T&T Football Federation president Oliver Camps and Fifa vice-president and Concacaf president Warner puts pen to paper on a one-year US$70,000 deal with Sony, Puerto Rico in support of the T&T Soca Warriors 2010 World Cup campaign. Looking on at left is Ricardo Rivera, director, Sony, Puerto Rico and at right, Slyvette Laguere, marketing and communication supervisor, Sony Puerto Rico at the Courtyard Marriott, Invaders Bay, Mucurapo, yesterday. Photo: Anthony Harris

Global electronic brand, Sony has come on board as one of the sponsors/partners of the T&T Football Federation (TTFF) and the Soca Warriors in their efforts to qualify for the Fifa World Cup Finals in South Africa next year with a one-year deal worth US$70,000. This was disclosed by T&T Football Federation special advisor and Fifa vice-president, Jack Warner, at the official signing ceremony which took place at the Courtyard Marriot, Invaders Bay, Mucurapo, yesterday.

The deal which will be reviewed at the end of its one-year time line with the view to an extension was signed by Federation president, Concacaf president Warner and Ricardo Rivera, director, Sony, Puerto Rico. In his brief address, Rivera said that his company was very delighted to be associated with the T&TFF and the Soca Warriors brand. Rivera, a Puerto Rican by birth, noted that the game of football was not very popular in his country as it is in T&T, but he and his company, would like to start creating a relationship with different sectors of T&T, like the corporate companies, private sector and government agencies.

Rivera, boasted that Sony was one of the 12 major sponsors with Fifa having signed on in 2007 while they also have markets in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and other parts of Latin America while being the main sponsors of the top football team in his homeland, the Puerto Rico Islanders who are currently competing in the Concacaf Champions League. In closing, Rivera pointed out the new Real Madrid signing Brazilian Kaka was the official spokesman for Sony world-wide and his company was now looking at some of the top players from the Soca Warriors with a view to signing promotional contracts.

In his turn at the podium, Warner praised Rivera and his company for throwing their support behind the Soca Warriors. Warner added: “I was somewhat lost for words due to the fact that Sony, a household name had come on board to support a small country like T&T and the Soca Warriors. “I could only hope that this serves as a catalyst for other national and international sponsors to come on board. Sony did not wait until we qualified for South Africa 2010, or begin to organise the 2010 Women’s Under-17 World Cup here in T&T, they came on board now when a country like T&T needed Sony most.”

“I want to say thanks to Sony for having brought us within the pale of international sponsorship and I will tell Sony that this is a partnership which we shall treasure and which we shall ensure does not break or does not end quickly. “I want to go further and say what you (Sony) have said and done and the contract we shall sign will in many ways be the ties that will bind us now and forever and therefore it has to be a win win situation for both Sony and the Soca Warriors. Who knows? when we take the field in Honduras (September 5) and four days later at home to USA, this might well be the tonic that the team needs to propel us higher, further and faster on the road to 2010.