulty equipment? The machine wasn’t calibrated properly and so Faith Williams received 17 to 18 per cent more anesthesia than was supposed to be administered. No one bothered to check, no one bothered to calibrate it so she’s dead.
Well if the health professionals are so careless about our lives, far less for anyone else.
Piarco Airport Sentencing
When I first returned to Trinidad a friend tried to win me over to the UNC. One of his methods was to say, “Well we all know dey line dey pockets, but ent we still get airport?” I of course couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I was trying to figure out how someone could be so unpatriotic in order to support a political party. Within weeks of being here I realized it was a sentiment that had been expressed time and time again.
For the record I’m a patriot. I don’t care who you are or what you’ve done in the past. If you tief, you should be thrown in jail. Don’t try to smooth it over by saying “well at least we get schools, at least we get airport”.
I just can’t wait for more charges to be laid in connection to a certain non-existing hospital in Scarborough. (Sorry law, I know I promised to blog about this, but for now I think the moment is gone. When it pops up again, hopefully I will get a chance then.)
Cornell Glen
Well it’s no secret, by boy Cornell got fired. Whether or not that has to do with the arrival of the new Fresh Prince of L.A., I have no idea.
What has me laughing is the interview he gave on CNC 3 last night. When asked about where he was going to play now that he’s out of a job he replied (and I’m paraphrasing), “Well I want to play in a foreign club for sure. If I have to play down here (scoffs and laughs at the same time then pauses) I guess I’ll play with one of the top teams like Joe Public or San Juan Jablotech. “
But what de jail is this? Who is he? Now I know the boy has some mad skill eh, but who is he to say who he will play for? Son, you have to be offered a job in order to play eh. I know yuh good, but you just can’t dictate who you’ll play for. Remember, you’re not all that fit at present.
Having said that, I wish him a speedy recovery, because I think he’s one of the better players (and one of my favourites) on the National Squad. I hope that he gets a big contract somewhere.
Posted in Football, Infrastructure | 5 Comments »
Thursday, January 11th, 2007 |
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| David Beckham |
David Beckham is going to America. His time with Real Madrid is over and now he’ll play in the MLS. This wasn’t entirely unexpected, because aging greats (even Pelé himself) have chosen to end their careers in the United States. Not long ago Ronaldo has hinted that he wanted to end his career in the MLS. What knocks me off my feet is the size of the contract. Los Angeles is going to pay Becks $250 million over the course of 5 years. That’s a million dollars a week. Do you feel poor?
Now I know that I don’t normally blog about non-Trini issues here on this blog,and I know I’ve been in a slumber this week but this woke me up. I guess it’s kind of a Trini issue anyway with T&T’s Cornell Glen soon to receive the teammate of his life.
A million dollars a week for 5 years……wow. I’m sorry it’s hard to get past that.
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| Cornell Glen |
Is the US ready for Beks and Posh? I know Becks and Posh have been itching for the bright lights of Hollywood for a long time.
I keep wondering how good a player will he be when there’s not much at stake. His place in the English line up is probably gone forever. There is very little chance of him being signed to another team when he’s 36 years old and his contract with the Galaxy is up so why try to give his best? What’s the incentive to play half as good as he did with Real Madrid and Man U?
Surely a lot of children will take a new interest in football now with David Beckham’s fat paycheck and all, and surely the Galaxy’s attendance will skyrocket by about 500 percent and surely the’ll sell a lot of David Beckham kits, but will it be worth it to the Galaxy?
Posted in Football, Sports | 22 Comments »
Thursday, January 4th, 2007 |
Back when Carlos Edwards was named in the top 6 talents coming out of the 2006 World Cup, who knew it would have taken him this long for the man to catch a break. Well later rather than sooner Edwards has received his promotion leaving Luton Town for Sunderland.
Before I go any further, we all know that since Yorke also plays at Sunderland, he must have had a hand in convincing Roy Keane that Carlos Edwards was a good buy. However, Keane doesn’t owe Yorke anything and I’m sure Sunderland wouldn’t be buying Edwards unless they knew he was worth it. So they must have seen something in him.
Sunderland is not in the English Premiership but it’s nine spots ahead of 19th ranked Luton Town in the English Championship. Reports are that there were bigger and better teams interested in him, but the boy said he didn’t want to go to one only to have to warm the bench. So who can blame him?
For a long while I couldn’t help thinking it was only going to be Dwight Yorke and Christoper Birchall who attracted any attention at all following T&T’s World Cup appearance. Since Chris Birchall is an Englishman and Dwight’s name has been out there for years (and he’s practically an Englishman), it was hard to feel satisfied at their promotions.
