March 28, 2024, 05:16:45 AM

Poll

Who will make a good TTFA president.

Kelvin Jack
5 (11.9%)
Nigel Myers
3 (7.1%)
Flex Mohammed
12 (28.6%)
Terry Fenwick
6 (14.3%)
Somebody Else
15 (35.7%)
Brent Sancho
0 (0%)
David-John Williams
0 (0%)
Foreign Investor
1 (2.4%)

Total Members Voted: 42

Author Topic: TTFA News Thread.  (Read 117110 times)

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Offline asylumseeker

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #330 on: March 16, 2019, 11:07:07 PM »
Presumably none of these ppl will be volunteers.

Online maxg

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #331 on: March 17, 2019, 03:18:59 PM »
Presumably none of these ppl will be volunteers.
History indicates otherwise doh, till one contracts a lawyer, ent ?

Offline asylumseeker

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #332 on: March 17, 2019, 03:27:57 PM »
Presumably none of these ppl will be volunteers.
History indicates otherwise doh, till one contracts a lawyer, ent ?

Correct is right. Name yuh salary is joke ting.  :bs:
« Last Edit: March 17, 2019, 03:31:04 PM by asylumseeker »

Offline Flex

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #333 on: March 20, 2019, 12:27:04 AM »
Action taken to freeze TTFA Bank Accounts.
TTFA Media.


Documents on the action taken by persons who have approached the court to have instructions issued to freeze the bank accounts of the TTFA last Friday was received on Monday March 18th 2019 by the TTFA

We at the TTFA have inherited a debt of over 30 million dollars incurred by the previous administrations and continue the uphill task of addressing that financial situation, while also addressing the ongoing operating requirements of the Association.

The facts are that while these are not debts created by the David John Williams Administration, they remain the debts of the TTFA.

This matter at hand has to be dealt with in the same manner as other matters of a similar nature that we have dealt with over the past three-year period.

Unfortunately the funding is just not there at this time to service these debts, but we at the TTFA continue to soldier on, hence the reason for emphasis on completing the Hotel and the Home of Football which will be a major income generation project not just for football but will change the face of sport in Trinidad and Tobago.

We are very mindful of those whose sole agenda is to destroy Trinidad and Tobago Football by their actions, but under no circumstances shall they derive such a result.

The TTFA has sought to embrace all persons and resources who we have determined willing to rebuild football in Trinidad and Tobago, and will continue the work necessary to achieve success with the administration of football in Trinidad and Tobago.

David John Williams
President
TTFA


The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Offline Tallman

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Like Wales, T&T can climb FIFA rankings
« Reply #334 on: March 20, 2019, 07:14:09 AM »
Like Wales, T&T can climb FIFA rankings
T&T Newsday


THE EDITOR: Today, a rusty T&T men’s football team plays a revamped Wales team. With a population of just over three million, Wales forms the United Kingdom with England and Scotland. In 2013, Wales opened Dragon Park, a similar football facility/project to our “home of football.”

In 2015 when the current TTFA (T&T Football Association) assumed office, T&T’s men were 49th in the FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) rankings and has today dropped to 93rd. In 2012, Wales was ranked 83rd and is now 19th; with the potential to play any team in the world.

Its massive climb took time but wasn’t solely due to a facility. It was aided by an overhaul of grassroot development, increased competitions, training programmes, national team development, better finance management and, most importantly, good administration.

In researching, I found no instances of administration practices similar to our TTFA. This isn’t to say the Wales FA does not have politics, disagreements, differences, but the trend was overall support for good administration – accountability, transparency, independence [limited internal political interference], inclusion [particularly women and grassroots development], and unanimous practice to follow its FA’s constitution and laws. Simple!

On our end, we see the opposite. The TTFA has no strategic plan, is still millions of dollars in debt, with further debt looming with the president’s legal battles/decisions; no preparation for women and youth teams, secrecy in hiring and contracts of coaches, lack of information at board level, little accountability for funding etc.

Even the FIFA US$2.5 million grant for the “home of football” facility, while a great asset, seems shrouded in secrecy with no one publicly going on record to provide detailed costs, tenders, payments, budgets etc. No wonder national sponsors stay out.

To hear members overlook, discredit or silently gag legitimate questioning reminds me of the TTFF (TT Football Federation) under Jack Warner. Where are the morals or voices of members who should want better for TT football after the Warner era, or are self-serving agendas the reason for acceptance?

By supporting poor administration, members allow creeping dictatorship which leads to secrecy, manipulation, incompetence, stagnation and eventual organisational failure and debt.

Only the TTFA membership can break this cycle if the association is to climb the world rankings and dig itself out of financial debt. The public, fans and players can’t.

Our football needs a revamp and principled leadership to set the trend. With the TTFA elections and qualifiers for the 2022 Qatar World Cup later this year, we have a real opportunity to put our house in order.

If Wales can climb from 83rd to 19th, I see no reason why the TTFA can’t be in the top 40. But, more importantly, under good administration with ethics and transparency, running like a profitable business to develop our youth/women/men national teams, referees, coaches, administrators and clubs. Best of luck to our players in our match against Wales. It should be an eye-opener, both on and off the field.

DAVID GEORGE via e-mail
The Conquering Lion of Judah shall break every chain.

Offline Tallman

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A dark day for local football
« Reply #335 on: March 20, 2019, 07:16:58 AM »
A dark day for local football
By Andrew Gioannetti (T&T Newsday)


THE ARROGANCE and authoritarian leadership of one man – T&T Football Association (TTFA) president David John-Williams – has resulted in one of the darkest days seen yet in local football, said TTFA board member Keith Look Loy.

On Monday, the High Court ordered a freeze on all of TTFA’s bank accounts, perhaps as many as six, after the association failed to honour a court order in December for the cash-strapped TTFA to pay the national futsal team nearly $500,000 with interest, as well as its legal fees. The ruling followed a two-year lawsuit stemming from unpaid match fees, salaries and expenses.

Today, Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh is set to rule on yet another lawsuit facing the TTFA, this one filed by Look Loy, who in December 2017 requested contracts and the identity of contractors associated with the Home of Football project.

The two parties faced the court last month, when Boodoosingh said he was prepared to rule on the matter today if the parties failed to settle the matter privately.

Look Loy said he trusts the court will decide in his favour, and if it does, he intends to visit the TTFA’s office tomorrow with a forensic accountant to examine the documents, which he said include TTFA’s income and expenditure ledger, and the contracts and financial records of the Home of Football.

“A favourable court decision will be a landmark day in the fight for transparency and accountability in TTFA,” he declared.

Meanwhile, the court order to freeze the TTFA’s accounts joins a mounting list of scandals plaguing the association and football nationwide.

Three T&T Pro League clubs – Police FC, North East Stars FC and W Connection all qualified for this year’s Concacaf Caribbean Club Championships, but were recently banned by Concacaf from playing in the tournament because of the TTFA’s failure to implement its club licensing requirements.

Look Loy blamed John-Williams, calling once again for the president’s immediate resignation.

“He has unilaterally, without board approval, forced the association into unwinnable legal matters, thereby increasing its debt. He should do the honourable thing and fall on his sword. He should resign.”

Look Loy said the freeze on the TTFA’s bank accounts presents an “existential threat to the association.”

“TTFA cannot spend a cent, cannot pay staff, cannot run its programmes, cannot support the preparation of the Under-17 team that is preparing for Concacaf action in early May.

“The potential for TTFA creditors to come after the association’s accounts and assets, such as the Home of Football, is obvious and real.

He added that the court’s freezing of the accounts supports his argument against the Sport Company of T&T (SporTT) using its funds to support the formation of the proposed new elite league being organised by the TTFA.

“This money should come directly to the league and its member clubs,” he insisted.

Further to TTFA’s defeat to the futsal team, there are still looming legal battles between the association and former national women’s team coach Carolina Morace, former TTFA general secretary Sheldon Phillips, former technical director Kendall Walkes, and others, with combined damages being claimed in the millions of dollars.

“Due to its increasing debt, there is talk of the need to wind up TTFA and to establish a new association. This is the reality that faces our football,” Look Loy said.

The various lawsuits and court rulings have rekindled memories of the former TTFF’s failure to honour a High Court order to pay 13 of the play­ers who rep­re­sent­ed TT at the 2006 World Cup a to­tal of $4.6 mil­lion (US$724,000). In 2012, po­lice car­ried out an or­der to seize all re­mov­able as­sets from the federation’s Dun­don­ald Street, Port of Spain of­fice.

