LEIPZIG, Germany (CMC):
TRINIDAD AND Tobago will collect more than US$4 million from their World Cup Football Finals appearance in Germany next summer, the sport's governing body FIFA announced yesterday.
Each team will be given two million Swiss Francs (US$1.52 million) for each opening round match in next year's World Cup Finals in Germany.
The first round of the 32-team competition has each team - from the groups of four - playing a league round robin format, which means all teams will play a minimum of three games and guaranteed at least US$4.57 million.
Apart from the guaranteed US$4 million-plus take for the opening three matches, if T&T advance to the second round of 16 teams, they will collect a further US$1.90 million per match and for each successive match the fee will rise by US$381,000 with the ultimate winner of the 2006 World Cup taking away a whopping total of some US$18.26 million.
T&T Football Federation (TTFF) Advisor and FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, who is embracing the excitement of the global football fraternity ahead of tomorrow's draw, witnessed the latest FIFA announcements.
"The pace is picking up by the hour here and you can feel the kind of excitement that is associated with a World Cup ahead of Friday's draw," Warner said in a TTFF web site story.
"The organizing committee and by extension everyone else who is involved in this venture, continues to go all out to ensure that this event and particularly Friday's major event is second to none and I don' think there's anyone else here at the moment who is more excited to be a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago because of what the country is set to be part of on such a massive stage," he told TTFF media.
Warner yesterday welcomed a nine-man T&T contingent for tomorrow's draw in Leipzig, including TTFF president Oliver Camps, general secretary Richard Groden, team manager Bruce Aanansen, press officer Shaun Fuentes, assistant team manager George Joseph, cultural liaison officer Terry Joseph, security officer Roy Augustus, Tracy Davidson, and Dr. James Hepple of the Tourism Development Company. Head coach Leo Beenhakker will also be there to witness the draw.
Beenhakker will be participating in a World Cup Finals for the second time after leading Holland in 1990, notching up three draws and one defeat.
Trinidad and Tobago will become the fourth Caribbean country - after Cuba in 1938, Haiti (1974) and Jamaica (1998) - to appear at the World Cup Finals.
