Alcohol was prohibited during the World Cup qualifying football match between T&T and Guatemala on Friday night because the T&T Football Association (TTFA) felt it did not make any sense to pay $100,000 for a bar licence. So said acting general secretary of the TTFA, Azaad Khan.
Without a bar licence, no alcohol could be legally brought to the venue. Khan also apologised to patrons who had to endure the “torture” of trying to enter the Hasely Crawford stadium for the game.
The estimated crowd at the football match was around 17,000 and there were six people at the gates scanning tickets for the game. This left thousands of ticket holders still packed in a crowd outside of the gate while the game was already in progress.
“We have not sat down and looked at that yet but yes, there was a serious problem. I saw what happened I mean that was torture,” Khan said.
“I think we have to apologise for what happened and try to make sure that that does not happen again because if I was a fan out there...that was too much,” he said.
There were two assigned entrances for ticket holders. Those for uncovered stands had to enter through the St John’s Gate while ticket holders for the covered stands had to enter through the Lion’s Gate.
Security adviser to the TTFA Gary Griffith said someone decided to override the operational policy he had put in place for the last World Cup qualifying game at the Hasely Crawford Stadium against St Vincent and the Grenadines in March.
“It was inappropriate, it was ill-advised. You do not scan tickets at one entrance point. You cannot scan 20,000 tickets at one area. The plan will be at future games the ticket scanning will obviously take place at the 12 entrance points around the stadium so people will have the assurance that that will never take place again.
“Whoever made that decision to override what I had done, it was inappropriate and unfortunate but it will not reoccur,” Griffith said.
There was a good turnout for the game with the stadium being packed with the majority of patrons wearing red.
Griffith said while the ban of alcohol at football events is not new he does not feel that this country requires such a stringent measure.
“My personal view of it as a security consultant for the TTFA is that based on our threat assessment for here there really is not a need for us to go to that extreme, it is not to say that we have spectators who are unruly,” he said.
“I believe this will not take place in the future and there will not be a situation like that so that alcohol would most likely will be sold in the future.”
The restrictions however did not stop some beers being sold illegally at the venue.
Contacted for comment, TTFA president David John Williams said he would have to look into the issue of the prohibition of alcohol at the game with the Local Organising Committee.