After months of waiting for match fees owed to them by the FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee of the T&T Football Association (TTFA), players on the country's senior men's football team were finally paid on Monday.
One player, who spoke on condition of anonymity becuase he's not authorised to speak on behalf of players, confirmed for Guardian Media Sports yesterday that players got their payment on Tuesday.
The payment will cover monies for World Cup Qualifying matches against the Bahamas and St Kitts and Nevis, as well as for the CONCACAF Gold Cup qualifier against French Guiana at the DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States.
Against the Bahamians, the Soca Warriors were held to a goalless draw at the Thomas Robinson Stadium in Nassau, which confirmed their exit from the World Cup qualifiers on June 5. And later, they defeated St Kitts and Nevis 2-0 at the Estadio Felix Sanchez in the Dominican Republic on June 8.
In the Gold Cup qualifier against French Guiana, the Soca Warriors prevailed 8-7 in a penalty shoot-out, following a 1-1 tie in regulation time.
They were owed differing amounts of between US$3,000 to US$8,000 for six matches, inclusive of matches in the group stage of the Gold Cup.
They are now owed for all the matches at the Gold Cup Group stage only, which include matches against Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala.
According to the player, payment for these matches will come from the team's earnings at the Gold Cup- approximately US$100,000.
"We have been told by the normalisation committee/TTFA that we will be paid from this payment, expected to be 14 days after it is received."
The players were to receive monies for the World Cup Qualifiers and Gold Cup within 60 and 30 days of tournaments, respectively.
It is not the first time the players have had to fight for payment of match fees. Only earlier this year they received payment, which represented the second tranch of monies owed to them from the year before 2020. In 2020, they were paid in December.
