No flowers by request

Death Announcement:

The funeral of the late Trinidad Football will take place at Clark and Battoo’s Chapel, thence to the Lapeyrouse Cemetery. The body, which was flown in from Guyana, will lie in state at the office of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF). No flowers by request.

The phone rang. I picked it up half-heartedly. I was prepared for the shocker; but was hoping for some good news. “Guyana give we two,” was the sad news. One time, I headed for the toilet...no lie. My stomach gave away, and everything came crashing down. A sadness overwhelmed me, and it was difficult to collect myself. After that near-miss, I jumped into bed and pulled the covers over my head. I was dumbstruck. My mind raced back to the glory days and fast-forwarded to what football in T&T had become. I started to cry. The neighbours rushed over to console me. There was this sexy one in a shortpants with legs as smooth as silk. She put her arms around me and instantly my troubles were over. They all left, telling me that whatever was troubling me “that, too, like the curfew shall pass”.

I couldn’t come to grips with what passes for football and, futhermore, I was not seeing any stars. Football had me seeing stars. However, my mind raced back to the cemetery of failed football campaigns—Road to Italy (1990), ’94 for sure, Korea in 2002. Is licks, Germany 2006, and South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014. Then it dawned on me the vengeance of Moko had blighted our football, after how the footballers were treated in 2006...called “mercenaries”, blanked from the Gold Cup squad all because of asking for what is rightfully theirs. Money flowed like gobar through that campaign.

There was enough for everybody. But men who never kicked a lime hogged everything. There and then, I knew local football was doomed. I prayed for justice. Since that time, Caribbean teams started to beat we like a bobolee and declare a national holiday to celebrate the death of a football superpower. Remember, no flowers by request, a donation will be picked up for charity. The TTFF has requested all past and present members, including Jack Warner, wear black. What a sad story.

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