PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Businessman Robert Hadad has been named to chair the Normalization Committee appointed by football’s world governing body, FIFA to run the affairs of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TFFA).
In a statement issued yesterday, FIFA said Hadad, the 53-year-old CEO of family-owned company Hadco, will chair the committee while Judy Daniel will serve as deputy chairperson. Nigel L. Romano was also named a member of the committee and FIFA said that after consultation with continental governing body, CONCACAF, it will appoint two more members in the coming days.
“The members of the TTFA Normalisation Committee will assume their duties with immediate effect and, as per standard procedure, will have to pass an eligibility check. Their confirmation will be contingent upon the outcome of the eligibility check,” FIFA said.
Last Tuesday, the Zurich-based institution announced the decision to remove the TTFA Board and appoint a normalization committee after a had been taken following a joint assessment of the TTFA carried out by itself and CONCACAF, found “extremely low overall financial management methods, combined with a massive debt”, leaving the local body “facing a very real risk of insolvency and illiquidity”.
The mandate of the committee is to: run the TTFA’S daily affairs; establish a debt repayment plan that is implementable by the TTFA; review and amend the TTFA Statutes (and other regulations where necessary) and to ensure their compliance with the FIFA Statutes and requirements before duly submitting them for approval to the TTFA Congress; and organise and to conduct elections of a new TTFA Executive Committee for a four-year mandate.
“The specified period of time during which the Normalisation Committee will perform its functions will expire as soon as it has fulfilled all of its assigned tasks, but no later than 24 months after its members have been officially appointed by FIFA,” the governing body said.
FIFA added that the 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.
The appointment of the Normalisation Committee was criticised by TTFA president William Wallace who said the association would mount a challenge to the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).