Newsday tried unsuccessfully to reach John-Williams by phone yesterday and also sent an e-mail him to ask, among other things, if he is concerned that the association’s assets, including the Home of Football project, may be liquidated and if he has any intention of resigning as a result of the latest series of scandals.

However, the TTFA issued a media release last evening, acknowledging that they inherited a debt of over $30 million “and continue the uphill task of addressing that financial situation, while also addressing the ongoing operating requirements of the Association.”

The TTFA stated, “This matter at hand has to be dealt with in the same manner as other matters of a similar nature that we have dealt with over the past three-year period.

“Unfortunately, the funding is just not there at this time to service these debts, but we at the TTFA continue to soldier on, hence the reason for emphasis on completing the Hotel and the Home of Football which will be a major income generation project not just for football but will change the face of sport in T&T.”

The media release added, “We are very mindful of those whose sole agenda is to destroy T&T Football by their actions, but under no circumstances shall they derive such a result.”
The Conquering Lion of Judah shall break every chain.

Offline soccerman

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #336 on: March 20, 2019, 07:34:22 AM »
Like Wales, T&T can climb FIFA rankings
T&T Newsday


THE EDITOR: Today, a rusty T&T men’s football team plays a revamped Wales team. With a population of just over three million, Wales forms the United Kingdom with England and Scotland. In 2013, Wales opened Dragon Park, a similar football facility/project to our “home of football.”

In 2015 when the current TTFA (T&T Football Association) assumed office, T&T’s men were 49th in the FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) rankings and has today dropped to 93rd. In 2012, Wales was ranked 83rd and is now 19th; with the potential to play any team in the world.

Its massive climb took time but wasn’t solely due to a facility. It was aided by an overhaul of grassroot development, increased competitions, training programmes, national team development, better finance management and, most importantly, good administration.

In researching, I found no instances of administration practices similar to our TTFA. This isn’t to say the Wales FA does not have politics, disagreements, differences, but the trend was overall support for good administration – accountability, transparency, independence [limited internal political interference], inclusion [particularly women and grassroots development], and unanimous practice to follow its FA’s constitution and laws. Simple!

On our end, we see the opposite. The TTFA has no strategic plan, is still millions of dollars in debt, with further debt looming with the president’s legal battles/decisions; no preparation for women and youth teams, secrecy in hiring and contracts of coaches, lack of information at board level, little accountability for funding etc.

Even the FIFA US$2.5 million grant for the “home of football” facility, while a great asset, seems shrouded in secrecy with no one publicly going on record to provide detailed costs, tenders, payments, budgets etc. No wonder national sponsors stay out.

To hear members overlook, discredit or silently gag legitimate questioning reminds me of the TTFF (TT Football Federation) under Jack Warner. Where are the morals or voices of members who should want better for TT football after the Warner era, or are self-serving agendas the reason for acceptance?

By supporting poor administration, members allow creeping dictatorship which leads to secrecy, manipulation, incompetence, stagnation and eventual organisational failure and debt.

Only the TTFA membership can break this cycle if the association is to climb the world rankings and dig itself out of financial debt. The public, fans and players can’t.

Our football needs a revamp and principled leadership to set the trend. With the TTFA elections and qualifiers for the 2022 Qatar World Cup later this year, we have a real opportunity to put our house in order.

If Wales can climb from 83rd to 19th, I see no reason why the TTFA can’t be in the top 40. But, more importantly, under good administration with ethics and transparency, running like a profitable business to develop our youth/women/men national teams, referees, coaches, administrators and clubs. Best of luck to our players in our match against Wales. It should be an eye-opener, both on and off the field.

DAVID GEORGE via e-mail
:beermug: Well said sir!
Quote
With a population of just over three million, Wales forms the United Kingdom with England and Scotland.
This is Great Britain, the UK includes Northern Ireland.
« Last Edit: March 20, 2019, 10:09:11 AM by soccerman »

Offline Tallman

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Taylor takes front as election race begins
« Reply #337 on: April 03, 2019, 10:41:33 AM »
Taylor takes front as election race begins
By Walter Alibey (T&T Guardian)


The race for the pres­i­den­cy of the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion be­gan in earnest yes­ter­day with last year's beat­en can­di­date Clynt Tay­lor look­ing like a strong choice to take over the reins of lo­cal foot­ball.

The Cen­tral Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion's (CFA) sec­re­tary-gen­er­al has been qui­et­ly putting to­geth­er an equal­ly strong team of pro­fes­sion­als he be­lieves is trust­wor­thy, ca­pa­ble and com­pe­tent, has the in­ter­est of the sport at heart and are guid­ed by the prin­ci­ples of trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty. He did not name any mem­bers of his slate but promis­es it will be a gen­uine group of peo­ple, who will pro­vide the sport with the boost it needs at this time.

Ac­cord­ing to Tay­lor "Un­der the cur­rent pres­i­dent David John-Williams, we have seen ab­solute­ly noth­ing pos­i­tive tak­ing place."

"What foot­ball needs now is a change. It needs peo­ple who gen­uine­ly care about it and un­der­stand pro­grammes and process­es, or some­one who can put down a prop­er man­age­ment sys­tem and put it on par with in­ter­na­tion­al foot­ball. If I were vot­ed in­to of­fice, I would im­me­di­ate­ly se­lect a team of qual­i­fied per­sons in law and fi­nance etc to deal with the pletho­ra of fi­nan­cial and le­gal is­sues the as­so­ci­a­tion face at this time. We need peo­ple who can sit and talk to peo­ple, some­one who is un­der­stand­ing" Tay­lor ex­plained.

The TTFA An­nu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing (AGM) and elec­tion of of­fi­cers is card­ed to be held no lat­er than the last day in No­vem­ber this year, ac­cord­ing to the con­sti­tu­tion. John-Williams, the in­cum­bent is al­ready brac­ing for a chal­lenge, hav­ing faced a bar­rage of ques­tions and le­gal is­sues from var­i­ous mem­bers in the fra­ter­ni­ty, in­clud­ing mem­bers with­in his Board of Di­rec­tors.

Un­der John-Williams, the long-await­ed but now con­tro­ver­sial Home of Foot­ball in Bal­main Cou­va was con­struct­ed. And the em­bat­tled foot­ball boss views it as a so­lu­tion to many of his as­so­ci­a­tion's fi­nan­cial woes.

Un­der John-William' lead­er­ship al­so came a stig­ma of dic­ta­tor­ship, lack of trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly con­cern­ing mat­ters re­lat­ed to the home of foot­ball.

There were al­so many le­gal wran­gles that took place un­der John-Williams' reign, such as the T&T Fut­sal team tri­umph in the court that earned them more than $.5 mil­lion, Kei­th Look Loy's vic­to­ry in get­ting the foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion to open its books on all the mat­ters re­lat­ed to the con­tro­ver­sial home of foot­ball, among many oth­ers.

Apart from Tay­lor and John-Williams, Ray­mond Tim Kee, the for­mer pres­i­dent is bid­ding for a re­turn to the of­fice to com­plete the work he start­ed be­tween 2012-2015. Guardian Me­dia Sports al­so learnt that Tony Har­ford, the North­ern Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent is al­so set to throw his hat in­to the ring, while Sel­by Browne and Ramesh Ramd­han, both of whom con­test­ed the pres­i­den­cy back in 2015, will not be go­ing up.

Ramd­han said yes­ter­day that though he will not be con­test­ing the elec­tions, he is in­clined to throw his sup­port be­hind the can­di­date he be­lieves can take the sport for­ward.

Kelvin Jack, the for­mer na­tion­al goal­keep­er for the 2006 World Cup So­ca War­riors team, is al­so set to throw his hat in the ring, but Guardian Me­dia Sports was told that his can­di­da­cy could be in doubt due to re­stric­tions out­lined in ar­ti­cle 34 of the TTFA con­sti­tu­tion.

Ar­ti­cle 34 (6) of the Con­sti­tu­tion which states that "Any can­di­date wish­ing to be­come a memm­ber of the Board of Di­rec­tors shall ful­fill the fol­low­ing el­i­gi­bil­i­ty cri­te­ria- (1) can­di­dates must have been ac­tive in foot­ball for at least three years dur­ing the five years pre­ceed­ing the elec­tions. This ac­tiv­i­ty must have been per­formed in a man­age­r­i­al or a sim­i­lar po­si­tion in the ter­ri­to­ry of the Re­pub­lic of T&T."
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Offline soccerman

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #338 on: April 03, 2019, 12:13:53 PM »
Tony Harford will be a very good choice for the job.

