TTFA president to be chosen Sunday

Con­test­ing the po­si­tions which have been un­der John-Williams’ hold for the past four years are Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers man­ag­ing di­rec­tor Richard Fer­gu­son and Unit­ed TTFA’s William Wal­lace.

Less than 24 hours af­ter he of­fi­cial­ly opened the Home of Foot­ball on Mon­day, em­bat­tled John-Williams an­nounced his can­di­da­cy for re-elec­tion, with a sup­port­ing slate of vice-pres­i­dents Col­in Par­tap, An­tho­ny Moore and Sel­by Browne, who is the pres­i­dent of the Vet­er­ans Foot­ball Foun­da­tion of T&T.

Wal­lace’s Unit­ed TTFA slate in­cludes Sam Phillip, a Su­per League board mem­ber, Cen­tral Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion sec­re­tary Clynt Tay­lor and Women’s Foot­ball League (Wolf) pres­i­dent Su­san Joseph-War­rick.

Fer­gu­son’s slate has put up Pro League club ex­ec­u­tive Ray­mond Thom and Cen­tral Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (CFA) pres­i­dent Shymdeo Go­sine. Ed­di­son Dean, who was ini­tial­ly on Fer­gu­son’s slate for the first vice-pres­i­dent po­si­tion, with­drew to sup­port the Unit­ed TTFA’s push for pow­er.

John-Williams’ term has been marred in con­tro­ver­sy aligned to sev­er­al le­gal bat­tles, in­clud­ing the courts or­der­ing the freez­ing of the TTFA bank ac­count.

He has al­so been crit­i­cised for the poor per­for­mances of na­tion­al teams, a lack of trans­paren­cy dur­ing the build­ing of the Home of Foot­ball and has even been la­belled a dic­ta­tor.

How­ev­er, John-Williams has in­sist­ed he was still able to get the things his team pri­ori­tised dur­ing the pe­ri­od.

“Quick fix­es are not al­ways pos­si­ble or a re­al­is­tic ex­pec­ta­tion. While some may dis­agree with the or­der of pri­or­i­ties ad­dressed by the cur­rent ad­min­is­tra­tion, and some of the de­ci­sions made, we placed fo­cus on many achieve­ments since as­sum­ing of­fice in 2015,” John-Williams said of his tenure.

While all three can­di­dates are con­fi­dent of vic­to­ry, six po­ten­tial votes from the To­ba­go Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TFA) and Cen­tral Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (CFA) ap­pear to be hang­ing in the bal­an­ce af­ter Guardian Me­dia Sports learned that mem­ber clubs from both as­so­ci­a­tions chal­lenged an al­leg­ed un­con­sti­tu­tion­al elec­tion of the del­e­gates who will be vot­ing for ei­ther the Unit­ed TTFA or John-Williams and his team to­day.

The con­sti­tu­tion of the as­so­ci­a­tions, which is aligned to the TTFA con­sti­tu­tion, does not give a clear di­rec­tive of how del­e­gates are to be cho­sen.

How­ev­er, CFA gen­er­al sec­re­tary Clynt Tay­lor be­lieves the gen­er­al mem­ber­ship of his as­so­ci­a­tion should de­cide on the del­e­gates, as had been done in the past.

Tay­lor, who con­test­ed the last TTFA elec­tion and fell just short of John-Williams in the pres­i­den­cy race in 2015, made it clear cur­rent CFA pres­i­dent Shymdeo Go­sine is guilty of a breach of the con­sti­tu­tion by en­gag­ing in the elec­tion of Cen­tral Zone del­e­gates.

Tay­lor re­ferred to Ar­ti­cle 37(3) of the con­sti­tu­tion, which states: “Any Mem­ber of the Board of Di­rec­tors must with­draw from the de­bate and de­cid­ing if there is any risk or pos­si­bil­i­ty of a con­flict of in­ter­ests.”

Tay­lor and a mem­ber of a TFA club be­lieve the on­ly was for­ward to­day is for the votes of the two as­so­ci­a­tions to be con­sid­ered null and void, or the process used by the CFA/TFA mem­bers in the past is ac­cept­ed. Some 47 del­e­gates will be el­i­gi­ble to vote to­day if the CFA and TFA del­e­gates al­so get a chance to vote.

TFA pres­i­dent An­tho­ny Moore has been ac­cused of breach­ing the same Ar­ti­cle 37(3) of the con­sti­tu­tion to se­cure votes for the John-Williams team. How­ev­er, Moore made it clear that clubs do not have any pow­er to elect del­e­gates, not­ing “if they want to, there must be a change in the con­sti­tu­tion for it to hap­pen.” He point­ed to Ar­ti­cle 79 of the TTFA con­sti­tu­tion which gives ul­ti­mate pow­er to the board. The TFA board com­pris­es the pres­i­dent, three vice pres­i­dents, and as many or­di­nary mem­bers.

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TTFA members elect new executive.
By Joel Bailey (Newsday).

A SHOWDOWN is expected at the Home of Football in Balmain, Couva as the eagerly-anticipated Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) Annual General Meeting and executive elections take place from 10 am today.

David John-Williams, the incumbent TTFA president, is facing a stiff challenge from Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) president William Wallace, with Terminix La Horquetta Rangers owner Richard Ferguson also in the mix.

This election is the most publicised and hard-fought in recent memory, with John-Williams’ campaign revolving around the Home of Football project, which was opened by FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley last Monday.

John-Williams, who is also the owner of local football club W Connection, has also been highlighting his administration’s efforts in resolving the debt he incurred when he replaced Raymond Tim Kee in November 2015.

However, John-Williams, who is leading Team Impactors, had three major hurdles to overcome last week, as he was on the losing end of court matters (either personally or relating to the TTFA).

On Monday, the Venture Credit Union was awarded a $23 million judgment against John-Williams. And on Tuesday, at the Port of Spain High Court, the TTFA was ordered to pay $5 million to ex-TT men’s team coach Stephen Hart for a breach of contract.

Former TTFA technical director Anton Corneal, represented by attorney Richard Sirjoo, was awarded $3,488,375, in an oral ruling by Port of Spain High Court judge Vasheist Kokaram on Wednesday for unpaid salaries.

Wallace, leading United TTFA, has had to face two suggestions from John-Williams that proposed sponsorship deals with the Junior Sammy Group of Companies, and Nike, were false. Wallace has refused to be drawn in a tit-for-tat with the TTFA president.

But both parties have been very combative on Facebook, with Team Impactors using videos and United TTFA relying on daily media releases to indicate why the other party should not be trusted to lead the local governing body for the next four years.

Ferguson, who has kept a low profile during the past few weeks, has been stressing the need for the TTFA to be more financially sound. He has repeatedly used his work at Terminix La Horquetta Rangers – how he helped revamp the team which was formerly St Ann’s Rangers and build a sporting complex in La Horquetta – as his calling card