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The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) has officially replaced the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) as the body representing Trinidad and Tobago in international football. And yesterday, there were also rumours in circulation that Dutch coach Leo Beenhakker was returning to the T&T national team after he was spotted with TTFA president Raymond Tim Kee in Europe at Trinidad and Tobago’s friendly international against Romania. Trinidad and Tobago fell 4-0 to Romania and will play Estonia in another friendly on Friday.

Seventy-year-old Dutchman Beenhakker qualified Trinidad and Tobago for their first World Cup in 2006 where they drew 0-0 with Sweden and also lost 2-0 to both England and Paraguay. He also had a successful career coach top clubs as Real, Madrid and Ajax.

Beenhakker coach Poland after his one year stint between 2005-2006 with Trinidad & Tobago.

“I can confirm that our people, both president Raymond Tim Kee and general secretary Sheldon Phillips, met with Mr. Beenkakker recently,” TTFA vice-president Rudolph Thomas confirmed yesterday. “The FIFA congress concluded in Mauritius and they met him there.”

“I too heard the rumour yesterday,” Thomas said. “At this time both the president and general secretary are out of the country and I cannot say whether the meeting was just a casual one or something more.

We can only wait until they return to know anything further.”

Meanwhile, Thomas revealed that the local football body has reverted to it s former name the TTFA and had already unveiled their new crest. Thomas said that the decision was made last month.

“At our last executive meeting we agreed from a legal point of view, we would revert to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA),” he said. “The decision was made mainly because the name TTFF was not legally incorporated in parliament. That does not mean that we are exempt from anything that happened when we were known as the TTFF . But going forward right now, we are the TTFA again.”

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Having qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League for a second straight season, Trinidad and Tobago football clubs W Connection and Caledonia AIA got contrasting draws for the 2013-14 edition of the tournament when the draw was held at the Intercontinental Hotel, Doral, Miami, Florida, USA on Saturday.

Connection were elated to be grouped with the Houston Dynamos of Major League Soccer and Panama’s Arabe Unida, while in the Caledonia camp, the mood was a bit more subdued after the Morvant/Laventille club was drawn with Mexican powerhouses Toluca and CSD Comunicaciones of Guatemala.

Matches in the CONCACAF Champions League begin on August 6.
Despite the tough competition ahead, AIA general manager Ricarda Nelson was confident her club could advance from the group stage.

She stated that the valuable experience gained in the 2012/2013 edition of the CCL will go a long way in preparing the Pro League runners-up for what is to come both on and off the field.

Her main concern was the altitude at the Toluca stadium which is 8,793 feet above sea level. But she expressed confidence in the ability of technical director Jamaal Shabazz and coach Jerry Moe in planning for the match in Mexico.

W Connection’s president David John Williams and technical director Stuart Charles Fervier are happy that they avoided Mexico teams for the first time in their CCL history, but are wary of the MLS Cup runners-up and the Panamanians who are unknown elements to the Savonetta club.

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Trinidad and Tobago’s Soca Warriors crashed to a 4-0 defeat to Romania, yesterday, in their international friendly at the National Arena in Bucharest.

T&T are in Europe as part of their preparations for the 2013 Gold Cup.

T&T have been drawn alongside Honduras, El Salvador and Haiti in Group B of the Concacaf Gold Cup, and will play their opening game at the Red Bull Arena in New Jersey against El Salvador on July 8.

Romania were T&T’s first real test ahead of the Gold Cup, and they will have little time to lick their wounds as they come up against Estonia in another friendly in Tallinn on Friday.

In their first competitive game in Europe since the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, T&T fell behind in the 30th minute with Ciprian Marica scoring the first of his three goals.

Two minutes later, Marica was at it again, scoring his second item as T&T went into the break 2-0 down.

There was more bad news for the Caribbean side early in the second half when W Connection player Daneil Cyrus scored an own goal, putting the ball behind Central FC custodian Marvin Phillip four minutes after the restart.

Marica came back to finish off the job with a third item nine minutes from time.

Phillip was given the nod between the uprights, ahead of St Ann’s Rangers keeper Jan Michael Williams.

Williams, Port Vale’s Chris Birchall, North East Stars’ Cornell Glen, Shahdon Winchester, who plays with FF Jaro in Finland, Ataullah Guerra of Finland’s RoPS, and Caledonia AIA’s Jamal Gay were all on the T&T bench.

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A radical new reform for Olympic qualification has been launched by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), maximising the opportunity for athletes to secure a place at the 2020 Games through not only World Championships, but also continental and World Cup events.

In what FIG President Bruno Grandi called a "landmark vote", 38 of the 40 members present at the 13th FIG Council in Liverpool last month voted in favour of the changes, which also outlined plans to adopt a new competition calendar structured to recognise "the universal importance of the Olympics".

"The FIG has wholeheartedly embraced the opportunity for renewal as its Council gave its resounding support to the new programme of reforms," said Grandi.

"I can today confirm that the FIG has taken some historic decisions, which are going to have a lasting impact on its culture.

"The bodies that make up the FIG Council all gave their backing to my plans to reform the competition calendar and the Olympic qualification system.

"It was a landmark moment, one that means that history and future generations will remember the 2013 FIG Council in Liverpool as the crucible for fundamental reform of the FIG.

"The decisions taken there will have an enduring impact on the development of gymnastics, on a par with the abolition of compulsory routines by the FIG General Assembly in Atlanta in 1996."

