Notes from a small island

Notes from a small island
A weblog by Jonathan Ali

Monday, June 26, 2006

So the national football team, our Soca Warriors have been rewarded by prime minister Santa Manning and his government on their early return from the ongoing World Cup in Germany. Each player received, out of Papa Patrick's bag of goodies, the nation's second highest award, and will get at least TT$1 million in cash and investments. The players will be availed of a money management lecture, to ensure that they do not fritter away their newly-gained wealth.

Some members of the team, however, are not fully content. At least one player, Anthony Wolfe, expressed his disappointment that the support staff--manager, physiotherapist, waterboy, etc--did not receive anything, and even ventured further that he thought the players might have been rewarded with houses.

I am in complete agreement with Wolfe. After all the Soca Warriors did, is this the best we can do to show our gratitude? For our national football team? A bunch of guys who kicked around a ball for a few hours? And didn't win a single game? Or score a single goal? (Check that--they scored an own goal.) It's preposterous. It's ludicrous. It's a scandal. Yes, they got paid handsome salaries for doing what they were contracted to do, and a number of them will probably be getting lucrative club contracts in Europe from their (brief) World Cup exposure, but that isn't enough. We're talking about footballers here. National footballers.

You have to feel for Wolfe. Not only did he not get to play in a single game in Germany, but the government insults him further by giving him only one measly million dollars and a piece of metal. Don't they understand what the property market is like these days, how expensive it is to purchase a house? And to furnish it? And cars aren't cheap, either. Surely each player should have gotten, along with the cash and investments, a fully-funished house, and a car. With a lifetime supply of petrol.

How do we expect our nation to progress if we do not reward our heroes in the proper manner? We're talking about footballers. National footballers.

posted by Jonathan | 10:47 AM 0 comments

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