Offline Sam

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #339 on: April 04, 2019, 11:59:59 AM »
Tony Harford will be a very good choice for the job.

He have money?

If he dont, is de same setta problems he will run into.

TTFA in a 30 mill death... or maybe even more.

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Offline Tallman

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'Gangs' in football now
« Reply #340 on: April 17, 2019, 09:22:06 PM »
'Gangs' in football now
By Andre Baptiste (T&T Guardian)


As T&T was drawn against the USA again in yet an­oth­er tour­na­ment, I could al­most hear the col­lec­tive yawn from a group of men in this coun­try, who seem on­ly in­ter­est­ed in what foot­ball can do for them and not what they can do for foot­ball.

Can we de­scribe them as a "gang" or should we say some­thing else? That is a de­bate worth lis­ten­ing for in the next few weeks.

Some of these in­di­vid­u­als, who have sad­ly been de­scribed re­cent­ly as prob­a­bly, false prophets, jok­ers or pre­tenders, would have rep­re­sent­ed this coun­try at one time or the oth­er but now that their best play­ing days are be­hind them, they are still strug­gling to stay in the lime­light with ir­rel­e­vant di­a­logue and mis­placed words. Did some­one say, once a foot­baller on­ly a foot­baller?

Imag­ine if you may and if you care that is about foot­ball on the field of play, that the ma­jor­i­ty of our lo­cal play­ers have been in­ac­tive for al­most four to five months in terms of league foot­ball, whether at Pro League or Su­per League lev­el.

It is safe to say that there is noth­ing pro­fes­sion­al or noth­ing su­per in what is be­ing de­scribed as plans to amal­ga­mate the two leagues. As can be ex­pect­ed, it ap­pears every­one is wait­ing on some de­ci­sion to start some­thing with much more con­cern with ap­par­ent­ly de­fend­ing his or her own beat­en up turf.

It is ab­solute­ly shame­ful and sig­ni­fies to every­one, why it is that a lot of ad­min­is­tra­tors are not trust­ed in var­i­ous sports in this coun­try and in the re­gion. It is easy to talk but ac­tion speaks loud­er than words.

If I did not know bet­ter, then I could be­lieve that this was an in­ten­tion­al con­spir­a­cy by well-known fig­ures, to en­sure that cur­rent na­tion­al foot­ball coach and goal-scor­ing hero from Bahrain, for­mer play­er Den­nis "Tallest" Lawrence and his staff are em­bar­rassed at the up­com­ing Gold Cup.

How­ev­er, when last I checked, it was Team T&T that is wear­ing our na­tion­al colours and hope­ful­ly, that should mean some­thing to peo­ple who pur­port to know bet­ter.

What a lot of these "men", seem to have for­got­ten, is that many per­sons are well aware of their con­cert­ed plans and there­fore a lot of re­spect has been lost if not al­ready erod­ed and per­haps that is why some of their com­plaints, no mat­ter le­git­i­mate or not, will be tar­nished by their ob­vi­ous ap­par­ent self­ish be­hav­iour. It is not too late though to change all of that.

So this is the cur­rent re­al­i­ty.

First­ly, T&T will play against USA, Pana­ma and Guyana in Group D at the Gold Cup, with lo­cal play­ers who will most like­ly have on­ly played three or four friend­lies as their match prac­tice ahead of this en­counter.

Sec­ond­ly, while foot­ball burns on the field, all we hear is gun talk about this and that off the field, who wants to be in charge, who should be in charge and who can do what, if in charge, re­al gang­land it seems.

Third­ly, our lo­cal foot­ballers mean­while are earn­ing no mon­ey and there­fore are be­ing forced to find oth­er ways to earn a liv­ing so they can sup­port their fam­i­ly.

Giv­en all of the above, we have to ask why the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion is not in­volved and the an­swer is that it again ap­pears those at both the Pro League and Su­per League, do not be­lieve that is a "wise de­ci­sion". But mean­while our lo­cal foot­ballers are in­ac­tive and frus­trat­ed and quite nat­u­ral­ly are won­der­ing if dur­ing this process to es­tab­lish a new league sys­tem, there is some promised fund­ing from UE­FA or FI­FA.

It is a rel­e­vant and per­haps ex­treme­ly per­ti­nent ques­tion in light of the con­cern for many with be­ing paid for their ser­vices es­pe­cial­ly with so many cred­i­tors aris­ing from ap­par­ent­ly nowhere re­cent­ly.

Sad­ly, no­body cares enough to at­tempt to in­ter­vene in the mat­ter and in­stead, we the pub­lic wrong­ful­ly will de­mand suc­cess from Lawrence and his squad de­spite the ob­vi­ous lack of match prac­tice. That is just how the peo­ple of this coun­try be­have, many times pass­ing judge­ment with­out all the nec­es­sary facts.

It is ac­tu­al­ly ridicu­lous that there is not a greater out­cry by more. But I want to bet all of you, read­ing this to­day, that if it was friend­ly char­i­ty match, then all these so-called for­mer foot­ballers from the past, would be the first set en­quir­ing about play­ing, about uni­forms, about food, about drinks and every­thing else.

We have be­come too self-cen­tred in this coun­try and there is a mis­guid­ed opin­ion that talk­ing loud helps but let me con­vince those with those er­rant thoughts, that it is the com­plete op­po­site.

When the pub­lic was re­cent­ly asked about what was wrong with sports in this coun­try, they all point­ed to cur­rent ad­min­is­tra­tors and many who seek to be ad­min­is­tra­tors or re­turn­ing ad­min­is­tra­tors, in oth­er words, the pub­lic can see the cloth you wear or the lie you pile.

What is hap­pen­ing with the se­nior na­tion­al foot­ball team should con­cern these peo­ple if they re­al­ly be­lieve in foot­ball in­stead of agen­das and sad­ly, there are many in the me­dia for their own per­son­al self-grat­i­fi­ca­tion that has fall­en prey to such. What can be said, soon the truth will set all free.

The good thing is that af­ter the last few weeks in lis­ten­ing to the pub­lic on the ra­dio and tele­vi­sion, is that there is now an aware­ness of the re­al­i­ty that is foot­ball in this coun­try, that a few do not care about our foot­ballers but rather them­selves. I get the feel­ing the pub­lic can name this "gang" if asked.

Lawrence though, giv­en his up­bring­ing and train­ing from over­seas, is not al­low­ing the many ob­sta­cles be­ing placed in front of him to de­ter his pur­pose, and the process­es he and his team have put in place. It is sad when peo­ple for­get that their lega­cy is now be­ing writ­ten and it is one filled with self-in­ter­est for foot­ball and no care for its fu­ture and it does not mat­ter, where you were ed­u­cat­ed or if you played foot­ball in the ’70s, ’80s or ’90s, it is be­ing doc­u­ment­ed and I ex­pect a strike back soon.

A lot of in­tel­li­gent per­sons have stat­ed that it is a case of a lot of jeal­ousy and while some have learnt hard life lessons, oth­ers on­ly seek to de­stroy at all costs, re­gard­less of the in­no­cent as­pir­ing foot­ballers that are be­ing hurt dai­ly by the be­hav­iour of a few.
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Offline FF

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #341 on: April 18, 2019, 02:56:16 PM »
What absolute shit is this??

Who Andre Baptiste think he fooling?
THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES

Offline Flex

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #342 on: April 19, 2019, 05:44:43 AM »
Hotel Normandie considers run on TTFA’s accounts after winning $750k judgment; Look Loy: TTFA effectively bankrupt.
By Lasana Liburd (Wired868).


The legal and financial woes of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) have intensified with Hotel Normandie joining the list of creditors weighing up a run on the football body’s finances.

Last month, attorney Tamilee Budhu gave TTFA president David John-Williams two weeks to satisfy a judgment for over TT$750,000 awarded to her client, Hotel Normandie. However, it was not until Sunday 7 April—just 48 hours before the deadline—that John-Williams, via his general secretary Camara David, revealed the debt and legal threat to his board.

Although details are scarce, Wired868 can confirm that Hotel Normandie won a High Court judgment against the TTFA on 26 February 2019 for TT$751,682.90. Justice Carol Gobin also ordered the John-Williams-led body to pay the hotel’s legal fees of TT$1,606.38

Almost two months later, the TTFA has paid neither and Budhu pointed out that, according to the Remedies Creditors Act, the local football body is obliged to also pay interest which increases by TT$102.97 for the hotel and 22 cents for the attorney on a daily basis.