In terms of competition format, the FIG council agreed to prioritise team events - to help boost the global reach of the sport and maximise the opportunities to compete for Olympic medals - and individual all around competitions - to help athletes' physical development to prepare them for team competition.

It will also focus on athletes with specific abilities to enable them to improve particular skills, so that federations with strong gymnastic traditions and schools but limited resources can compete for Olympic medals.

The sport's world governing body is targeting January 1, 2017 as the date to permanently introduce the reforms, which will affect both the competition calendar and competition formats, thus allocating one entire Olympic cycle to evaluate decisions and their consequences at every stage.

FIG will now host a symposium for all member federations to share their views in October this year.

The Executive Committee will then study any feedback during November before submitting its conclusions to the 2014 FIG Council next May where the measures can be adopted.

"All of the measures adopted, including the new calendar and the new formats, will then be tested out in practice, in order to verify the validity and effectiveness of the reforms," Grandi explained.

"The new calendar and formats are then scheduled to come into force permanently from January 1, 2017.

"All in all, the reforms should provide gymnasts with a clear path towards qualification for the 2020 Olympic Games."

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Brian Cookson vowed not to stoop to “mud-slinging” in the race for the International Cycling Union presidency after Pat McQuaid proved he had no such scruples in his attempt to cling to power.

Cookson’s candidacy also appeared to attract the unwelcome backing of the disgraced Lance Armstrong as the flak began to fly in the direction of the British Cycling president within hours of him declaring: “Now is the time to put my head above the parapet.”

The smear campaign against Cookson was already well under way by the time he outlined his vision for cleaning up the UCI on Tuesday afternoon, 72 hours after informing McQuaid of his bid to wrest control of the sport from the Irishman at September’s presidential elections.

Cookson admitted the 63-year-old was “not particularly happy” about him standing, and he was given a taste of precisely how upset his opponent was when McQuaid sent an email to the presidents of other federations accusing him of breaking his word not to challenge for the presidency, of being a “pawn” in an attempted coup, and questioning his links to a man previously found guilty of breaching the UCI code of ethics.

McQuaid’s email, sent on Monday, was leaked on Tuesday after Cookson had already vowed not to be drawn into a street fight with his rival, insisting the Irishman’s “confrontational” approach to leadership was the polar opposite of his own “peacemaker” style.

Even Cookson might baulk at offering an olive branch to Armstrong, despite the American re-tweeting a Twitter message urging cycling fans around the world to get behind the challenger.

Cookson could do without the endorsement of a man guilty of arguably the biggest doping scandal in history, even if Armstrong is ultimately responsible for the Briton standing in the first place.

The 61-year-old revealed on Tuesday that he had run out of patience with McQuaid in the wake of the Armstrong scandal, admitting his own pledges of support as recently as February had been made purely out of a dedication to the concept of “collective responsibility”.

The man credited with helping transform British cycling in his 16 years as president added: “I thought it was important to try to establish stability for the next few months and to give Pat my support in the hope that things would change and improve. But they haven’t changed and improved enough.

“Now is the time to put my head above the parapet, and so many people have asked me around the world and in Great Britain to do so.”

Cookson promised a “fully independent investigation” into allegations of corruption at the UCI and vowed to establish a “completely independent body to deal with anti-doping in cycling”, from detection to sanction.

McQuaid has repeatedly denied knowledge of any UCI attempt to cover up the Armstrong or other doping scandals but his attitude towards holding an inquiry into the matter sparked a war of words with the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The UCI disbanded an independent commission into its anti-doping policies in January, and despite calling for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, one has yet to be established.

Cookson vowed to repair the UCI’s relationship with Wada and regain the trust of both the public and sponsors.

“I want to be able to say to parents: ‘You can bring your children into this sport, you can take them all the way to the top of the sport, and they won’t have to make decisions that mean they’re going to have to cheat, are going to have to take substances that might damage their health and so on’,” he said.

“What I find frustrating at the moment is that for the sport and pastime of cycling, this is very much an activity whose time has come.

“And, yet, there is still this underlying sense that this is a sport that is disfigured by doping and we’ve got to do more about it.”

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He may be ranked only equal 18th in the world after his slowest ever 100 metres time last month, but Usain Bolt’s rivals would be unwise to get too carried away with their prospects of toppling the fastest man on the planet.

Ominously, the triple Olympic champion was talking yesterday not just about his excitement at opening his European season at tomorrow’s Rome Golden Gala but also about his goal of dominating the global sprint scene until Rio 2016 and beyond.

“I think I have four more years left in the sport, so now it’s all about dominating for those four years,” said Bolt, who confirmed he was fully recovered from an early-season hamstring strain.

“I’m looking forward to the next Olympics to do something that’s never been done before. That’s one of my biggest goals right now. And for the next four years I will try to dominate the sport and show people that it’s possible to go on being the best, year in, year out.”

Olympic 100m bronze medallist Justin Gatlin predicted that the battle for sprinting supremacy could be a “dogfight” this season, following Bolt’s lacklustre time of 10.09 sec in the Cayman Invitational on May 9. That is quicker than any Briton this year but positively funereal by Bolt’s standards. The season reaches its climax at the World Championships in Moscow in August.

Gatlin, second quickest in the world this year behind Tyson Gay with a time of 9.91sec, will have his first chance to snap at Bolt’s heels when the pair clash in Rome’s Olympic Stadium.

