Trinidad and Tobago ‘Warriors’ Coach Leo Beenhakker has been given the vote of confidence by T & T’s Football Federation, who have agreed to retain the services of Trinidad and Tobago's Dutch coach, who has so far successfully guided the Warriors to a World Cup play-off place.

His contract has been guaranteed for at least two years, and is likely to last for four years, to continue T&T's ‘Warriors’ team development.

Beenhakker has been instrumental in the Warriors success having guided the team to fifth place in the CONCACAF qualifying zone, earning them a play-off against Bahrain, for a place in the World Cup Finals for the first time ever for the T&T Soca Warriors.

A further boost to the cash-strapped Warriors squad has been the guarantee of funds from the Trinidad and Tobago government, which has pledged TT$13.5m, and from Corporate sponsorship.

An estimated $TT13.8m ($1.1m) is needed to prepare the team in its final campaign thrust towards Germany, starting with their two-legged play-off against Asian Zone fifth-place finishers Bahrain, in a home and away play-off next month in their attempts to qualify for next year's World Cup in Germany.

Substantial sums, totalling several million TT dollars, have also been pledged by many corporate sponsors in their efforts to financially assist the T&T football team in their aim for a place among the 32 teams for the 2006 World Cup Finals in Germany.

Among them are the National Gas Company of T&T, Petrotrin, British Gas, BHP Billiton, the Carib Brewery, Eastern Credit Union, Unit Trust and Atlantic LNG.

The money will be used, amongst other things, to pay the salaries of coach Leo Beenhakker and his two Dutch technical staff members, and includes the chartering of a flight to and from Bahrain.

The Warriors success has caught the eye of the major sports manufacturers, with the Local Organising Company (LOC) Germany 2006 Chairman Jack Warner stating; "Now, we have more corporate sponsors coming aboard and that will make our task less difficult," adding that International companies such as Adidas, Puma and Nike were also lining up to back the T&T Warriors.

"Adidas flew in to talk about sponsorship of the Trinidad and Tobago team for the next four years. It's an extremely attractive offer, instead of going to them, now they are coming to us," Warner concluded.

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