But with Carlos Edwards’ £1.5m move to Sunderland I’m finally able to feel happy that the world is aware that Trinidad and Tobago has a lot more to offer than just Dwight Yorke.
Posted in Football, Sports | 4 Comments »
Friday, December 8th, 2006 |
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| Jack Warner |
On Wednesday Jack Warner was cleared by FIFA. In September word got to FIFA that Jack had been a bad boy seeing that tickets that he owned were sold from Simpaul Travel (a company owned by the Warner family) for 400 times their face value. One reports alleges that he and son Daryan made a profit of at least £500,000 on 5,400 tickets for England, Mexico and Japan matches. Having had his name being shown in a bad light, Warner referred himself to FIFA’s ethics committee asking for guidance on whether he was guilty of a conflict of interest.
On Wednesday FIFA cleared Warner and recommended that no action be taken against him for the sale.
Marcel Mathier, who headed the committee’s examination, said there was no evidence that Warner infringed FIFA rules during the 2006 tournament.
“It could not be evidenced that Mr Jack Warner had knowledge of the resale of these tickets at a higher price,” Mathier said.
“The resale is certainly forbidden, but the person who did the reselling is not subject to the Fifa jurisdiction, because it is the son of Jack Warner.”
Mathier said Fifa was unable to sanction Warner’s son Daryan because he was not directly employed by FIFA.
Mathier did recommended however that Warner be scolded.
Well that’s not only a technicality, but also a giant loophole that FIFA needs to mend. If it were that Jack Warner had directed his son to sell the tickets it would be near impossible for any proof to be collected short of bugging phones and sitting in on quiet time with dear old dad.
Jack Warner being cleared on these charges not only highlights FIFA’s condemnations as being capricious,( see Ismail Bhamjee story), but shows that there are loopholes through which tickets could scalped.
So what’s stopping any other member of FIFA from selling tickets on the black market through family members whose wheelings and dealings they have “no knowledge of”?
FIFA president Sepp Blatter declared the matter now closed and stated,
“The executive committee have expressed their disapproval over the conduct of Mr Warner. This disapproval of the conduct of the vice-president draws his attention to the fact that he should be more prudent and cautious when it comes to ticketing and should also oversee the activities of his son a little more.”
Of course Jack Warner talking like a man who didn’t just dodge a bullet said:
I have been vindicated today by the Fifa Executive Committee as I had always expected for, as I have said from the inception, that I had committed no offence,” he said.
“I am happy that my record-making 24 consecutive years in the Fifa Executive Committee today remains unblemished.
“I know that, especially in my country, there will be those who will be disappointed with the results of the Fifa investigation and its decision and will no doubt make other attempts to tarnish my character and good name.
“This is indeed very unfortunate but I promise to be forever vigilant in the struggle against personal, vindictive and political attacks against me being confident that, in the end, good shall always over come evil.
“I wish to thank all those persons and organizations who, over the past months, have kept faith in my integrity and I refer here especially to my family, my staff, my friends both at home and abroad and to my political party the United National Congress,”
In my book an acquital due to a lack of evidence is hardly a “vindication”. And his “24 consecutive years in the Fifa Executive” is hardly “unblemished”. You might as well suggest that Abu Bakr is a good man.
And as easy as that Warner and his spawn have made a cool £500,000 thanks to the giant loophole that was begging to be exploited. Although it was called illegal, inappropriate (and a whole host of other opposites) there’s no amends, there’s no giving the money back, there’s no formal apology. But you go to Hilo and tief a bread and see what happen to you. See if you’ll be let off with a scolding.
Posted in Corruption, Football, Politics, Sports | 14 Comments »
Thursday, November 16th, 2006 |
So the Soca Warriors got steamrolled on Wednesday by a gang of Austrians. The friendly ended 4-1 in favour of the Austrians who had a very good game. The game was brought live on CNC3 which was most appreciated. The last away game we played wasn’t brought live, but was aired about a week later on NCC Channel 4. We played Japan in Japan and apparently the only coverage of the game the NCC could lay their hands on had Japanese commentary. I don’t know any of this for sure; I’m just guessing.
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| Colin Samuel |
But guess what NCC did? They dubbed the game sounds from a local game over the original sound. So nothing in the sound matched up with what we were seeing on TV. So whistle blowing, crowd cheering, drum beating and nothing rhyming at all. Yuh even hearing a whole set ah Trinis ole talking during the game and yuh know it really didn’t have so many of us there.
But back to this game. I don’t know if it was our lack of fight, or if the Austrians were better than us or (God forbid) we are just not that good anymore. The games against St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Panama were much better played, but whether that has more to do with us being a good team from the Caribbean or a good team period, I can’t tell.
