A football measuring two meters in diameter with the autographs of the Trinidad & Tobago World Cup team members is up for auction in Rotenberg on April 15.

The ball got its start when members of the football club SV Wahnebergen decided to come up with a gift for the 30th birthday of their team captain, Andreas Röpe, in early summer 2006. They transported the ball to the Wachtelhof Hotel in Rotenberg to obtain the autographs from the T&T senior team.

The newspaper Rotenburger Rundschau recently purchased the ball from SV Wahnebergen in order to put it up for auction to benefit charity.

Further details will be forthcoming in the Rotenburger Rundschau.

The Indoor Hockey World Cup takes place in Vienna, Austria from Feb 14 to 18. The men's team from Trinidad & Tobago have qualified in group A and will face top ranked Germany on the first day of competition on Wednesday.

Later that evening they will face fourth ranked Russia. Further group matches will include Australia, Czech Republic and Switzerland.

The team spent a preparatory period in Germany where they played a series of warm up matches. The most recent of which against THC Ahrensburg ended in a 6:6 draw after T&T fell behind 5:1.

Newly appointed technical director, Nico Stankewitz, said of the team, "We will certainly be underdogs at the World Cup, but we are no fete match team either that is only going for the fun of it."

The competition can be followed on the official website here. The Trinidad & Tobago Hockey Board website can be found here and the Deutscher Hockey Bund website is here.

In their preparation for the World Cup, the Soca Warriors will stage a training match with FC St. Pauli in Hamburg, Germany on June 6. Tickets are available through TICKETONLINE.DE and run from 9€ to 75€. The match takes place at 18:00 at St. Pauli's home, Millerntor-Stadion, at the Heiligengeistfeld in St. Pauli, Hamburg.

The complete Warriors schedule is here.

Midfielder Evans Wise who currently plays at the German club Waldhof Mannheim has been called to train with the national team as they set up camp in Manchester, England and later in Bad Radkersburg, Austria. He will prepare to possibly replace the injured Cornell Glen.

On May 27 T&T will take on Wales in a friendly in Graz, Austria. Tickets are now available and run from 5.50€ for children to 27.50€ for prime seating. VIP packages are also available for 82.50€. All information surrounding the match are at TRINIDAD-WALES.AT

The rest of the Warriors schedule is now available as a Google Calendar.

Steelbands and Soccer will light up the night at the Solendo Beach Bar on June 10. The Sweden game as well as the Argentina v. Ivory Coast match will be shown, with Bäng Bäng, Ebony and Nostalgia Steelbands providing the live entertainemnt. Caribbean food and drinks will be served. Tickets are 13€ in advance, 16€ at the door. If you don't have match tickets or want to catch Argentina later this may be the place to come. The schedule is:

Time	Program
5 pm	Pan around the neck
6 pm	T&T vs. Sweden (open air big screen)
	Nostalgia at half-time
8 pm	Bäng Bäng
9 pm	Argentina vs. Ivory Coast
	Nostalgia at half-time
11 pm	Ebony

To get there take the U45 or U47 subway lines to Dortmunder Hafen station.



The event is brought to you by Pan Kultur E.V. and Solendo. For further information see Pan-Jumbie.com.

The first ever Miss "World Cup" will be crowned on June 1 in Rust, Germany, a week ahead of the opening match. The pageant is being organized by the Miss Germany Corporation and is open to all women aged 18 to 28 whose nationality is one of the 32 participating in the World Cup. An on-line application is available. So far T&T contestants include Meagan Monsegue, who currently attends Florida International University in Miami.

The pageant program will run as follows: First a presentation in the national team uniform followed by a Venice Beach swimsuit segment and evening gown segment. The contestants will compete in eight groups of four women each, just as the groups for the World Cup itself. This means Miss T&T will face Miss England, Miss Sweden and Miss Paraguay. An international jury will select 16 women to advance, and finally the winner will be crowned. The pageant is an open-air event taking place in the Piazza Roma of the Hotel Colosseo in the Europa Park amusement center in Rust, Germany.

Prizes include a 10,000 Euro pot to be shared by the three finalists as well as a photo shoot from a top photographer from the German magazine, Player. The winner also receives free use of a SmartCar for one year.

The town of Rotenburg, which serves as base camp for the national team this summer, will be officially renamed as Soca-Village during the tournament. After some wrangling with the county government the town has been granted permission to change the city limit signs to read "Welcome to Soca-Village, Rotenburg (Wümme)". Mayor Detlef Eichinger says, "We will show our guests, how happy we are to have them. The reception will now begin right at the city limit sign."

FIFA has opened the ticket exchange portal on their site. You can now give back tickets for resale or transfer tickets to others under certain conditions. Resale and transfer will be initially offered between the 27th of March until the 9th of April and again from the 1st of May 2006. It is accessible through the Customer Service area. To try to snag any dropped tickets go to the usual Ticket Shop, but as usual they go fast!

An all-"Fräulein" steelband from Dortmund is set to support the Warriors. The blurb on their website, www.pans-n-roses.com, says:

Soca Warriors - Welcome to Dortmund

Monique coming back from her journey to T&T was so inspired by the good spirits and the cheerful nature of all Trinbagonians. Therefore, we women of Pans 'n Roses would like to give all the people the same warm welcome. You can meet and join us in the city of Dortmund, in the 'Kreuzviertel' - an area near the stadium - or at the stadium on June 10, 2006.