PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA), now over the initial shock of being taken over by the world governing body for the sport, is challenging the move in court.
TTFA president William Wallace announced Wednesday that the association has mounted a challenge to FIFA’s decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
On Tuesday, FIFA announced that the TTFA board would be replaced by a normalisation committee, in an effort to restore governance and financial stability to the beleaguered organisation. It took the decision after an assessment it carried out in conjunction with continental governing body, CONCACAF, found extremely low overall financial management methods, combined with a massive debt that resulted in the local body facing “a very real risk of insolvency and illiquidity.”
In an initial reaction, Wallace, whose team took over from the David John-Williams-led executive last November, said he was surprised by the move.
But he told local media on Wednesday that he has now given his lawyers authorisation to challenge FIFA’s decision. The TTFA has retained the services of prominent sports lawyers Dr Emir Crowne and Mathew Gayle.
“We are going to challenge it because we don’t think that the process was followed. We don’t think that it is justifiable,” Wallace said.
In announcing the appointment of the normalisation committee, FIFA said the current financial situation was putting the TTFA and development of football in the twin-island republic at risk, and corrective measures needed to be applied urgently. It said the committee would have up to two years to do its work, which would include creating a debt repayment plan which the TTFA can implement and overseeing new elections for an executive committee to run the TTFA again.
But Wallace was puzzled about why such drastic action was being taken, considering no such move was made against the last administration from which his executive inherited a multi-million-dollar debt. And he questioned why new elections would be needed.
“They are talking about elections in two years or less. We are a duly-elected body, there was nothing wrong with the elections and so on, and that is the course of action you would have taken,” said Wallace, whose United TTFA team defeated Team Impactors, led by John-Williams, 26-20 in the November 24, 2019 elections.
In the buildup to the vote, John-Williams had appeared to have the support of FIFA president Gianni Infantino and CONCACAF president, Victor Montagliani, who visited the island for the grand opening of its Home of Football complex in Couva.
Wallace also had queries about FIFA’s selection of accountant Tyril Patrick to be in charge until the normalisation committee is set up.
He said the TTFA was informed via communication from FIFA general secretary Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura to TTFA general secretary Ramesh Ramdhan, that until the committee is fully operational, the TTFA administration’s management will be supervised by Patrick, who will directly report to FIFA.
At the root of Wallace’s concern was Patrick’s connection to the former TTFA regime.
“The whole situation is a farce, as far as we are concerned. Here is a young man who was part of an administration that was part of a regime that led to the collapse of the association,” he said.
Ramdhan, meantime, said it had taken the association a little time to get over the “shock” and “total disbelief” of the FIFA action but it was now ready to act.
“We have pooled our resources together and have decided that this is injustice, it is disrespect, it shows some political play going on here to protect, I don’t know who. But clearly, this is unprecedented when you look at what those committees are set up to do – it is in cases of political interference, political turmoil, democratic processes such as elections,” he said.
“Our elections were supervised by the FIFA and CONCACAF, so there were no issues with the elections, but now they are saying because of the same financial deficiency that we pointed out to them when they were here, they are now using that as a reason. But we have gone beyond that, we have put things in place.”
