In the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup, Haiti was virtually one point, one game away from being placed among the 32 teams in Brazil this year. By July 2013, the Haitian national team had shown promise in international friendlies against powerhouses Spain and Italy. The Grenadiers had gone far for a team not receiving support from its government. And looking at the numbers, it seems that not only does the Martelly administration not have its collective hearts in Haiti and its people but are also not as economically inclined as it chiefly claims. There is prize money for teams in the FIFA World Cup, starting with $1.5 million [US] just for being a team in the FIFA World Cup, meaning an investment of just $1 million [US] could have helped the team and earned back more. Rather, it was Radio Television Caraibes which raised roughly $400,000 [US] for the Haitian national team when it fell in financially desperate straits mid-tournament. RTVC held a week-long marathon where Haitians living around the world made donations by phone. The economic problem is not as much about the Haitian peoples reluctance to invest in their country as much as it is about its governments reluctance to invest in themselves. The Martelly administration could have budgeted money into Haitis selection. Considering how close the national team was to reaching the World Cup in Brazil, forwarding that money to the Federation of Haitian Football (FHF) would have been a safe bet. Yet, the administration felt it the wiser to jump into Polaris ATVs, mobilize a motorcade of secret service, law enforcement, UN peacekeepers, not to mention, rara street bands to distribute Brazil and Argentina t-shirts. Residents of Fort National blocked the Head of State from making such a spectacle in their neighborhoods. Teams in the World Cup get another $9 million [US] for making it out of the group stage into the round of 16 and another $14 million for being in the quarter finals. There is up to another $35 million [US] for the winners. The economic boom from the exposure afforded teams in the World Cup is incalculable but for hosting the mondial countries have seen direct profits of over half-a-billion. [TABLE]
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 13:33:37 +0000