However the one good part of that game was the goal scored by Colin Samuel. From just beyond the half Carlos Edwards lobs the ball down the field to Colin Samuel who is running towards goal sandwiched between two defenders. The ball drops right in front of him and with one touch pushes it over to his right and with the very next touch, puts it in goal. No mistake about it, it was just clinical - one of the better goals I’ve seen our team score. That was worth two ordinary goals or eight Stern John chokes.
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| Kenwyne Jones |
But Colin Samuel is one of my favourite players on this T&T side and I think he’ll be one of our top players in a few years to come. I think Kenwyne Jones will also become a great player. But he has some finishing issues that need to be addressed. But the boy has style for days.
Yesterday marked one year since we qualified in Bahrain for the 2006 World Cup. Has it been a year already? I wonder if the Bahrainians still sour that they didn’t make it? I guess that goes without saying since I know it still have people here who sour about November 19th 1989. I still sour as a matter of fact. Have no fear though, we getting a rematch with the 1989 US national team on this Sunday November 19th 17 years after the fact. Why 17 years? I have no idea. I could be that no one’s getting any younger or that November 19th 2009 falls on a Wednesday, or it could be that in 2009 there really won’t be anyone left who cares enough to watch. Whatever the reason is, goal scorer Paul Caligiuri is already here for the game, but I’m not sure who else he brought along with him. Of course some of the old Strike Squad members like Clayton Morris will also suit up. I’m not sure I care very much about this game and I doubt I’ll be watching. What’s the point really? Surely nothing that happens on that field will help the Warriors qualify for South Africa 2010 so I really don’t have much interest in looking back.
Posted in Football, Sports | 2 Comments »
Thursday, October 19th, 2006 |
- Despite making an appearance at FIFA World Cup 2006 the football gods have conspired against Trinidad and Tobago and in the latest FIFA rankings released this month T&T has been dropped 24 places and is now ranked 80th in the world. Now we all know that the FIFA ranking system is a little flawed, but come on. You would think making it to the World Cup and leaving with a point would amount to something. Not so.
However CONCACAF on a whole only just manages to break the top 20 with Mexico coming it at 19 followed by a more suitably-ranked USA coming in at 29. Brazil of course is at #1.
Somehow I think it’s a size issue. I think we’d get a lot more respect if Trinidad was a larger country. But what are you going to do? You can’t argue with FIFA.
In other happenings, Leo Beenhakker is featured in a story appearing on FIFA’s website concerning his Poland job. It’s a good read if anyone’s interested.
- West Indies pulled of a great win against world No 1 Australia to win their Group A round 1 match against the Aussies in the ICC Champions Trophy. Runako Morton and Brian Lara both had good knocks of 90 and 71 respectively to help raise the Windies total to 234 at the end of the 50 overs. Australia, with a 101 run partnership from Adam Gilchrist and Michael Clarke, looked like they were going to be able to steadily make the 235 necessary, however that was until Gilchrist’s was run out with him on 92 and then it was all downhill from there. In the melee, Jerome Taylor picked up the first West Indies hat-trick in a One-Day International and finished off with figures of 4-49.
Australia was eventually scuttled out for 224/9 in their 50 overs.
- Well Rehanna Ramlochan has been found dead. The 22 year old woman’s body was found in a shallow grave at the Tunapuna Cemetery 12 days after she went missing. Police are saying that it wasn’t a kidnapping but actually a domestic dispute that resulted in her death.
Since the Prime Minister’s “anyone who kidnaps someone for ransom will be caught” declaration doesn’t cover murders, it seems he may be off the hook.
But it has been a bloody two weeks for crimes of passion. Trinidad has seen at least 7 deaths resulting from murder-suicides from the past two weeks alone, which have helped to push our murder rate beyond 300.
I guess it’s just another great day in Trinidad.
- *I almost forgot I wanted to post my Sampson stats for all to see. I think I alluded more than once that posting the story on Sampson Nanton returned the best stats I’ve had in this blogs short life. And I know many of you reading right now have found my blog because you typed “Sampson Nanton sex pictures” into Google. Don’t even pretend that you didn’t. I know because I see the stats all the time. And up till today I still get about 100 hits per day just from people looking for lurid cell phone pics. (Sorry people, no pics here either).
But anyway just posting the story got me thousands of page loads and a whole new set of readers, for which I am eternally grateful to Sampson. So just for amusement, here’s a snapshot of what Sampson hysteria looks like if it were represented by a bar graph (with the actual figures removed though).
I posted the story on Thursday September 21st and maybe on the following Saturday I got some hits, but I can’t be sure. The real hits began coming in on that Sunday and took off. Of course when most people realized there were no pics on the site they just didn’t come back, which you can see from the difference between the stats for the page loads and those for the returning visits. But thanks to those of you who did.
