Thir­teen So­ca War­riors who rep­re­sent­ed T&T in the 2006 World Cup cam­paign were yes­ter­day award­ed over US$1.1 mil­lion as an in­ter­im pay­ment, in a law­suit brought by the foot­ballers seek­ing to col­lect bonus­es promised to them.Foot­ballers Au­r­tis Whit­ley, Brent San­cho, At­i­ba Charles and Cyd Gray, were vis­i­bly elat­ed at the de­ci­sion, but re­mained pleas­ant­ly qui­et.They, to­geth­er with 10 oth­er na­tion­al foot­ballers, who rep­re­sent­ed T&T in Ger­many, would each have an equal share in the in­ter­im award of US$1,140,384.89.

Jus­tice Devin­dra Ram­per­sad or­dered the in­ter­im pay­ment af­ter re­ject­ing the ac­count­ing doc­u­ments which were sub­mit­ted by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Foot­ball Fed­er­a­tion (TTFF)."I feel there has been non-com­pli­ance with the or­der," he said.He not­ed that there were sev­er­al dis­par­i­ties in the ac­count­ing doc­u­ments.These, he said, were not prop­er­ly ac­count­ed for by au­di­tors Ram­per­sad and Co."It is all so cloudy right now," Ram­per­sad (Devin­dra) said.Among the dis­par­i­ties, he said, was the non-ac­count­abil­i­ty for $1 mil­lion Swiss francs.

Al­so, sev­er­al mil­lion re­ceived from pri­vate sec­tor fund­ing was not prop­er­ly ac­count­ed for, he said."That has not been ac­count­ed for," he said.As a re­sult, he or­dered the TTFF to pre­pare new ac­count­ing records which are to be "itemised" on an "Ex­cel spread­sheet". Ram­per­sad was ex­pect­ed to rule yes­ter­day on pay­ment in the law­suit but was thwart­ed by the in­com­plete ac­count­ing re­ports.He told at­tor­ney Derek Bal­li­ram, coun­sel for the TTFF, that the ac­count­ing records were not in prop­er or­der and did not prop­er­ly ac­count for the funds of the TTFF.

The 'roller coast­er' mat­ter which had been re­solved in the Unit­ed King­dom was sent to Ram­per­sad, then to the Court of Ap­peal and again back to the low­er court judge.The pro­ceed­ings were filed in No­vem­ber 2008, ini­tial­ly by 16 play­ers who de­mand­ed that the High Court en­force the judg­ment of the Lon­don-based Sport Dis­pute Res­o­lu­tion Pan­el (SDRP).The pan­el had ruled in May, 2006 un­der the terms of a con­tract, agreed by FI­FA Ex­ec­u­tive Com­mit­tee mem­ber and TTFF spe­cial ad­vis­er Jack Warn­er that the So­ca War­riors were owed 50 per cent of all 2006 World Cup com­mer­cial rev­enue.But the TTFF claimed that a breach of con­fi­den­tial­i­ty by the play­ers meant they were no longer bound by the agree­ment.At­tor­neys for both sides re­turn to court next Fri­day.