By David Gold
February 9 – Office equipment has been seized from the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) by a group of players who participated in the 2006 World Cup as a payment dispute escalates.
Players have long complained that they have not been paid millions of dollars worth of outstanding bonuses for both qualifying for and playing in Germany in 2006, which they say was promised to them.
In a statement on their website, the TTFF said: “[We] acknowledge that the players have exercised their legal rights”.
The TTFF said that they have already made a payment of more than $7 million (£4.4 million/€5.3 million) to players after being ordered to do so by the courts last year, while they say the outstanding payments total $4.6 million (£2.9 million/€3.5 million).
“The TTFF reiterates that as an organisation, it does not at this time have the luxury of $4.6 million (£2.9 million/€3.5 million) to pay the players but it does acknowledge the debt,” the statement continued.
They said that they would continue as the governing body for football in the country and laid the blame for the problem with former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, who resigned from the organisation last year following the cash-for-votes scandal ahead of world football’s governing body’s Presidential election.
Warner has in the past distanced himself from the agreement and said that it is a matter for the courts.
As a result, 13 players were this week joined by policemen and a court official at the TTFF headquarters and proceeded to load two trucks with computers, desks and other items.
Brent Sancho (pictured), a defender who played at the 2006 World Cup and one of the 13, said: “While we know sale of the items will not amount to much, we had to do something.”
Sancho said the players would next go after assets belonging to Oliver Camps, another former President of the TTFF who also quit FIFA last year following the cash-for-votes scandal.
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