However, though there was nothing in the Jamaican’s demeanour yesterday to suggest he was in the slightest bit perturbed by his rival’s talk as he clowned for photographers in front of a poster of himself wearing a crown and clutching a sceptre.

The American did, after all, make similar noises a year ago, and was put firmly in his place at the London Olympics. “Over the years I guess there are many things that a lot of people could say about Justin Gatlin,” said Bolt. “He’s proved this season that he’s really getting into great shape but I try never to worry about one athlete.

“My focus is always the championships, and one-off runs are never the biggest thing for me. I always go to a championship to prove myself.

“He’s said a lot this season already, but for me it’s normal because a lot of athletes always talk a lot. It’s about when you show up and prove yourself to be the best at a championship. That’s what matters.”

Bolt insists he will be taking this season just as seriously as he did the last, particularly because he has a world title to regain after his disqualification for a false start in the 100m final at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea.

“I ran against the best field last season at the Olympics and I beat all of them, but this season is a different season and I’ll be taking it just like the Olympics because there’s a World Championship that I’ll be focusing on,” he said.

“I’m definitely looking forward to the challenge. I thrive on challenges. Everyone’s going to bring their 'A’ game to the championship and I’m looking forward to it because running against the best is always a joy, so that I can show the world I’m the best.”

Bolt, who is making his third successive appearance at the Rome meeting, which this year has been dedicated to the late Italian sprinting great Pietro Mennea, will be hoping for a repeat of last season when he bounced back from a below-par performance in Ostrava, in the Czech Republic, to clock a supercharged 9.76 sec in the Italian capital.

He said he and his coach, Glen Mills, had dissected his poor showing in Grand Cayman and been working hard to put it right.

“I’ve done a lot of work on my speed endurance for the last couple of weeks and my starts, so everything is starting to come together,” he said.

“My coach is happy and I’m feeling in good shape.”

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A long 12 years in the most powerful position in world sport has undoubtedly taken its toll on the rapidly aging International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge.

But such a fact did not stop the 71-year-old Belgian being in jovial mood at the latest edition of SportAccord International Convention in St Petersburg today

With just over three months before he is due to officially step down as the eighth IOC President at the organisation's 125th Session in Buenos Aires on September 10 – Rogge was laughing and joking with both IOC members and the press.

On more than one occasion he declared that he would happily share his opinion on all matters, even though he claimed that in just three months what he thought would be "completely irrelevant".

It was a packed room that turned out for one of his final press conferences at the helm of the Olympic Movement. Despite a hugely busy and dramatic week on planet Olympics - in which the three bids of baseball-softball, squash and wrestling were shortlisted for inclusion on the 2020 Olympic programme - the key focus of Count Rogge's press conference was the battle to succeed him.

Six candidates - Germany's Thomas Bach, Singapore's Ng Ser Miang, Taiwan's C K Wu, Puerto Rica's Richard Carrión, Switzerland's Denis Oswald and Ukraine's Sergey Bubka - have so far come forward to replace Rogge.

The deadline for the declaration of candidacies is due on June 10 but it is unlikely any others will stand after the two most likely to join the battle - Morocco's Nawal El Moutawakel and Switzerland's René Fasel - both ruled out the prospect when I asked them.

El Moutawakel, the current IOC-vice-president, was rather humorous when I asked her, as she responded: "No I'm definitely not standing – don't you read the news?" Fasel - the President of International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) - was a little less jovial as he explained that he simply wouldn't stand against Swiss compatriot Oswald.

Rogge suggested the pair had told him as much.

"At present, there are six candidates and there could be more before the deadline," Rogge said. "But I don't expect there to be seven or eight candidates so I think it will be these six."

The IOC President revealed that "all six of them will present their manifestos in July to the Session in Lausanne" in what will be their best opportunity to lobby to their colleagues before Buenos Aires.

Predictably, however, Rogge refused to publically back any of the six horses in the race to succeed him. "All of the six candidates would be good IOC Presidents," he said, a faint smile pursing his lips. "They all have very different personalities and different ways of operating but they all love sport and all do good things for sport so they could all do the role well."

Such a statement will have been no surprise to any of the candidates.

Bach - an IOC vice-president and the man considered the front-runner to replace Rogge - told me he expects nothing less than the Belgian to remain firmly neutral throughout.

"I have worked with Jacques Rogge for over 20 years in the IOC - long before he became President," Bach told me on the side-lines in St Petersburg. "He has always been a neutral person and therefore I expect he will remain firmly neutral throughout this race. It is simply his personality."

This isn't really new information. Throughout his dozen years as IOC President - Rogge has been nothing if not a safe pair of hands. It was perhaps something the Olympic Movement knew they required following the hugely prosperous but not always controversy-free 21 year rule of Spain's flamboyant Juan Antonio Samaranch. Rogge - as Bach explains - has safely guided the IOC for the last 12 years with major incident and will hand "a strong Olympic Movement to his successor that is in very good shape."

Back to the Rogge press conference; and the IOC President revealed that his successor will not be given a salary because all six candidates said they wanted to take up the role "voluntarily".

It means that like Rogge - they will only be paid expenses - which still amount to a considerable sum. This principle though, could one-day be revised.

