For­mer T&T in­ter­na­tion­al goal­keep­er, Kelvin Jack, one of 13 play­ers owed pay­ments by the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTFA) by virtue of a court or­der, has giv­en a two-week no­tice to the lo­cal gov­ern­ing body to set­tle the dis­pute. Jack, in a me­dia re­lease yes­ter­day said the TTFA is "in clear breach of the con­sent or­der au­tho­rised by the T&T High Court.""It is a bla­tant dis­re­gard to the courts con­sid­er­ing the fact that the TTFA were the ones who agreed to the terms of the set­tle­ment agree­ment."Last May, the TTFA an­nounced a set­tle­ment with the play­ers, which was fol­lowed by the pay­ment of one tranche. How­ev­er, ac­cord­ing to Jack, a sec­ond tranche, which was due last Sep­tem­ber was not paid in full. He said the par­ty of play­ers have been try­ing to get as­sur­nance from the TTFA on whether it in­tends to ho­n­our the agree­ment for sev­er­al months. "How­ev­er, all we re­ceived were vague and in­tan­gi­ble promis­es."

The case be­gan in 2006 when the play­ers chal­lenged the then T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTFA) on a promise made by for­mer spe­cial ad­vi­sor Jack Warn­er to re­ward the play­ers with bonus­es for their part in se­cur­ing T&T's first and on­ly ever ap­pear­ance at a World Cup."We are sure that most would agree that we have been ul­tra pa­tient. The TTFA re­ceived over $200 mil­lion from its qual­i­fi­ca­tion and par­tic­i­pa­tion at the 2006 World Cup, yet the play­ers who played a huge part in gen­er­at­ing those funds are yet to be paid," said Jack."We are in the year 2014, and with an­oth­er World Cup mere weeks away, this sit­u­a­tion re­mains un­re­solved. With­out ques­tion, this is sure­ly one of the great­est in­jus­tices ever suf­fered by a sport­ing team in Caribbean sport­ing his­to­ry. To put it sim­ple, it is just not fair."Jack said he is "sad and dis­ap­point­ed" hav­ing to beg that the play­ers be paid the terms of the con­tract.

"We have re­ceived sup­port from the Con­ca­caf pres­i­dent Jef­frey Webb and that was re­fresh­ing. He is clear­ly a play­ers' pres­i­dent who has in­di­cat­ed that he will like noth­ing bet­ter than for this is­sue to be rec­ti­fied soon­er rather than lat­er."Jack con­clud­ed, "on the ex­pi­ra­tion of the 14 days we have af­ford­ed, if there is no pay­ment or tan­gi­ble and ho­n­ourable at­tempts to fa­cil­i­tate set­tle­ment of this debt, the wind­ing up of The Trinidad and To­ba­go Foot­ball fed­er­a­tion will com­mence im­me­di­ate­ly."