At the time of writing, the TTFA owes an additional TT$4,736.62 to Hotel Normandie and TT$10 to Budhu.

“In light of the foregoing, please submit to my office on or before 9 April 2019: a certified cheque made payable to ‘Hotel Normandie Limited’ in the sum of $754,669.03 (together with the additional interest accrued up to the date of payment),” stated Budhu, in her letter to the TTFA on 26 March, “and a certified cheque made payable to ‘Tamilee Budhu’ in the sum of $1,606.38 (together with the additional interest accrued up to the dates of payment).”

TTFA Board members Keith Look Loy and Sharon Warrick told Wired868 they had never even heard of the Normandie judgment before last Sunday and the board played no role in the football body’s ultimately unsuccessful legal defence.

“The TTFA Board was not aware of that before; we don’t have anything to do with these cases,” said Warrick, who represents the Women’s League of Football (WoLF) on the board. “I came on the board on the 21st of April last year and there is lots of stuff that I learn about in the media although I’m sitting in the board room.

“And I just know there are other things that will come out that we are not privy to as well; and that is why I keep calling for transparency and accountability.”

On Friday 5 April, Look Loy, the Trinidad and Tobago Super League (TTSL) president, urged his colleagues to support his call for an emergency Board meeting to address allegations of commingling of funds by John-Williams, which emerged during a recent court hearing with the National Futsal Team.

John-Williams, via his attorney, allegedly told the court that US$24,000 in the TTFA’s First Citizens Bank account was his personal money. Master of the Court Shurlanne Pierre rejected the request due to a perceived lack of evidence.

Pierre ordered First Citizens Bank to empty all seven of the local football body’s accounts and hand over what was there—minus banking fees—to 15 former National Futsal players and their five technical staff members and attorneys.

The decision saw the Futsal contingent awarded TT$270,871.33 from a judgment of over TT$500,000. They are expected to return to court with another garnishee order for the remaining sum.

Look Loy said the TTFA is in crisis mode and urged his colleagues to act.

“If members do not support my call for an emergency Board meeting in these circumstances,” stated Look Loy, in an email to the board that was copied to John-Williams and David, “then the TTFA Board is complicit by way of continued inaction and is truly useless.”

Thus far, five board members have supported Look Loy’s request for an emergency meeting. The six petitioning members are: Raeshawn Mars (Northern FA), Colin Partap (Central FA), Joseph Taylor (Referees Association), Julia Baptiste (Pro League), Warrick (WoLF) and Look Loy (TTSL).

The TTFA Board has 13 members and more than half must support the call for an emergency meeting for it to be triggered, according to the constitution. It means Look Loy is short of just one signature.

The other seven board members are: Ewing Davis (vice-president), Richard Quan Chan (Southern FA), Anthony Moore (Tobago FA), Bandele Kamau (Eastern FA), Sherwyn Dyer (Eastern Counties FU), Selby Browne (Veteran Footballers Foundation) and John-Williams (president).

“It is quite clear that the TTFA is in a financial crisis which will only deepen, as there are court cases in the pipeline including that of former general secretary Sheldon Phillips,” said Look Loy. “When you can’t pay your office staff then that tells you how bad things are. We have the National Under-17 Team preparing to go into a tournament soon. How do we finance this team?”

Look Loy claimed that there is growing concern among members of the proposed merged league, involving Pro League and TTSL clubs, about the TTFA’s financial status and how it might impact on them.

The league, tentatively christened the ‘T-League’, was due to kick off in June and seeks to bring local top flight football back under the direct supervision of the TTFA for the first time in over two decades.

The seven-member Commission to guide the T-League is chaired by businessman Lindsay Gillette, who is the current Swimming Association (ASATT) president and ex-Petrotrin chairman, and includes Anthony Harford (independent), Jamaal Shabazz and Brent Sancho (both Pro League), Look Loy and George Joseph (both TTSL) and Moore (TTFA).

Last Wednesday, the Commission selected former TTFA general secretary Justin Latapy-George to run its administrative arm.

Look Loy said members of the Commission are concerned that the money earmarked to run the T-League can be seized by the TTFA’s creditors if it is put into the football body’s accounts and want a meeting with John-Williams to address their fears.

Moore, according to Look Loy, told the Commission that the TTFA’s emergency committee will meet soon to address the issue. However, as Wired868 pointed out in February, only one from 16 TTFA standing committees is active at present.

“Moore said he was in touch with the president and the emergency committee of the TTFA will call a meeting soon,” said Look Loy. “But that is a fiction [because] there is no emergency committee! They are trying to forestall the signatures that would force such a meeting to be called. You ask them when and they reply: as soon as possible.

“[…] The president and his cohorts are fiddling while Rome burns.”

Look Loy described the TTFA as effectively bankrupt and urged local football stakeholders to act decisively to address John-Williams’ supposedly disastrous stewardship.

“The TTFA might as well be bankrupt because it cannot receive or spend money,” said Look Loy. “Another aspect of this is the growing vulnerability of the Home of Football to creditors. Other than old computers and bibs and balls, the one asset the TTFA has is the Home of Football; and it is increasingly likely that [creditors will move on the recently completed technical centre and hotel].

“The ripple effect of all that is happening is provoked by the bad management style and substance of David John-Williams [and] it is only going to get worse. I cannot see how it can continue this way for another seven months until the election in November.”

The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Offline Tallman

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TTFA debt solution
« Reply #343 on: April 20, 2019, 08:20:59 AM »
TTFA debt solution
By Andrew Gioannetti (T&T Newsday)


OFFICIALS from Fifa and Concacaf yesterday called a meeting with the TT Football Association (TTFA) board of directors, asking them for a solution to deal with the association’s debt crisis.

Only two board members were absent for the meeting with Fifa and Concacaf representatives.

The visiting delegation included development director for Africa and the Caribbean region, Veron Mosengo-Omba, Concacaf director of Caribbean football, Horace Reid, Concacaf project director, Howard McIntosh and chief financial and administration officer Alejandro Lesende.

Newsday obtained a copy of a report of the meeting in which the officials asked the board to offer proposals to deal with the mounting debt haunting the organisation.

Board member Keith Look Loy, who took the association to court because of TTFA David John-Williams’ refusal to grant him access to contracts and other documents related to the Home of Football Couva-based project, said he told the delegation that since John-Williams’ election, the TTFA has never discussed its debt issues in a board meeting.

The point was supported by Joseph Taylor, head of the TT Football Referees’ Association, and a long-time board member.

A proposal was subsequently put forward by Veteran Footballers Foundation (VFOTT) president Selby Browne, who suggested a loan be sought to pay off the debt.

In an interview following the meeting, Look Loy said the solution was, “pie in the sky, because you need to have property or something to put up as security for a loan.”

The Home of Football cannot be mortgaged, as clarified by Mosengo-Omba, nor can the TTFA use funds from the Fifa Forward programme to satisfy debts, as both are prohibited by Fifa.

“I asked them if Fifa and/or Concacaf can give us a loan. The answer as I understand it is no.

“So they are asking us for a solution for something that we have not discussed,” Look Loy said.

One Concacaf official admitted John-Williams and newly-appointed general secretary Camara David submitted a proposal to clear the debt, which came to the annoyance of some board members.

“I said this is the problem that we are faced with. That proposal is not a proposal from the board of the TTFA. The board of the TTFA should be discussing that and then making a proposal if we chose to do so to Fifa.

“What I said last is that the debt crisis in the TTFA is not the problem, because the debt crisis is merely a manifestation of a wider problem which is the lack of leadership and poor management style, which does not bring people into discussion both inside and outside the TTFA...That under the John-Williams administration, the TTFA has collapsed. The committees...national team programmes collapsed, we have no technical department, we have no women’s football, we have sponsored programmes with which people still can’t be paid, and of course we had the elephant in the room – the Home of Football – and I recounted to them that I had go to court (for access to information) and all of that.”

He said the Fifa representative responded, saying it cannot get involved in TTFA affairs and from Fifa’s standpoint, the expenditure of its funds is their primary concern.

“I said that is not the point. The accounting might be good on Fifa side, but from the TTFA side, nobody has ever given approval for a contract and we don’t know how the money has been spent, who received it, and that is our issue.”

Look Loy said he offered a three-part proposal.

“One, David John-Williams and Ewing Davis (vice president) must resign immediately; just like Joanne Salazar and Anthony Warner (former vice presidents), they need to go too.”

They need to resign, Look Loy said, in order for the football body to “talk to creditors, who say they will talk, but not to them (president and vice-president).”

