THE 150-plus strong contingent of children, parents, and officials of Tobago youth football club Jaric Titans have been temporarily accommodated at the Hilton Garden Inn, connected to Manchester’s legendary Old Trafford stadium.
The group arrived in the UK on Wednesday to participate in an Easter football tournament in the city.
Jaric Titans coach Brian Browne told Newsday the group was afforded temporary accommodation after intervention by the organisers of the tournament, EuroWorld Sports, who “spoke to the hotels.”
Despite his failure to secure funding and pay for accommodation, Browne, together with about 100 players and 55 adults, arrived in Manchester after taking what he described as a “leap of faith” on Wednesday morning, ahead of the tournament on Saturday and Sunday.
He said the itinerary remains unchanged and some of the players are scheduled to participate in a screening exercise by club giants Manchester City on Tuesday.
Browne said Jaric Titans did not pay the Hilton a deposit, nor has it raised enough funds yet to stay there or at any other suitable lodging until they depart on April 5.
However, he said the team will transfer from Hilton to a Holiday Inn hotel on Friday, thanks to EuroWorld Sports, who will foot the bill at least until the club can raise the funds.
EuroWorld Sports, Browne told Newsday, “is looking after all our stuff: ground transport, accommodation, and meals (breakfast and dinner),” which would have been part of the tournament’s hotel package.
The coach said he was unsure how many rooms were being occupied by the entire contingent, since the “ladies at the club are the ones who are looking after those things.”
On Friday, they are scheduled to transfer to the Holiday Inn, where they had originally intended to stay for the entire trip.
“Eurosport (sic) has been the one to negotiate on our behalf. (They) made some arrangement, I think in good faith, with the hotel (Hilton),” Browne said. “You know, something is going to be worked out and that’s how we’re here.”
He described EuroWorld’s intervention as a “humanitarian move” because “they (don’t) want us to obviously have nowhere to stay.”
Browne said the parents of children on the trip were asked to contribute $10,000, which would have covered only airfare. Their return flight tickets have been paid for.
The club, however, is still seeking to raise funds by crowdfunding through the website GoFundMe. They have raised just £4,530 of the £60,000 target, with one anonymous donor making a whopping £1,000 contribution (about TT$8,500).
The description on the page, created by Browne’s friend Arlene Alexander-Price, said Jaric Titans had been making arrangements to take a “group of underprivileged young players to the Manchester Cup in England for more than a year.
“They received commitments from a number of persons and agencies who have now reneged or have not fulfilled their promise and the cup is this weekend,” the appeal read.
Browne told Newsday every parent who allowed their child to travel to the UK for t