After all, the Belgian succeeded Samaranch in 2001 by seeing off four other candidates – who were Canada's Dick Pound, South Korea's Un Yong Kim, Hungary's Pal Schmitt and America's Anita DeFrantz.

"If I could offer advice, I would say that they have to remain true to themselves and their own personalities and simply try and be exactly what they are," he said. "That is the best advice I can give them, but I think that are being true to themselves anyway."

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Greg Rutherford does not want this to be an “oh, woe is me” tale but there are some myths he would like to explode about life after Super Saturday.

One or two fellow athletes were recently aiming digs at him on Twitter about his enthusiasm for making TV appearances, while several celebrity magazines have alluded to his millionaire lifestyle since winning Olympic long jump gold.

He was even upbraided by a local shopkeeper when he attempted to buy a lottery ticket. “Why are you playing this?” he said. “You’re already rich!”

If only it were true. While many would assume an Olympic gold medal is a passport to a raft of lucrative endorsement deals, the reality is that Rutherford does not have a single sponsor to his name. Even his long-standing kit contract with Nike has gone west.

Without any income other than competition appearance fees and prize money, Rutherford says TV appearances and speaking engagements have become a necessity to pay the mortgage, despite eating into his rest days from training.

“I’m not poor,” he said. “I’d be lying if I said I was. But if people believe that the reason I go on TV is because I love the sound of my own voice, that is completely and utterly wrong.

"Range Rover gave me a lease car that I can drive for free, which is amazing, and Omega gave me a watch.

"That’s all fantastic, and there have been some free clothes here and there, but ultimately it doesn’t put food on the table, so you are in a scenario where you are forced to do promotions and appearances.

“But that creates a vicious circle because if you’re doing things like speaking events, you’re then taking away from your training.”

Rutherford admits the end of his kit retainer, the bread and butter of a professional athlete’s income, has come as a “complete kick in the teeth” and was not what he expected in the afterglow of his Olympic triumph.

“I thought I was quids in,” he said. “I was sitting there thinking, 'This is going to be brilliant. My Nike contract is up for renewal at the end of the year and I’m going to have all the other endorsements coming in’.

“All track and field athletes do the sport purely for the love of it, but people have to remember that you still have to earn a living. You can’t do athletics if you don’t. So after winning the gold I was thinking: 'This will make everything easy. I won’t have to worry about finances and I can just concentrate on becoming the best athlete I can be’. But in reality it doesn’t work like that. Or it hasn’t in my case.”

Rather than being rewarded with an enhanced Nike deal, Rutherford was shocked to be offered a reduced contract on terms he was unable to accept.

“They offered me a contract but the clauses were such that, by the end of this year, I would end up earning probably less than I would have done on my old junior contract, I would be completely tied to it and unable to do nothing else, as they would own all my image rights ” he said.

“To sign a contract for a lower amount with horrible clauses, why would you do that? You’re in a scenario where you have to say, 'I’m not prepared to accept that’.

A spokesman for Nike said last night that the company did not comment on individual contracts.

Rutherford added: “It’s very frustrating because I’ve been with them a long time. They cut back my retainer at the end of 2011 because I got injured at the worlds, so I was a bit frustrated by that.

“Then I’m thinking, with the years I’ve been with them, surely winning that gold medal would put me in good stead to be offered a great contract. All you want is to be shown some respect and for people to say, 'You’ve done well and we will reward you for that’.”

Rutherford, who first signed with Nike in 2005, says the reason given by the company for not offering an improved deal was that they were concentrating on younger, up-and-coming athletes.

It is a justification he finds hard to fathom given his new-found fame. The implication, he says, is that the company has no faith in his future as a long jumper, which is hurtful in the extreme.

“It’s as if they’re saying, 'You’ve done really well at the Olympics but you’ll never do it again and so we’re not interested’.

“Sally Pearson tweeted about the exact same thing happening to her after she won the 100 metres hurdles gold. That an athlete would actually lose sponsorship after winning Olympic gold is a remarkable turn of events. I’m only 26.

It’s not like my career is coming towards an end. If anything, I’d like to think it’s just beginning.

“Looking at the world of long jumping, it’s not as if on that day I had a fluke jump and beat guys who were jumping much further than me. I went into the Olympics as No 1 in the world. For the past however many years now I’ve been in the world top 10 as a jumper.

“It’s like being the best in the business and they tell you that they’ve brought along some intern and they’re going to pay him more than you purely because they possibly might do well in the future. Surely, that’s not how it should work.”

No longer tied to a kit sponsor, Rutherford made a point of wearing his Milton Keynes club vest in his Diamond League opener in Shanghai this month.

He also has plans to set up his own clothing brand, 'GRavity’, and wore a prototype vest at last Saturday’s BT Great CityGames in Manchester.

“From my point of view, it’s a bit of therapy,” he said.

“If you’re wearing kit from your own start-up company, then you don’t have to feel you’re being controlled by the kit companies.”

It is not only Rutherford’s Nike deal that has disappeared. He had affiliations with a few other brands in the run-up to the Olympics but no longer receives any income from them.

“People weren’t paying much to see me endorsing their brand because I didn’t have a gold medal, but they still have the images of me which they can use now,” he said.

His situation is in contrast to the high-profile post-Olympic endorsement deals signed by some fellow Olympians, not least his 'Super Saturday’ co-stars Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis, but he insists there is no jealousy whatsoever.

