Agreement reached on T&T qualifier venue

Trinidad & Tobago's national team have one less problem to worry about after the national federation and the government reached an accord on World Cup qualifying matches at Hasely Crawford Stadium.  You may recall that Trinidad & Tobago had to play the home leg of their tie with Bermuda in Macoya because they refused to pay a $150,000 user fee or 10% of gate receipts to the Ministry of Sport.  Jack Warner had threatened to move T&T qualifiers to a neutral site outside the country if the fee was in place, but backed down from that stance later. 

Now, Warner gets what he wanted in the first place -- the user fee will be waived for World Cup qualifiers and the federation will pay to the government 8% of the gate receipts.  The user fee does apply to all other matches and is levied on a sliding scale based on the FIFA ranking of opposing national teams.  There's no mention of what the government would charge domestic clubs for CONCACAF Champions League matches. 

This standoff between the T&TFF and the national government is typical of the conflicts seen throughout CONCACAF between clubs and national teams and the local or national governments that own and operate the stadiums.  Granted there are many things associated with a stadium that must be paid in dollars, such as debt financing, electricity, or imported items, but the fees that are charged often are very unrealistic.