Posted in Cricket, Football, Miscellaneous | 4 Comments »
Monday, October 2nd, 2006 |
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| Sancho & Larsson |
Granny Rumsfeld |
The TnT Mirror published this photo on September 24th from Trinidad’s World Cup game against Sweden where we drew 0-0. The photo allegedly shows Brent Sancho grabbing the crotch of Swede Henrik Larsson. Well I guess why people would see the irony in it since it’s Sancho’s dreadlock that was pulled when England first scored on us. While footballers do do these kinds of things, a photo just isn’t what it used to be….especially one that surfaces three months after the tournament ended. I’ve seen better Photoshop work before like the picture alongside it that shows Donald Rumsfeld as an old grandmother.
It doesn’t matter now anyway, now does it?
Posted in Football, Media | 6 Comments »
Friday, September 29th, 2006 |
The TT Pro League has taken a big step into the world of technology by revamping its website and in so doing, giving the Trinidad & Tobago Pro League a bigger audience than it had experienced before. Today at the launch held at Pier 1, officials at the TT Pro League unveiled the new website (www.ttproleague.com) that is capable of (get this) streaming live matches over the internet.
They promise to stream at least two football games a month, with the first game being streamed tomorrow (29, September) with the First Citizens Cup Final at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium.
The revamp of the TT Pro League also includes the publication of a bi-monthly magazine and an online store where allyuh ex-pats can secure allyuh TT Pro League replicas. So no more Arsenal and Inter Milan wear, iz W Connection and Caledonia AIA.
The new site will also be a good place for information as they will provide real time news updates as well as forums and chat rooms.
One thing I do disagree with is the notion that this new website with all the new techie stuff will somehow give our players a lot more international attention.
League Chairman Larry Romany said, “This will now allow our local players to showcase their talent on the international market, foreign clubs and scouts, can now see our players week in week out as they ply their trade on local soil.”
Let me tell yuh something, If it didn’t happen for the World Cup, chances are it’s won’t happen because of a website.
I mean how many of our players were snatched up by big name clubs? The only person who really gained anything from the World Cup was Chris Birchall and Dwight Yorke, which really wasn’t the great recognition we’d been hoping for. All the talk we heard about Carlos Edwards and Manchester United was apparently all just old talk. And at the end of it all all our dreams of seeing people like Aurtis Whitley and Cornell Glen play in better leagues vanished. So although it will be great if it happens, I won’t hold by breath for anyone to be discovered from the internet.
But for the new website and all the other stuff the TT Pro League is doing, I’m happy. At least they not stickin’.
Posted in Football | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, September 12th, 2006 |
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| Today’s Daily Mail |
This morning I was sitting at my desk wondering what I could blog about today when I get this e-mail from a reader in England who sends me a story carried today in the Daily Mail. And what do you know, Warner is being investigated for shady deals. Now you may be tempted to think that since this is Warner, this must be an old story, however check out the date on the story.
Basically the story alleges that Warner and his son Daryan cleared a profit of at least £500,000 on 5,400 tickets for England, Mexico and Japan matches over the course of this year’s World Cup. It alleges that Jack Warner set up secret deals to sell thousands of World Cup tickets on the black market, making himself and his son millions.
This may seem a little old to us here in Trinidad & Tobago since it became known that a travel agency owned by the Warners was the sole local ticket retailer for Germany 2006. But now that Warner, Simpaul Travel and all their alleged shady dealings are headlining The Daily Mail’s Sports page, ah feeling shame, shame, shame.
The story surmises that the reason Warner did not feel the wrath of FIFA as other offenders have, is that he controls 35 crucial votes that keep FIFA president Sepp Blatter in power. And when you’re in charge of covering the boss’s butt, you know you’re in a position of power (no homosexual double meanings were intended in that very last sentence).
Now Fox Sports reports that FIFA will look into the claims of corruption saying:
“A FIFA spokesman declined to comment on the media report, but said the allegations would be discussed during a meeting of FIFA’s executive committee on Friday in Zurich.”
Does this come as a surprise to us here? Not really. After Mr. Warner allegedly grossly oversold tickets to the 1989 World Cup qualifier against the United States, nothing surprises me.
It also makes me wonder if FIFA got wind of Warner’s promise to hand over the Centre of Excellence if Dookeran were to regain his seat at the next General Election. How do you think they would feel about that?
*Please excuse my alleged overuse of the words “alleged” and all its minions. It’s a deliberate effort on my part not to be sued by Jack Warner……who is an amazing and upright man.
Posted in Crime, Football, Politics | 3 Comments »
