PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Owner Brent Sancho sounded a warning that Trinidad & Tobago Pro League outfit, Central FC, may have to skip the 2018 CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship, due to the money woes.
Sancho, a former T&T national striker and minister of sport, said the club, T&T Pro League champions for three straight seasons, was owed close to US $300,000 from a number of sources and this was impacting upon its preparations for the tournament, as well as threatening its possible participation.
“First of all, we don’t even know how we’re getting there,” he told the Trinidad Newsday newspaper. “It’s been tough, with the financial situation that the clubs have had during the Pro League. That hasn’t changed. We’re still hoping to have some sort of respite from the (state-run) Sports Company of T&T.”
“For us, as a club, we are basically putting out a public plea for corporate support, or even government support, in some way or fashion where we can at least get these young men out there to represent the country.”
He added: “You do get some sort of money from (CONCACAF), but it’s never enough to cover the flights, that’s for sure. But then there is preparation for the tournament, so we’ll have to start to train.
“We have to try and figure out a way to pay up some of the players and find monies for all the different things to get yourself there, to prepare yourself for the tournament. That is a struggle.”
Central FC were twice winners of Caribbean Football Union’s Club Championship in 2015 and 2016.
