World Cup squad threatens court action

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad,  CMC- Members of the world cup squad of 2006 are threatening to ask the high court here to liquidate the assets of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) so that millions owed to them can be paid.

The 13 members of the Soca Warriors have made their intentions known in a letter to FIFA president Sepp Blatter, CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb and TTFF president Raymond Tim Kee.

The players are owed nearly TT12 million dollars after the UK-based Sports Dispute Resolution Panel (SPDR) and later the Trinidad and Tobago High Court ruled in their favour in a legal impasse with the TTFF.

“We have informed the Federation that we will begin liquidation proceedings in the next six weeks,” the players said in the letter through their lawyers.

“We are left with no other choice because the players continue to suffer and they feel the football world has deserted them”.

The SDRP had awarded the players 50 per cent of proceeds associated with the 2006 World Cup campaign.

However the matter had to be contested in the high court here after the TTFF failed to settle on the grounds that the players had breached the Panel’s gag order.

A year ago, the players levied on the TTFF to recover some of the funds without success. “We must reiterate that the TTFF appear to have no intention of voluntarily paying the players,” the letter stated.

“They are continually ignoring orders of the court and the arbitration award”.