SOCA Warriors captain Dwight Yorke left for London on Tuesday sad and disappointed that Prime Minister Patrick Manning did not honour his pledge to meet with him to discuss how the national team should be honoured for their courageous performance at the World Cup finals in Germany.

The Soca Warriors, 1,000-to-one outsiders before the start of the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany, performed beyond expectations, drawing goalless in their opening match against European power, Sweden, then going under 0-2 to Group B seed and one of the tournament favourites, England, with two late goals and 0-2 again to seven-time World Cup qualifiers from South America, Paraguay, in their final preliminary round game; and in so doing, earned the respect of the football world.

Last Saturday, the Prime Minister announced that each of the 24 players would be given a minimum of $750,000 in units from the Unit Trust Corporation and $250,000 in cash, with Yorke getting a bigger bonus as captain, and the players, including Silvio Spann who missed the tournament through injury after being named in coach Leo Beenhakker’s original squad, each being awarded the Chaconia Gold Medal, the nation’s second highest award.

But, in an exclusive interview with this newspaper shortly before his departure at Piarco International Airport, Yorke confessed that he was disappointed that the Prime Minister reneged on his pledge to speak with him before any decisions were taken on rewarding the Soca Warriors.

“The Prime Minister never spoke to me,” Yorke ruefully confided with a shake of the head.

“He (Manning) said he would speak to me to ensure that the players got what they wanted, but I am leaving the country and he has still not spoken to me on the issue.

DWIGHT YORKE and PM PATRICK MANNING at
the reception for the Soca Warriors at the
Hasely Crawford Stadium last Saturday.
Each player got $1 million and
the Chaconia Gold Medal.

“Look, the good thing is that all the players are better off by one million dollars, but we felt that land would have been a better option and it would not have cost the government anything.

“We looked at what happened with the Jamaica team when they returned from the World Cup in France and their players were each given a piece of land of their choice.

“Don’t get it wrong; we are grateful for what the government has given us because the players are all better off today than when we returned from Germany; but why say we are going to be included in the discussion on how to reward the team and then we are completely overlooked?

“It’s the principle; we appreciate whatever we were given but the government promised to talk to us first.”

Yorke also said he had a few days before he has to return to Sydney FC in Australia and was going to settle some private business in England over the next couple of days before returning to Jamaica to watch the final Test between the West Indies and India at Sabina Park.

“It’s been a few years since I visited Jamaica so this will be a good opportunity for me to see the country again and watch a bit of cricket,” Yorke declared.

Other members of the Soca Warriors team were a bit more forthright and accused the government of using the players to gain political mileage while disregarding their views on how the national team should be honoured.

“Look at how they treated Silvio; they could not even get that right,” one player stated on condition of anonymity.

“This is just a ‘mamaguy’ thing.

“The players feel as if we are being used because no one really considered what it is we wanted. The government took a decision to give us money and a national award because the government felt that would make the government look good, but the money we got is nothing to such a rich country.

“Jamaica’s reward in 1998 was twice what we got and Jamaica does not have the kind of financial clout that Trinidad (and Tobago) has.

“Other than the Sports Minister (Roger Boynes), no member of the government saw it fit to come to Germany to support the team, so now that the government has not seen it fit to discuss anything with us about the rewarding of the team or what we want to see for the future of the Soca Warriors, because we are going to be involved in another World Cup campaign in three years and we have to start preparing now, then we believe that the generosity towards the team is really not sincere.”