T&TFF mum on World Cup $m.
By: Lasana Liburd (Express).[/size]
'Give us arbitration not court'
FIFA vice-president Jack Warner and Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) general secretary Richard Groden met lawyers Om Lalla and Kelvin Ramkisson yesterday to discuss financial information released by the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs, which revealed that the local governing body received in excess of $173 million for their successful 2006 World Cup campaign.
The T&TFF initially claimed to have banked just $18 million last October-a claim that could be contested in court by the World Cup players who are owed half of the team's revenue.
There will be no response from the T&TFF over the weekend, though.
"We are strangers to that document," Lalla told the Sunday Express. "So we will not be making any comment until we have received the relevant documentation."
A notable absentee from the meeting was T&TFF president Oliver Camps. Warner hinted last month that Camps, a Maritime Insurance executive, should step down from his post to allow for a full-time T&TFF president.
Although there was no official response on the government figures, Lalla did express his dissatisfaction with remarks from the players' London-based counsel, Michael Townley, who told the Express that the documentation handed over by the government, in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, was a blow to the credibility of the T&TFF.
"The matter is subjudice," said Lalla. "I am very surprised that their lawyer would make statements to the press that he might have to use as legal arguments in court."
Lalla reiterated that his client would seek to resolve the dispute through arbitration rather than in civil court. He said it was uncommon for sporting matters, particularly in football, to be resolved in court and insisted that provision was already made for mediation in the controversial World Cup pact agreed upon after a meeting between Warner and the Soca Warriors.
"The (World Cup) contract contained an arbitration clause which the players signed up to," said Lalla. "In the arena of sport law, it is common that matters do not go before the high court but rather through the arbitration process."
Townley told the Express, on Friday, he preferred to seek a settlement in civil court and argued that the T&TFF consistently ignored the players' questions about arbitration. However, Townley expressed his satisfaction with the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) who he referred to as "a robust, independent arbitration body".
Lalla is a member of CAS himself and suggested the possibility of the case being eventually referred there instead.
It was a rare case of compromise between the parties who have been at odds for the past 11 months.
The T&TFF still refuse to allow any of the 16 players seeking legal redress to represent their national team, which has curtailed the international careers of players like 22-year-old Sunderland star Kenwyne Jones and Southampton striker Stern John, who is the country's record goal scorer.
Legal representatives from both parties will meet on Friday in a local court hearing that should determine whether the bonus dispute will remain in court or be referred to arbitration.
Sooner or later, though, the financial documents offered by the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs and extracted from Cabinet documents and other Governmental and Non-Governmental donors to the T&TFF will become key.