“Secondly, we have a board meeting scheduled for next Wednesday and that meeting should appoint an interim president and call an election within 60 days, according to the constitution; and thirdly, that meeting should order a forensic audit of all TTFA finances, and specifically the finances of the Home of Football and the income generation project,” a proposal supported by Central Football Association’s Colin Partap, Northern Football Association’s Rayshawn Mars and Women’s League representative Sharon Warrick.

Look Loy said the meeting ended “without a clear path forward other than the promise of a discussion of this matter at the FIFA and Concacaf levels.”

The debt crisis is expected to reach a practically insurmountable point if former general secretary is awarded a substantial judgement for damages resulting from a lawsuit he filed for wrongful dismissal.

The case is expected to close late April.
The Conquering Lion of Judah shall break every chain.

Offline Thomo

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #344 on: April 20, 2019, 03:06:03 PM »
What absolute shit is this??

Who Andre Baptiste think he fooling?

Big long watery STEUPS 💦 He's deluded at best. Absolute load of hogwash SMFH

Offline lefty

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #345 on: April 21, 2019, 08:33:23 AM »
What absolute shit is this??

Who Andre Baptiste think he fooling?

Big long watery STEUPS 💦 He's deluded at best. Absolute load of hogwash SMFH

not deluded frien' ting and maybe money....dirty money IMHO
I pity the fool....

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #346 on: April 22, 2019, 03:34:05 AM »
Adulterated nonsense.

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #347 on: April 22, 2019, 03:58:23 AM »
TTFA red card for Look Loy?
By Andrew Gioannetti (Newsday).


Outspoken Board member’s appointment queried

INSTEAD of seeking ways to fix its debt crisis, as requested by Fifa and Concacaf officials in a recent visit, the TT Football Association (TTFA) will discuss the legitimacy of outspoken member Keith Look Loy's appointment to the board of directors in 2017, at a board meeting on Wednesday.

Newsday received a copy of an email of the agenda of the meeting. It showed recently appointed TTFA general secretary Camara David tabling "Board Appointment Issue" as item number two.

However, there has already been major push back from several other board members and ordinary members, who have questioned the president and general secretary's motives, especially as there are current and potentially crippling issues plaguing the association, including its mounting debts, the bank accounts ordered frozen by the courts, the lack of activity by several national football teams, non-payment of salaries, among others.

David informed Look Loy of the query on Saturday, saying the issue arose because of his receipt of legal advice, sought from attorney and former chairman of the constitution committee, Elton Prescott SC, after an enquiry was made by a member, Mike Awai.

Awai wrote to TTFA members in February, citing article 24.3 of the TTFA constitution, which he said indicated that a quorum was required for Look Loy's election.

It states: “A quorum is not required for the second meeting of the General Meeting unless any item on the Agenda proposed the amendment of the constitution, the election of a member of the Board of Directors, the dismissal of a member of a body of the TTFA, the expulsion of a Member or the dissolution of the TTFA.”

David subsequently wrote Prescott for advice, to which Prescott responded, "It appears to me that the cited passage from Article 24 of the constitution of the TTFA makes it obligatory that a quorum is required at a reconvened meeting which includes on the agenda, the election of members of the Board.

With this response, Camara wrote Look Loy with the legal opinion attached and said he would be required to respond by Wednesday's board meeting.

That e-mail was shared with the board and other members, several of whom quickly responded with questions of their own to the general secretary and president David John-Williams.

They included Sharon Warrick and Joseph Taylor, as well as ordinary member Clynt Tayor, who said the move appears to be part of an effort to muzzle Look Loy, a most vocal critic of John-Williams' style of leadership.

Look Loy recently won a lawsuit against the organisation for access to documents pertaining to the Home of Football project in Couva, including contracts and the list of contractors connected to the project – information which John-Williams, for months, refused to release to his own board.

Incidentally, when FIFA and Concacaf officials visited TT last week, they requested TTFA's board of directors offer solutions to address the body's debt.

Look Loy gave the visiting contingent a three-part proposal. The first part he said would require the immediate resignation of John-Williams and vice-president Ewing Davis, so that the football body can once again begin speaking to creditors.

"(There are creditors) who will talk, but not to them (John-Williams and Davis),” Look Loy told the officials.

Look Loy also told the visiting officials that an interim president should be appointed on Wednesday, an election called within 60 days, and a forensic audit be conducted into all TTFA finances, including the Home of Football and income generation project.

The proposal was supported by Central Football Association’s Colin Partap, Northern Football Association’s Rayshawn Mars and Women’s League representative Sharon Warrick.

Up until press time, four board members and one ordinary member have responded by email, questioning the motive behind the agenda.

"I hope this is an attempt to openly deal with the issues plaguing the TTFA and seek a solution whiles (sic) obeying the Court order, rather than an attempt to silence board members like Mr Look Loy," wrote Clynt Taylor, Central Football Association general secretary and an ordinary member. "Keith is not the problem, so let's look for a solution. Any move to silence members rightfully seeking answers must be resisted."

Warrick responded with questions of her own.

"Some food for thought here: Is this an attack on Look Loy or what he is standing for?" Warrick asked.

"Why a year later this is an issue? If due diligence was the order of the day, then this issue would have been dealt with a long time ago."

But the most hard-hitting reply came from Joseph Taylor, head of TT Referees Association, who suggested that had Awai been interested in respect for the constitution and electoral procedures, he should have first sought legal advice on the legitimacy of the 2015 election, which saw John-Williams win the president's post.

"Is this again another attempt at distraction from the very important matters that face the TTFA at this time. The records/minutes of meetings from the induction of the TTSL and its representative to the Board of Directors and the subsequent changes to the Constitution would have dealt with this matter, and all was quite above board," Taylor wrote.

"I agree with the representative for Women's Football. Why now? Because there are several other decisions/things that can be queried constitutionally, starting with the elections in 2015, that I would ask Mr Awai to seek legal advice on and bring the findings back to the general membership for debate and voting on," Taylor wrote.

He also questioned why Look Loy's "appointment issue" would be important enough to precede all other matters which have direct implications on the future of football.

"The listing of this as the second item is quite alarming to me and others, as the matters of the financial status of the TTFA and the impromptu Thursday meeting (by Fifa and Concacaf officials) for me as a board member, about suggestions for ideas/plans to deal with the growing debt of the TTFA are more relevant and pressing.

"There were at least six members who called for an emergency board meeting to specifically deal with the financial situation after learning of the garnishing of the funds from the TTFA bank accounts.

"We got no response to the request. Where is the Finance Committee? On the agenda, we have listed the Emergency Committee. Why is this, I am now provoked to ask?

"Mr President and General Secretary, several board members also requested the inclusion of other matters on the agenda. Can I respectfully get a response to these requests and also for the umpteenth time, can I and others who have requested a later start time with reason get a definite response for the board meeting on Wednesday 24th April, 2019."

Before the issue of Look Loy's appointment began receiving attention, serious questions have been asked about the legitimacy of the entire TTFA presidency, dating back to the 2015 elections.

Former general secretary Phillips, who took the TTFA to court for wrongful dismissal, wrote a document, which said non-compliant members were allowed to participate in the election process. He also outlined a number of electoral code breaches which were ignored through the election process, which he said he feared would leave a dire and lasting impact.

The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Offline Flex

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #348 on: April 24, 2019, 08:53:58 AM »
FIFA/Concacaf delegation meets TTFA Board as concerns grow; but are they here to help football? Or DJW?
By Lasana Liburd (Wired868).


A joint high-powered delegation from FIFA and Concacaf met the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association’s Board in a secret meeting today, as, for the first time, the world governing body betrayed their concern over the instability of the local game under President David John-Williams.

The million dollar question, though, is: exactly who is FIFA and Concacaf here to help?

Is it the embattled TTFA president who not only voted for Gianni Infantino as FIFA president but helped power his campaign through the Caribbean?

Or is it the local football association which is effectively bankrupt and racking up legal losses at an alarming rate, due in large part to John-Williams’ abrasive stewardship?

Veron Mosengo-Omba (Director of Development for Africa and the Caribbean) represented FIFA along with the governing body’s CFO for Strategic Planning while the Concacaf delegation were: Horace Reid (Member Associations department), Howard McIntosh (One Concacaf and Caribbean Projects senior manager) and Alejandro Lesende (CFO).

