T&T Under-20 footballers, the reigning Caribbean Football Union Under-20 champions will take their spot among the 12-team Concacaf Under-20 Championship carded for Jamaica from January 9-24.This after the Ministry of Sport made an about turn in providing financial support for the youngsters, while the Sport Company of T&T also came in to offset expenses for the Derek King-coached team in their bid to secure one of the four qualifying spots to next year's Fifa Under-20 World Cup in New Zealand.
On Tuesday, the young Soca Warriors place in the qualifying tournament looked in jeopardy after the Ministry of Sport Permanent Secretary informed T&T Football Association operations manager William Wallace that there was no money to fund the team's trip to Jamaica which stood at an overall budget of $988,000.00.According to Wallace, that money was to cover players stipends to cover for the almost month-long stay, airfare, hotel accommodation, extra staff and medical expenses.
Wallace made it clear that it was important to note that Concacaf do not fund the entire bills of teams to these tournaments while the players who are not entitled to match fees would have been provided witha stipend of US$100 per day."Most of the budget is being taken up with allowances for the players and staff to the sum of $538,000.00 while airfare cost stood at $225,000.00 and the other expenses totaling $174,000.00. "However, because of the lack of funds available I have had to shave down the budget for the team almost down to my skin and we will now have to look at cutting the allowances for the places, and owing them, just as we did with previous teams." Wallace also expressed that the remainder of the funds will be provided from the Sport Company of T&T, which he said called and requested some information to assist the team.
He said, "We were hoping to leave on 27 in two batches, but because of the late release of funds we are now going on December 31 and will use the extra days at home to get in some more training. "We will have a five-day camp in Florida and already have a match against Canada confirmed while the USA also wanted to play us in a warm-up match, but we are still mulling over that decision because we are in the same qualifying group in Jamaica, " explained Wallace. The T&T team will then leave for Jamaica on January 6, ahead of their Group A matches against the host, USA, Panama, Guatemala and Aruba in their round-robin pool.
Earlier this month, the Under-20 Soca Warriors who crush Haiti 3-0 in the CFU final on September 19 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo thanks to a hat-trick from Kadeem Corbin, the tournament's "Most Valuable Player" and top scorer had to abort a planned camp to Mexico as part of their preparations also due to a lack of funds.The camp which was expected to include two matches against the Mexico Under-20s, the reigning Concacaf champions and a top club team was due to cost $782,000.00, but none was available.
Group B of the Concacaf Championship comprises Mexico, the two-time defending Concacaf Under-20 champions; Cuba, Canada, El Salvador, Honduras and Haiti and the end of the tournament four teams will qualify to the FIFA Under-20 World Cup New Zealand 2015. Mexico are two-time defending Concacaf Under-20 champions, having claimed the title in Puebla, Mexico in 2013 and in Guatemala City in 2011.
The top team from each group after round-robin play advances to the World Cup, and the second and third place nations from each group advance to the final day knockout phase, with the chance to dispute one of a pair of play-in matches which will determine Concacaf's other two World Cup spots at the Fifa Under-20 World Cup New Zealand 2015.