“Everything they do helps to promote our sport, so every time Jess or Mo or Usain Bolt are out there doing something, people are remembering that they are from track and field,” he said.

“You can’t be jealous or bitter about other people doing well with financial things and deals. The top athletes in our sport should earn money. Long may it continue for them. My concern is people believe I’m in the same boat, and I’m definitely not.

“I would never put myself in the same boat as those guys anyway, and I’m not saying that I think I should be earning that kind of money. But I sacrificed most things in my life in order to do well and then when you do really well you would like to think there’s a reason why you do it.

“There is a bizarre culture in British athletics where people berate the athletes for making money. Look at the outcry at Mo being paid to run in the London Marathon . But what incentive is there for others to take up athletics instead of other sports when you can win the Olympics and not really get anything from it?”

How Super Saturday heroes have fared

Greg Rutherford

Sponsorships signed since the Olympics None

Other sponsorship None. Rutherford’s kit deal with Nike expired in December.

Other income Apart from competition appearance fees and prize money, Rutherford’s earnings come from TV appearances and speaking engagements.

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Jessica Ennis

Sponsorship deals signed since the Olympics

Sky Sports Living for Sport: Her first post-Olympic deal. She is an ambassador for the initiative, which aims to improve life skills among secondary schoolchildren.
Pruhealth: Ennis became 'Vitality Ambassador’ for the private health insurance company in January.
Santander: The Spanish banking group signed Ennis in February to become the female face of its UK brand. She has since appeared in a TV advertising campaign with F1 driver Jenson Button and golfer Rory McIlroy.

Sponsorship deals renewed since the Olympics

Olay: Ennis is the face of Olay Essentials.
Omega: She is brand ambassador for the watchmakers.
Jaguar: She is an ambassador for the Jaguar Academy of Sport and drives an XKR.
Powerade: Sports drink has backed her since 2010.
Other sponsor: Adidas: Kit deal runs until end of 2013.
Book deal: Ennis’s autobiography, Unbelievable, was published in November.

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Mo Farah

Sponsorship deal signed since the Olympics

Virgin Media: Within days of double gold, Farah was signed up to front a TV advertising campaign alongside Usain Bolt. Continues to promote the company’s broadband.
Other sponsorship Nike: He switched from Adidas in 2011 so he could work with American coach Alberto Salazar at Nike-sponsored Oregon Project in Portland.
Merchandising Since the Olympics, a company set up by Farah has trademarked his name and his 'Mobot’ gesture. He is planning to branch out into perfume, clothing, computer games and branded beer mats.
Marathon windfall Farah signed a deal understood to be worth a total £450,000 to run the first half of this year’s Virgin London Marathon before running the full 26.2-mile race next year.

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It never rains but it pours for England, who arrived into a mini-monsoon in Rio and into an intensifying storm about their technical capabilities.

The debate about English players’ first touch, distribution and composure under pressure is a long-running one being highlighted currently as Roy Hodgson’s side labour to qualify for the World Cup.

Signs of real improvement, and a credible push for silverware, will occur only when St George’s Park produces sufficient youth coaches and the academies develop psychologically tough as well as technically accomplished graduates.

Such work is under way with the Elite Player Performance Plan but also required is a winter break, closer links between clubs and country and Hodgson being bolder.

Hodgson took his players to a favela yesterday, joining in a training session at the Instituto Bola Pra Frente project funded by Sport Relief and set up by the 1994 World Cup winner Jorginho, who used to live in the run-down flats overlooking the pitch.

This was the type of goodwill visit that wins so many friends. The locals were too polite to mention the slight irony of Englishmen teaching Brazilians skills.

“Coming here you see they are technically very gifted,’’ said Walcott.

“We had a stroll on the beach on Thursday and seeing some of the kids who were six or seven using their shoulders and everything to play beach volley. I can’t even do that myself. It shows technically they have got it out here.”

Jermain Defoe agreed, adding: “I saw some girls doing it as well. It was unbelievable. You aren’t surprised really because when you come to Brazil that’s what you expect. The talent.

"Even here watching the kids finishing, the technique is unbelievable. I just said about the power in that girl’s shot; wow we should get her on free-kicks.”

As the players gathered at Bola Pra Frente, news filtered through of Rio Ferdinand’s tweets about English deficiencies.

“In the last 10 years when have England played consistently well?’’ observed the Manchester United defender.

“A coaching strategy for our young teams/kids needs to be implemented to see change. In most PL teams retaining the ball is done best by foreign players in the team.... they are taught to pass to a man with a man on. So-called ‘Golden Generation’ obviously wasn’t because we won nothing! Great players don’t always make great teams.”

Ferdinand’s disparagement flowed in the wake of Gary Lineker’s criticism of “Dark Ages” England. “He’s a legend, he’s a Spurs man,’’ said Defoe.

“I respect Gary Lineker as a forward and obviously being a Tottenham man, everyone has their opinion, that’s life. If that’s going to hurt you then you’re a weak person. As a group we stick together and try to win football matches.”

As for Ferdinand, Defoe said: “Again no problem. I’m not having a row with Rio. He’s my mate and I love Rio. If he feels that way then he does.”

Defoe sought to introduce some balance into the argument. “Sometimes when I’m driving round the local area I’ll go over to the park and watch the kids play, they are still sharp,’’ said Defoe.

“But it’s different over here. A lot of the kids drop out of school really early and maybe when they drop out they get the ball out and just play football.

