PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Coach of Trinidad and Tobago’s national football team Jamaal Shabaaz will seek hassle free travel to the United States, as a member of the “Soca Warriors” team for next month’s CONCACAF Gold Cup Tournament.
Shabazz plans to approach the United States embassy in Port of Spain today seeking permission to travel to the US for the twelve-nation tournament scheduled for July 7-28.
Shabazz, a member of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen, was among scores of insurrectionists charged and tried as a result of the 1990 attempted coup.
Shabazz said that while he is able to fly to the US and has done so in recent times, he often has to do so under certain conditions and restrictions.
The Caledonia AIA technical director said that he had approached the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to help sort out his situation ahead of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
“They advised me to make an application to the United States embassy, which I intend to do on Monday (tomorrow),” Shabazz told the Trinidad Express.
Although he has insisted that he would have no problems travelling to the US, he was once detained in Miami for several weeks.
Trinidad and Tobago will see action in Group B of the CONCACAF Gold Cup along with Honduras, Haiti and El Salvador and will play the latter in their opening fixture on July 8 at the Red Bull Arena in New Jersey.
