(CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana) CARICOM Secretary-General, His Excellency Edwin Carrington today joined the rest of the Caribbean Community in extending warm congratulations to the Captain and players of the Trinidad and Tobago National Football team on the occasion of their success in qualifying for the World Cup Finals to be held in Germany next summer.

In congratulating the team, Secretary General Carrington said The Trinidad and Tobago team’s victory over Bahrain, has once again demonstrated that continued confidence, positive thinking, perseverance and application are indeed the hallmark of real champions.

He said the entire Region was proud of the team and stood firmly behind its quest for the ultimate success during the playoffs in Germany. He noted that the Trinidad and Tobago team was only the third from the CARICOM Region - Haiti in 1974 and Jamaica in 1998 – to qualify to play football on the world’s largest stage.

Secretary-General Carrington also said it was a significant achievement that a small region such as ours can in the last thirty years, achieve the tremendous feat of sending three teams to the World Cup. Indeed, Trinidad and Tobago, with a population of 1.2 million people will be the smallest country playing in the World Cup.

The CARICOM Secretary-General urged Caribbean governments to continue to place emphasis on the development of sports as a positive investment in the Region’s youth noting that football and athletics were areas of international competition in which the Region has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to excel.

Contact:
Calvin G. Brown
cbrown@caricom.org