"By doing that that’s going to help you develop as a footballer. There’s a lot of talent over here but there’s a lot of talent at home as well.”

There is talent but not in sufficient quantities as nurtured by more thoughtful countries like Spain, Germany, Argentina and Brazil.

“My time in and around the squad has been fantastic, great moments great games and great team performances, sometimes it takes time,’’ said Defoe “but I feel we’ve got a good mix now with young players and senior players.

“We had a conversation on the bus about the last World Cup and we were talking about the loss to Germany. We should have gone in 2-2 at half-time and I remember first 10-15 minutes of the second half and as a team we played some good stuff.

"In the last game against Brazil, the performance was amazing. We beat Spain at home. Qualify for the World Cup and see what happens at the World Cup, then we’ll get judged then.’’

Work is being done on youth development. “Germany did it about 10 years ago and spent about €50 million on it,’’ said Sir Trevor Brooking, the FA’s director of football development, who was watching events at Bola Fra Prente.

“I was at a workshop last August when Joachim Löw was talking about it and I said to Roy, ’that’s where we need to be in 10 years’ time. We need to get 18, 19, 20-year-olds breaking into first teams of the Premier League.

“We want the clubs focusing on making the 16-year-old English players better than they have been. We believe you need full-time coaches.

"At the moment there is an issue in that those full-time places are being offered at pretty low salaries, around £15,000 to £16,000 a year and they need to be recognised for the quality and getting £40,000 to £50,000.

"If you get two coaches in the 12-16 and two in the 5-11 you are talking £160,000 to £200,000 a year and in the scheme of things that’s not asking too much to invest in quality coaches in those age groups so that the 16-year-olds are going to be much better than they are at the moment.”

England’s visit to the favela was a welcome sign that they are more prepared to step out of their five-star bubble, engaging with the local community, however fleetingly.

“It’s humbling coming to places like this and when you go away you realise how blessed you are,’’ said Defoe. “For them it must be a dream meeting some of the England players and the manager.’’

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Trinidad and Tobago’s senior ruggermen will resume training tomorrow as they prepare for their NACRA 15-a-side final against virtual unknowns in USA South.

T&T--who are seeking their first regional rugby title since 2010--will have home advantage for the June 22 finale against their latest opponents, who reached the final on their first attempt.

A venue for the fixture is yet to be decided.

What is known is that USA South beat hosts Bermuda 24-14, and edged Cayman Islands 9-7 via three penalty kicks, which is no mean feat against those North zone teams. They started off their year with a 50-23 thrashing of Mexico at home, their first-ever NACRA victory, which suggests T&T and coach Larry Mendez will have their work cut out for them over the next three weeks.

Mendez admitted yesterday that he too has very little information on T&T’s fellow finalists. His charges have nine training sessions between now and the final to prepare for the unknown, and also to ensure the visitors become less so.

The T&T coach, who also heads Harvard Club’s technical team, said yesterday that the national team has some “remedial work” to do after their 20-0 shut out of Guyana on Saturday at UWI SPEC, which put the “Calypso Warriors” into the final. T&T also eased past Barbados 19-6 in an away fixture.

“We have some fine turning to do,” Mendez told the Express. “All the players coming out of this game, they’re now starting to understand their roles and what is required of them. They’re putting it together, and the team philosophy, they’re now buying into it. [Having] one more game under our belt would have taken the boys to that understanding of what they need to get done.”

Mendez, who led Harvard to seven titles in eight competitions last year--they were beaten finalists in the Tobago International Sevens tournament--said the team have done a lot of cross-fitness work with the Rough House gym in St James, to build their “physicality and mental toughness”.

“There was no letting up, even though for ten minutes we played a man short [after T&T tight head Ernest Wright was shown a yellow card]. They were able to step up and defend against Guyana with 14 (men).”

Even though they did all that work in training, Mendez said the team did surprise him on the pitch.

“Guyana is a mentally tough team,” he noted. “They never gave up, they worked very hard down to the end, but our defence were able to keep them out.”

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It was a typically business-like declaration, made not in the hallowed chambers of the Sorbonne in Paris, but with a two-page media release at the start of the New York trading day.

Richard Carrión, Puerto Rican chairman of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)'s Finance Commission is to run for the IOC Presidency.

Neither the media release, nor an exclusive telephone interview with insidethegames left room for any doubt that this was a businessman or that we were talking about a multibillion dollar business, albeit a very special one.

We spoke the language of efficiency and effectiveness, of leveraging resources and spreading best practice.

Sentence two of the release included the information that: "Carrión has headed negotiations of Olympic TV broadcast rights for the Americas, Asia, Africa and Australia that aggregate to more than $8 billion (£5 billion/€6 billion) in funding revenues for the Olympic Movement."

But the 60-year-old banker also sounded a strong cautionary note, just in case anyone should be thinking that the Movement's staggering renaissance over recent decades might have made its continued success inevitable.

"I think the IOC/Olympic Movement is in great standing," he told me, in one of those statements you just know will be followed by a "but" or similar qualification.

However: "I think when things are going great is the moment to take a look.

"This great position we have is not guaranteed...

"We have to be aware the world is going to change.

"We have to make that change work for the IOC, for the betterment of the Olympic Movement.

"We have to be ahead of the curve here or we will become less relevant to the youth of today."