TTFA President David John-Williams and Vice-President Ewing Davis were there along with Board Members Raeshawn Mars (Northern FA), Richard Quan Chan (Southern FA), Joseph Taylor (Trinidad and Tobago Football Referees Association), Sharon Warrick (Women’s League Football), Julia Baptiste (TT Pro League), Collin Partap (Central Football Association), Keith Look Loy (TTSL), Bandele Kamau (Eastern FA) and Selby Browne (Veteran Footballers Foundation of Trinidad and Tobago). General Secretary Camara David was also present.

Ostensibly, FIFA/Concacaf requested the meeting to deal with the TTFA’s debt crisis. At present, the local football body’s bank account is frozen while creditors are lining up with court orders in their favour.

The FIFA delegation, according to an insider, were told of a large inherited debt by John-Williams and wanted to hear ideas on dealing with it.

How can you possibly arrive at the correct answer with a flawed question?

John-Williams’ predecessor, Raymond Tim Kee, cut the local football body’s debt—which stood at TT$35 million in 2012—by more than a half in three years, before he was voted out of office in 2015. That debt has been mushrooming ever since while a lack of transparency regarding the TTFA’s finances and ongoing court cases makes it hard to determine the current health of the organisation.

Two years ago, former General Secretary Sheldon Phillips made what now appears to be a prophetic statement, as he linked the TTFA’s escalating woes to John-Williams’ stewardship.

“In this era of ‘wrong and strong’, [the] TTFA leadership persists in acting in a manner that may very well push creditors to seek legal redress and have the TTFA placed in court-appointed administration,” wrote Phillips. “There simply seems to be no evidence of desire on the part of the current TTFA President and its board to pay debt unless creditors go through arduous litigation, win a judgment—at greater expense to the TTFA, I may add—and collect on said judgment.

“This is not a prudent or honourable manner of stewardship of the game; in fact, it marks a further deterioration in the relevance of the sport and general goodwill towards it.”

For FIFA and Concacaf to address the TTFA’s debt without first looking for a possible crisis of leadership there, would be like handing a man an umbrella to face a hurricane.

Not that FIFA brought an umbrella either; they are not in the debt forgiveness business. Rather, the ‘experts’ from Zurich and Miami are here to help fix local problems with ‘knowhow’ and ‘experience’.

Other than the fact that the tourists appeared not to grasp—or pretended not to know—what the problem was in the first place, there were a few tell-tale signs as to how useful their time might be in these climes.

First, take a look at Trinidad and Tobago’s domestic game. The perennially cash-strapped Pro League has been in existence since 1999 while the Super League was formed in 2003 and redone into the TTSL in 2017.

UEFA and Concacaf delegates insisted that they both be put under the TTFA’s direct watch immediately—coincidentally, in time for the local football body’s elections in November.

Today, the newly proposed ‘T-League’ is in paralysis with neither administrators nor clubs certain as to when they will start with the likelihood of a September kick-off certain to see them out dazzled by the better supported Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) product.

Or consider the fact that Mosengo-Omba was a frequent face at the controversial Home of Football project in Couva and was always ready with a ‘thumbs up’ and helpful quote about how well things were going.

And his response to roughly 80 per cent of the money spent on the FIFA-approved project being unaccounted for and used without Board approval? Eh… That’s an ‘internal problem’.

If that was not enough to make a farce of the FIFA/Concacaf ‘reconciliation mission’—whether financial or otherwise—then two other points jarred alert Board members.

First, Mosengo-Omba admitted that John-Williams and David made a proposal to FIFA to get the TTFA through the current crisis. However, the FIFA official allegedly declined several opportunities at today’s meeting to reveal the details of John-Williams’ offer.

Since FIFA helped frame and ultimately approved the TTFA constitution, Mosengo-Omba should know full well that John-Williams cannot legally represent his association without the support of his Board.

If John-Williams’ perceived dictatorial tendencies have alienated him from local administrators and football supporters, then Mosengo-Omba is in no position to help assuage those fears.

Second, David gave Board members barely 24 hours notice before today’s key meeting and claimed that FIFA and Concacaf only advised of the get-together on Wednesday.

However, there is considerable doubt that this is the case, with one suggestion that FIFA actually served notice to the TTFA a week prior.

Did David intentionally try to mislead his Board? Was the aim to have less participation from stakeholders? As usual, the ruthlessly ambitious General Secretary refused to come clean on his intentions.

In such a spirit of distrust on all sides, there is little surprise that the meeting ended without little hint of progress.

Browne, who has recently and suddenly grown fond of John-Williams, proposed that the TTFA be given a loan. However, Mosengo-Omba made it clear that FIFA regulations forbid the local football body from mortgaging the Home of Football while the FIFA Forward Programme funds should not be used to settle debts.

So how can a virtually insolvent TTFA access a loan with no security?

Look Loy’s proposal was that John-Williams and his last remaining vice-president, Davis, resign immediately with an interim president appointed until an election can be held, along with a forensic audit of the TTFA’s finances with specific attention to the Home of Football.

The TTSL President suggested that a new face at the helm could buy time from creditors and make the TTFA more attractive to potential sponsors and investors.

Suffice to say, the FIFA and Concacaf delegates did not ask that Look Loy’s suggestion be put to a vote.

The meeting ended without solution, although the visitors at least had a better understanding of the temperature at the TTFA. And, just so they know, local football stakeholders would be marking their card as well.

This is the land of Jack Warner; we have seen this movie before.

The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Offline Flex

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #349 on: April 25, 2019, 12:21:26 AM »
Look Loy lawyers block removal.
By Derek Achomg (Guardian).


T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTFA) di­rec­tor Kei­th Look Loy has ob­tained an in­junc­tion block­ing a pro­posed move by his fel­low board mem­bers to chal­lenge the va­lid­i­ty of his ap­point­ment to the or­gan­i­sa­tion.

De­liv­er­ing an oral rul­ing at the Hall of Jus­tice in Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day af­ter­noon, High Court Judge Robin Mo­hammed grant­ed the in­junc­tion, which ef­fec­tive­ly pre­vent­ed the is­sue of Look Loy's ap­point­ment from be­ing dis­cussed dur­ing a TTFA board meet­ing sched­uled for yes­ter­day evening.

As part of his de­ci­sion, Mo­hammed grant­ed Look Loy leave to pur­sue a ju­di­cial re­view claim over the move to oust him. The in­junc­tion will stay in place un­til the sub­stan­tive law­suit is de­ter­mined.

Ac­cord­ing to Look Loy's court fil­ings, which were ob­tained by Guardian Me­dia, the move to re­move him stemmed from his firm stance on the dis­clo­sure of in­for­ma­tion re­lat­ed to the con­struc­tion of the TTFA's US$2.5 mil­lion "Home for Foot­ball" in Cou­va.

Af­ter mul­ti­ple failed at­tempts to get the in­for­ma­tion from em­bat­tled TTFA Pres­i­dent David John-Williams and for­mer gen­er­al sec­re­tary Justin Lat­apy-George, Look Loy, the pres­i­dent of the T&T Su­per League, filed a law­suit over that is­sue.

On March 20, High Court Judge Ron­nie Boodoos­ingh ruled in Look Loy's favour and stat­ed that both John-Williams and Lat­apy-George act­ed ir­ra­tional­ly and un­rea­son­ably when they turned down the re­quests. Boodoos­ingh al­so or­dered the dis­clo­sure.

Look Loy then made a fur­ther re­quest for the or­gan­i­sa­tion's bank records af­ter he and his foren­sic ac­coun­tant al­leged­ly found dis­crep­an­cies in the gen­er­al ac­count­ing ledger pro­vid­ed to him.

"I al­so note from the doc­u­ments I have re­ceived that the cu­mu­la­tive val­ue of the con­tracts which have been dis­closed to me ap­pears to be ap­prox­i­mate­ly $3 mil­lion. The val­ue of the stat­ed FI­FA in­vest­ment is ap­prox­i­mate­ly $19.25 mil­lion; mean­ing that there is an ap­par­ent dis­crep­an­cy of ap­prox­i­mate­ly $16 mil­lion," Look Loy said in his af­fi­davits in sup­port of the in­junc­tion.

Look Loy's col­leagues again re­fused to re­lease the records and he was in­formed by cur­rent TTFA gen­er­al sec­re­tary Ca­ma­ra David that his ap­point­ment to the TTFA board was in­valid.

Guardian Me­dia Sports un­der­stands that David al­leged­ly claimed that when Look Loy was con­firmed in the board po­si­tion in 2017, he was "rec­om­mend­ed" and not elect­ed by the T&T Su­per League.

In his af­fi­davit, Look Loy sought to de­fend his po­si­tion as he point­ed out that David, who for­mer­ly served as league sec­re­tary of the T&T Su­per League, iron­i­cal­ly wrote the let­ter which was sent to the TTFA to con­firm Look Loy as its can­di­date for the di­rec­tor post.

