Following the infamous cash-for-votes scandal in, coincidentally, Trinidad and Tobago, in 2011, that literally brought the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) into disrepute and forced the body to undertake reforms, it was the general consensus that FIFA, under new leadership, was charting the right course.
With the help of the US Justice Department, FIFA had removed all the rotten eggs from the organization’s basket and had put more stringent measures in place to deal with the funding, associations under its umbrella, receive and what they did or did not do, with it.
But in one swell swoop, one rash tackle on the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA), Gianni Infantino’s world governing body, undid all its hard work following the exit, (one might be tempted to say weeding out) of Sepp Blatter, Jerome Valcke, Jack Warner, Jeffrey Webb and a number of other football officials, whose fingers were in one pie or another.
On March 17, FIFA decided to enforce article 8 paragraph 2 of the FIFA Statutes on the TTFA (which states that executive bodies of member associations may, under exceptional circumstances, be removed from office by the FIFA Council in consultation with the relevant confederation and replaced by a Normalisation Committee for a specific period).
The crime? FIFA found out following an investigation that the previous TTFA, headed by David John-Williams had racked up a substantial debt right under the noses of FIFA itself and CONCACAF and inspite of the new, stringent, fiscal measures FIFA itself had implemented.
So in a Peter pay for Paul and Paul pay for all move, FIFA decided to punish the executive of the new TTFA headed by William Wallace which had swept to power last November (and was in no way responsible for the debt) by refusing to accept their legitimacy on the altar of the TTFA’s indebtedness.
In a move that was definitely off-side, FIFA conveniently decided to overlook the solution of teamwork, necessary for football success, and decided against working with the new Wallace-led association to erase the debt.
Instead they pulled the plug on the new TTFA, after a few months in office even though they could be considered also culpable for allowing the body to rack up a considerable debt, a debt they should have been aware of. Interestingly, FIFA’s decision to act came after the TTFA had announced a TT$50m debt eradication programme which involved the erection of a multi-billion state of the art, football, residential and sporting facility in Arima.
However, Arima Mayor Lisa Morris_julian responded with the following release: “The Arima Borough Corporation (ABC) would like to address statements by Mr Ramesh Ramdhan, General Secretary of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association in the article TTFA reveals $50M debt-eradication proposal published in the Trinidad Guardian on Saturday 21st March 2020. The ABC wishes to state that the Corporation was not a signatory to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding the proposed sporting facility in Arima.
According to FIFA, their investigation, a joint undertaking between itself and CONCACAF, along with an independent auditor, revealed that the TTFA was facing a very real risk of insolvency and illiquidity.
FIFA, though, had previously frowned on interference in democratically elected football associations, which Wallace’s association is.
Wallace’s body was legitimately elected. His United TTFA Team defeated John-Williams’ Team Impactors by 26-20 at the elections supervised by both FIFA and CONCACAF officials it was reported.
So like it did in Guyana a couple of years ago FIFA is set to install a Normalization Committee, which is yet to be identified.
Their goal, is to oversee fresh elections which should lead ultimately to the restoration of good governance and financial stability to the TTFA.
However, in a counter attacking move, the TTFA decided to take the matter to the Court of Arbitration in Switzerland, after FIFA failed to respond to a request to rescind the decision.
The next step according to attorneys of the TTFA, Emir Crowne and Matthew Gayle, is to initiate court proceedings through a pre-action protocol letter.
“We are going to challenge it because we don’t think that the process was followed. We don’t think that it is justifiable,” said Wallace.
The CAS will obviously rule on whether FIFA has the authority to replace a democratically elected association of a member association with a Normalization Committee for a transgression that the association was not responsible for.
According to FIFA, the Normalization Committee will have a two-year span in which to carry out its work.
It is also tasked with creating a debt repayment plan which the TTFA can implement, reviewing the local governing body’s statutes and ensuring their adherence to FIFA regulations.
“The Normalisation Committee will act as an electoral committee, and none of its members will be eligible for any of the open positions in the TTFA elections under any circumstances, said FIFA.
In a nutshell, the decision by FIFA to replace the present TTFA and appoint an interim body to run the affairs of the association, seems to be nothing less than an unfair tackle on what should be a team member, an ally, but who is being treated more like a rival team or an outcast. It can also be viewed as an outright denial of the right of duly elected officials to function in whatever capacity they were duly elected to serve in.