Having participated in so many negotiations, Carrión is acutely aware that one of the biggest uncertainties is the nature of future media innovation – something the IOC simply has to call right, given the huge slice of the Movement's income attributable to the sale of broadcasting rights.

"Clearly the world of media is changing very quickly," he said, describing the various devices his son has on the go when they watch a televised basketball match together.

As he acknowledges, the direction of the evolution might end up channelling even more millions in the direction of sports event owners, but – and it is a big "but": "The digital revenue model is unclear...

"If more and more people are consuming on a digital platform, it is unclear that the advertisers will continue to pay for the broadcast."

Carrión lists four further threats or challenges confronting the Movement.

● Deep economic and fiscal strains in many countries which could impact negatively on sport;

● the increasing complexity of staging the Games and the impact this might have on future bidders;

● the rise of illegal betting on sports; and

● the growing rate of inactivity and obesity among young people.

He puts forward a number of ideas for addressing some of these challenges.

The Movement's United Nations observer status could pave the way, along with new partnerships with non-governmental organisations, he argues, for the IOC to achieve a range of sports development objectives.

"Our projects should have long-term strategies and be result-oriented," he said.

He would also like to see a new special fund created, complementary to Olympic Solidarity, to be used for sports education and development programmes.

He is keen for the Movement to play a role in the sharing of best practice on ways of combating obesity and getting kids active.

"I think we have to use the talent we have both in-house and in our membership to try to produce templates that will serve for communities to activate their youth," he told me.

He would like to consider bringing more functions relating to the organisation of a Games in-house.

In particular, he feels, there could be an argument for keeping a small corps of key people on the ground with the host city as it goes through the seven-year process of preparing for a Games.

This would be in addition to the regular visits effected by the relevant Coordination Commission.

He emphasised, however, that he was not "advocating bloating the management structure.

"I am advocating looking at things where we spend a lot of money and asking, 'Can we do this more efficiently?'

He did not use the expression himself, but he also left me with the clear impression he would like to sweat the Movement's very considerable assets rather more.

"We need to be more efficient and leverage the resources we have," he told me.

Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) has what he termed "a treasure trove of images" that could be put to more intensive use.

He would also like to see "an even more active participation" from IOC members themselves.

"If you look at the membership, we have some extraordinary people there," he told me.

"I don't know of any organisation in the world that has that level of people.

"They are important within their countries and many are well-known outside them.

"I think we need to get more counsel from these people.

"I think we have this enormous asset.

"I just have an aversion to having an asset and not using it...

"People who are IOC members have a passion for this.

"They are drawn to this because they have a passion for sport."

Carrión said he had an open mind on the question of whether member visits to bidding cities should be reinstated – "but it is definitely not at the top of my agenda".

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...But Thompson misses out on final

T&T sprinter 3rd in NY Diamond League meet

Trinidad and Tobago sprinter Keston Bledman grabbed men’s 100 metres bronze at the IAAF Diamond League in New York, USA yesterday, but missed out on his personal best.

Bledman clocked 10.16 seconds from lane seven in a quality field to secure a spot on the podium, behind Americans Tyson Gay and Ryan Bailey. Gay stopped the clock at 10.02 for the easy win, while Bailey secured silver in 10.15.

The T&T athlete missed out on his season best of a wind-assisted 10.14, achieved on May 11 at the National Training Center (NTC) Classic in Clermont, Florida, USA. But it was still good enough to beat his Jamaican rival Nesta Carter, who finished in 10.24.

Bledman qualified for the final after finishing third in the second men’s semi-final with a 10.29 run, with Jamaican Nickel Ashmeade (10.20) and Bailey (10.28) grabbing first and second respectively.

But T&T’s 2008 Olympic 100-metre silver medallist Richard Thompson did not have a good day, as he brought up the rear among the eight athletes in the first men’s ‘semi’, won by Gay in 10.30. Kemar Bailey Cole (10.46) of Jamaica was second, and USA’s Rakieem Salaam (10.58) third.

Sixth was Antiguan Daniel Bailey in 10.61, while Thompson clocked 10.68.

T&T had two other competitors at the meet yesterday, but neither could get among the medals.

Quarter-miler Renny Quow finished fifth in the men’s 400 ‘B’ race in a season best 47.06 seconds. He trailed four Jamaicans around the track. Among them, Mario Forsythe (46.65) was the winner, while Dewayne Barrett (46.85) and Allodin Fothergill (47.01) rounded out the top three in that order.

And in the 400m hurdles event, Jehue Gordon finished sixth in 49.76. That event was won by American Michael Tinsley in 48.43, with 2012 Olympic silver medallist Javier Culson of Puerto Rico second in 48.53.

Johnny Dutch (48.78), also of the US, was third. Gordon’s season best so far is the 49.05 he clocked at the Guadeloupe International Meeting at Baie Mahault earlier this month.

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May 25 - Usain Bolt appears more likely to compete at Glasgow 2014 after Virgin Media were unveiled as the latest sponsor of the Commonwealth Games.

The New York-based company, whose UK operations are in Surrey, claim to be Britain's leading communications and entertainment company.

They will also be the Presenting Partner of Athletics, which is due to take place at Hampden Park and is expected to be the highlight of Glasgow 2014, as well as being a partner of Team Scotland. 

Bolt, winner of three Olympic gold medals at both Beijing 2008 and London 2012, has a commercial deal with Virgin Media and has appeared in a series of adverts pretending to be the company's founder Richard Branson.