"While I am of the firm view that this lat­est de­vel­op­ment on the part of the TTFA is no more than a base­less and un­law­ful at­tempt to pre­vent my hav­ing ac­cess to the doc­u­ments as re­quest­ed, I am fear­ful that if this Ho­n­ourable Court does not re­strain the TTFA from tak­ing ac­tion forth­with, I will be un­law­ful­ly re­moved as di­rec­tor and my dri­ve for trans­paren­cy in the TTFA stalled," Look Loy said.

Look Loy al­so sug­gest­ed that le­gal ad­vice on his ap­point­ment, which was ex­pect­ed to be used in yes­ter­day's meet­ing if the in­junc­tion was not grant­ed, was flawed. Look Loy claimed that it was based on a false premise that the al­so board did not have a quo­rum when it con­firmed him in the po­si­tion. He claimed that is­sue was clar­i­fied by Lat­apy-George and a mem­ber of the or­gan­i­sa­tion's con­sti­tu­tion­al re­view com­mit­tee.

While there were me­dia re­ports of Look Loy seek­ing to chal­lenge the ap­point­ments John-Williams and two TTFA vice-pres­i­dents af­ter his ap­point­ment was ques­tioned, the is­sue was not raised in the law­suit in its pre­lim­i­nary form.

In the law­suit, Look Loy is al­so seek­ing an or­der from the court or­der­ing the dis­clo­sure of the bank state­ments.

Look Loy was rep­re­sent­ed by Matthew Gayle, Dr Emir Crowne and Crys­tal Paul. TTFA at­tor­neys were no­ti­fied of the in­junc­tion hear­ing but did not at­tend. The doc­u­ments were filed yes­ter­day and the mat­ter heard hours lat­er.

About the Project

The "Home for Foot­ball" project is ex­pect­ed to in­clude a 72-room ho­tel, train­ing pitch­es, an en­ter­tain­ment cen­tre and ad­min­is­tra­tive of­fices for the as­so­ci­a­tion.

The sod was turned in Sep­tem­ber 2017, with con­struc­tion start­ing in Feb­ru­ary, last year. The project was spon­sored by Fi­fa and is be­ing con­struct­ed on a lit­tle over sev­en hectares of land do­nat­ed by the Gov­ern­ment.

The project was al­ready at an ad­vanced stage when Fi­fa rep­re­sen­ta­tive Veron Mosen­go-Om­ba and Sports Min­is­ter Sham­fa Cud­joe con­duct­ed a tour in Au­gust, last year.

The project is still in­com­plete but the fa­cil­i­ty is sched­uled to be opened, lat­er this year.

The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Offline Flex

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #350 on: April 25, 2019, 12:25:19 AM »
Uproar as Camara gives Look Loy deadline to prove he is valid TTFA Board member; but attorney’s admission could undo exercise.
By Lasana Liburd (Wired868).


The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association’s Board of Directors was thrown into chaos on the night of Glorious Saturday, as TTFA General Secretary Camara David suggested that Trinidad and Tobago Super League (TTSL) President Keith Look Loy’s election to the TTFA Board of Directors was ‘invalid’.

David used a three month old complaint by North East Stars director Michael Awai and a recent legal opinion by Elton Prescott SC as grounds for his claim, which, if approved, could have significant repercussions on the short-term future of embattled football president, David John-Williams.

Awai’s concern, which he shared with stakeholders on 18 February 2019, is that Look Loy’s ‘election’ occurred at a General Membership meeting without a quorum.

The petition was brushed aside by Trinidad and Tobago Football Referees Association’s Vice-President Osmond Downer; and a week after Awai’s email, the TTFA Board met—chaired by John-Williams and with David in attendance—without a peep about Look Loy’s status.

However last night, David resuscitated Awai’s claim with a legal opinion from Prescott—the attorney for the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) and one of the framers of the TTFA Constitution—which appeared to support the case against Look Loy’s prior appointment.

David wrote to Prescott on Monday 15 April, seeking a legal opinion on the clause cited by Awai, which was Article 24.3. The article states: “a quorum is not required for the second meeting of the General Meeting unless any item on the Agenda proposed the amendment of the constitution, the election of a member of the Board of Directors, the dismissal of a member of a body of the TTFA, the expulsion of a Member or the dissolution of the TTFA.”

And Prescott, via an email that was shared with the Board, agreed with Awai.

“It appears to me that the cited passage from Article 24 of the Constitution of the TTFA makes it obligatory that a quorum is required at a reconvened meeting which includes on the agenda, the election of members of the Board,” stated Prescott. “[…] And so, in my view, it would have required the presence of 25 or more in order for any decision taken at the reconvened meeting to have validity.

“In those circumstances, the resolution which sought to give authority to delegates present to elect a member of the Board was itself invalid.”

David relayed this information to Look Loy and the rest of the Board, three days later, and gave the TTSL president until the next Board meeting on Wednesday 24 April to present a legal response for ‘deliberation’ by that body.

“Further to an enquiry by a Member with respect to the validity of your election to the TTFA Board of Directors, I write to inform you of the legal opinion provided to the TTFA, received in response to the member’s enquiry,” stated the TTFA General Secretary. “This opinion indicates that your election to the Board of Directors of the TTFA is invalid and not consistent with the constitution of the TTFA. The TTFA Secretariat hereby provides you with a copy of the legal opinion for your review.

“You are kindly requested to provide a response by return correspondence on or before the next scheduled meeting of the Board of Directors where this legal opinion will be presented for deliberation and a decision of the Board. Please be advised accordingly.”

Due to the Easter holidays, David’s deadline meant Look Loy would have less than two working days to source a legal opinion. On Saturday night, the agenda for Wednesday’s Board meeting was also adjusted with Look Loy’s ‘Appointment Issue’ as the second item for discussion—right after ‘Minutes’ and ahead of issues such as the TTFA’s ongoing legal woes and the appointment of coaches to the Men’s National Under-23 and Women’s National Under-20 and Under-17 Teams.

The alleged discovery of a US$20,000 payment to John-Williams in the TTFA’s bank account was not listed among the agenda items, although, a week ago, six Board members—headed by Look Loy—requested an emergency meeting to discuss it.

There was one striking omission in the TTFA’s claim against Look Loy’s eligibility. And that is Article 34.1, which read: “the [TTFA] President and Vice-Presidents of the Board of Directors shall be elected by the General Meeting; the other members of the Board of Directors representing the Members of the TTFA shall be elected by the Members they represent and inducted by the General Meeting…”

It was the clause that Downer turned to, three months ago, to dismiss Awai’s complaint. The TTSL—like other bodies under the TTFA umbrella—elects its representative internally, Downer argued, and the General Meeting only rubber stamps this choice.

Since the TTFA president and vice-presidents are the only Board members who are elected by the General Meeting, then, arguably, Article 22.3 could only refer to them.

“That seems to be a good point,” said Prescott, when Wired868 read out Article 34.1 and enquired about its potential repercussions for Article 22.

Did David share Article 34.1 with Prescott when he requested his legal guidance?

“No sir, [the TTFA’s request] was limited to Article 24,” said Prescott. “I was not asked to comment on Article 34.”

Wired868 asked David if he intentionally tried to mislead Prescott, so as to engineer a skewed legal perspective for his Board. The General Secretary did not respond.

David’s legal manoeuvre comes at a time when Look Loy is openly contemplating contempt of court proceedings against the TTFA president and general secretary for their supposed failure to share the football body’s financial documents.

Look Loy has vowed to return to the High Court to force John-Williams and David to share the TTFA’s bank records. Were he to be removed as a Board member, he would no longer have legal claim to the various financial documents he is demanding at present.

Look Loy, who noted the irony since John-Williams was elected by some non-compliant members in 2015, believes the question of his Board eligibility is linked to his case against the TTFA.

“This is nothing but a transparent attempt at victimisation for the questions I have been asking and the High Court action I have successfully undertaken to force transparency and accountability on the TTFA president and his administration,” said Look Loy. “Indeed, there is more to come as that campaign meets increasingly desperate resistance from increasingly desperate people. This will not deter us.

“In this connection, I call on FIFA and Concacaf, yet again, to rein in the run-away horse that is the current TTFA leadership. Indeed, that leadership, in this latest effort to break my momentum, is demonstrating its lack of ethics and limits.”

Downer, who also worked on the framing of the TTFA constitution, said the furore regarding Look Loy’s eligibility was a storm in a teacup, since the TTSL only needs to send a letter to the Board to confirm its choice as representative.