Mo Farah, the Olympic 5,000 and 10,000m champion, also appears in Virgin Media adverts.

Both Bolt and Farah are expected to appear in a new campaign in the build-up to Glasgow 2014.

"Virgin Media is a great company and I'm delighted they have decided to continue their support of athletics by becoming a Commonwealth Games partner," said Bolt, the world record holder for the 100m and 200m.

The company is sure to want to see the Jamaican take part in Glasgow.

"Glasgow 2014 will bring together the greatest athletes from across the Commonwealth for one of the biggest sporting events ever to take place in Scotland," said John Dodds, chief marketing officer at Virgin Media.

"With our Home Nation heroes and international superstars, we're getting behind Glasgow and can't wait to build on an amazing track record of success."

Bolt has never competed in the Commonwealth Games but his presence would add creditability to the quality of the competition of Glasgow 2014, which is due to take place between July 23 and August 4, and help bring it worldwide exposure. 

Farah has already committed himself to running at Glasgow 2014.

"Having Virgin Media's continued support both personally, and as a sponsor of the Commonwealth Games, is a big boost to athletics," he said.

"I love competing on home turf and I hope to run in Glasgow in 2014.

"The Scottish crowd is always very passionate about athletics."

"We are delighted to welcome Virgin Media into the Glasgow 2014 sponsor family and we are hugely excited to be working with such a fantastic partner," said Lord Smith, chairman of Glasgow 2014.  

"Virgin Media is a highly regarded company and has such a strong presence here in Scotland.

"We look forward to collaborating with Virgin Media, its customers and staff in developing some exciting engagement and activation opportunities over the coming months, which will really bring the partnership to life."

Virgin Media employs around 800 staff in Bellshill, just east of Glasgow, making it one of the largest employers in the area.

The office is one of the company's centres of excellence for customer care and it is also a major site for Virgin Media Business, providing telecommunications services for small to large businesses as well as to the public sector.

The adverts featuring Bolt and Farah which ran during and after the Olympics were credited with  helping the company add 39,500 customers in the three months to end-September last year, compared with 6,300 for the same quarter the previous year.

That was despite the advertising campaign running into controversy after the watchdog banned an online advert featuring Usain Bolt, ruling that the cable firm could not deliver on a promise relating to superfast broadband, following a complaint from rival BT.

They join a portfolio of sponsors which already includes Longines, SSE, Emirates, Virgin Media, Harper Macleod, Search Consultancy, Ernst & Young, Atos, Dell, Toshiba TEC, A.G. Barr, NVT Group, RGS, Trespass, Riedel and Ticketmaster.

May 25 - International Olympic Committee (IOC) Olympic Programme Commission member Walter Sieber has been confirmed to attend an International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Europe 3x3 EuroTour event in Bucharest next month ahead of the discipline's Rio 2016 inclusion review.

Sieber (pictured top), a Vancouver 2010 Board member and former Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) vice-president, will attend the World Tour qualifier as part of the IOC's observers programme - which was first put in place ahead of the Sochi 2014 programme review - to examine disciplines and events for the Rio 2016 Olympic sports programme.

The tournament, known as Sport Arena Streetball, is Romania's flagship 3x3 basketball competition, each time attracting more than 1,000 teams, 4,000 players and 15,000 spectators since its inception in 2005.

This year's event, due to take place on June 21 until 23, will take place at Constitution Plaza in front of the Palace of Parliament - Europe's largest building - and is expected to draw in some of the sport's Olympic greats, including Lithuania's Seoul 1988 champion Šarūnas Marčiulionis and Spanish Beijing 2008 silver medallist Jorge Garbajosa.

Sport Arena Streetball 2013 will also be supported by Romanian Olympic medallists, including Sydney 2000 fencing champion Mihai Covaliu, Elisabeta Lipă - the most decorated rower in the history of the Olympics with five golds, two silvers and a bronze medal, two-time boxing bronze medallist Leonard Doroftei and three-time handball medallist Ștefan Birtalan.

"It is a great pleasure to support Sport Arena's 3x3 event in Bucharest as part of FIBA's 3x3 worldwide competition network," FIBA general secretary and IOC member Patrick Baumann said.

"Sport Arena's 3x3 competitions are since 2005 a good example and a great showcase for the top urban team sport and have grown in popularity ever since.

"3x3 is about sports, fun and entertainment for all ages, in the middle of a city.

"In brief, it is an urban festival that makes sports accessible for everybody in a casual manner as well as in a highly competitive way; it also incorporates urban culture and social media habits to the sports community.

"The strength of 3x3 is that in an event like Sport Arena's one, amateurs can play a recreational tournament whilst having next court some of the best ranked 3x3 players in the world competing for a slot in the FIBA 3x3 World Tour.

"This is where the dream from the streets to the world stage becomes reality and strongly supports FIBA's vision to further develop and promote 3x3 worldwide."

FIBA launched its bid to get a 3x3 basketball medal event into the Rio 2016 Olympics last year to help the growth of basketball globally.

The half-court version of basketball for men and women, which is among the most played recreational sports in the world, was introduced to a worldwide audience at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympics, where it was a huge success, while the 3x3 World Tour was introduced last year.

The IOC's ruling Executive Board is set to make a decision on whether to include the discipline at the Rio 2016 Games later this year.

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