The TTFA’s new constitution in 2015 stated that a body’s choice for a Board position was meant only to be ‘confirmed’ by the General Membership. However, after John-Williams refused to allow Board members to vote unless their roles were ratified by the General Meeting, Downer proposed an amendment which sought to clarify the issue in December 2018.

Downer’s amendment—which was approved—replaced the word ‘confirmed’ with ‘inducted’ in Article 34.1, so as to ensure there was no confusion about which party had the power to select a Board representative.

Inexplicably, David, the de facto CEO of the local football body, did not share this information with Prescott.

Board Members Sharon Warrick (Women’s League of Football) and Joseph Taylor (TTFRA) questioned the behaviour of John-Williams and David and wondered if they were willing to invalidate all Board decisions taken in the past year, just to be rid of Look Loy.

“Is this again another attempt at distraction from the very important matters that face the TTFA at this time?” asked Taylor, who said the TTFA’s constitutional changes should have already put this matter to rest. “[…] The listing of this as the second item is quite alarming to me and others, as the matters of the financial status of the TTFA [should be paramount].

“The impromptu Thursday meeting [involving representatives from FIFA and Concacaf regarding] suggestions for ideas/plans to deal with the growing debt of the TTFA is more relevant and pressing.”

Taylor, who is principal of Mucurapo West Secondary school, reiterated a call for Board meetings to be moved to a more convenient time. Members urged John-Williams and David to have 6pm start times for mid-week meetings, so they could get to Couva in time after work.

The TTFA president and general secretary have so far ignored such requests.

“There were at least six members who called for an Emergency Board Meeting to specifically deal with the financial situation, after learning of the garnishing of the funds from the TTFA bank accounts,” said Taylor. “We got no response to the request. Where is the Finance Committee?

“[…] Mr President and General Secretary, several Board Members also requested the inclusion of other matters on the agenda. Can I respectfully get a response to these requests?

“And also for the umpteenth time, can I and others who have requested a later start time with reason get a definite response for the Board Meeting on Wednesday 24th April, 2019?”

Article 35.2 of the TTFA constitution states: “the President shall compile the agenda; each member of the Board of Directors is entitled to propose items for inclusion in the agenda.”

Wired868 asked John-Williams to explain why he had not included concerns about his possible commingling of personal funds with the TTFA’s money on the agenda. He did not respond up to time of publication.

The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Offline Sam

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #351 on: April 25, 2019, 01:52:12 AM »
Look Loy need to find out who the construction company is that is building the hotel. W Connection company.

 :devil:

Is a good idea to build it, but de way they does go about it in T&T is always the wrong way, also some thieving or crocked stuff going on and they bold face with it to like nobody could stop them.

« Last Edit: April 25, 2019, 01:55:23 AM by Sam »
Faster than a speeding pittbull
Stronger than a shot of ba-bash
Capable of storming any fete


Offline Flex

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #352 on: April 26, 2019, 12:20:38 AM »
TTFA prevented from challenging Look Loy appointment.
By Jada Loutoo (Newsday).


SUPER League president Keith Look Loy has successfully stopped the TT Football Association (TTFA) from challenging the legitimacy of his 2017 appointment to the board of directors, and ousting him from the football body.

The TTFA’s general secretary Camara David tabled a “board appointment issue” on the agenda for a meeting which was expected to be held at 3 pm yesterday.Hours before the meeting was scheduled, Look Loy’s attorneys, Dr Emir Crowne, Matthew Gayle and Crystal Paul, filed an emergency injunction application, seeking to restrain the TTFA from going ahead with the motion to remove the Super League president from the board because of perceived defects in the appointment.

Look Loy, in his appeal for the injunction, said he was fearful that if it was not granted, he would have been unlawfully removed as a director and his drive for transparency in the TTFA stalled.

The injunction was granted by Justice Robin Mohammed, but Newsday understands the meeting was cancelled.

The judge’s order also contained a penal notice warning the TTFA if it failed to comply with the terms of the order it would be in contempt and may be liable to jail time and its assets confiscated.

The notice also warned any other person who knows of the order and does anything to help or permit the TTFA from breaching the terms of the order will also be held in contempt and may face jail time or have their assets seized.

On Saturday, by e-mail, David informed Look Loy of the board’s intended actions, saying the issue arose after legal advice was sought and an enquiry was made by a member, Mike Awai. The legal advice from Senior Counsel Elton Prescott, a former chairman of the constitution committee, said the article made it obligatory that a quorum was required for a meeting which included on the agenda the election of members to the board.

In his High Court action yesterday, Look Loy complained of the failure of the TTFA’s president David John-Williams to permit him access to the association’s bank statements.

In March, Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh ordered the TTFA to disclose documents relating to the US$2.5 million Home of Football, being constructed in Balmain, Couva.

The local governing body was given seven days to provide Look Loy with the documents, which also included bank statements and records reflecting all the TTFA’s accounts, investment, loans, and other financials from November 2015 to present.

Look Loy believes it was his insistence to get the information on the TTFA’s finances that led to the motion being tabled.

He said instead of granting him access to the bank records, on April 20, David wrote to tell him his appointment as a director was “invalid and not consistent with the Constitution of the TTFA.”

“Clearly this is with a view to frustrating and/or preventing my accessing the bank statements and other documents with a view to increasing transparency and accountability within the sport,” he said in his affidavit in support of his judicial review claim.

Look Loy said David’s letter was ironic since in August 2017, David, as former league secretary to the Super League, wrote to the TTFA’s former general secretary telling him Look Loy had been duly elected to represent the league on the TTFA board.

Look Loy said he has taken part in board meetings and fulfilled his role as a director since March 2018.

Look Loy was officially elected by the Super League board to be its representative on the TTFA’s board on February 23, 2018. He was confirmed as a director of the TTFA on December 23, 2017, for four years.

The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Offline Tallman

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Jack Warner wants his $15m
« Reply #353 on: April 27, 2019, 12:56:56 PM »
Jack Warner wants his $15m
By Ryan Bachoo (T&T Guardian)


For­mer FI­FA vice pres­i­dent, Jack Warn­er, is set to sue the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTFA) for $15.7 mil­lion af­ter claim­ing the debt was writ­ten off at a board meet­ing. Speak­ing on the Morn­ing Brew yes­ter­day as part of a pan­el dis­cus­sion on the state of foot­ball in this coun­try, Warn­er told host Hema Ramkissoon, he in­tends to en­ter le­gal pro­ceed­ings this com­ing week.

“The lit­i­ga­tion the TTFA is fac­ing now is a joke to what is com­ing up be­cause they sat down in a meet­ing and they agreed to just, out of the blue, with­draw a loan they had on their books for some 15 years for some $15 mil­lion to Jack Warn­er,” he said.

TTFA pres­i­dent, David John-Williams, would nei­ther con­firm nor de­ny yes­ter­day whether Warn­er’s claim was cor­rect. He told Guardian Me­dia Sports, “The on­ly thing I would say on that mat­ter is that Ray­mond Tim Kee wrote to Mr Jack Warn­er in 2015 say­ing that the TTFA owes him $15.7 mil­lion – a copy of that let­ter I do have – and Jack Warn­er is su­ing the TTFA based on that let­ter.” Pressed fur­ther for an an­swer whether Warn­er’s debt was tak­en off the books as he al­leges, John-Williams said he would not be drawn in­to the con­tro­ver­sy “be­cause there will be a time in the com­ing weeks where I have to put every­thing on the ta­ble”.

The TTFA head said Tim Kee’s let­ter was based on an unau­dit­ed fi­nan­cial state­ment in 2012.

It was a rev­e­la­tion that came two weeks af­ter for­mer TTFA pres­i­dent, Ray­mond Tim Kee, said dur­ing a press con­fer­ence he left a debt of $14 mil­li­on when he ex­it­ed of­fice. Tim Kee backpedalled yes­ter­day dur­ing a phone con­ver­sa­tion with Guardian Me­dia Sports when asked about the in­con­sis­tent debt fig­ures that came from dif­fer­ent sources. When asked by Guardian Me­dia Sports if the debt he spoke off dur­ing the press con­fer­ence did not in­clude what is owed to Warn­er, Tim Kee said, “Yes, there are cer­tain debts that I did not in­clude in that $14 mil­lion. That $14 mil­lion were some debts with some more or less, small peo­ple with whom I had a con­ver­sa­tion, and we had agreed that when get­ting the mon­ey we were go­ing to pay them.”

The for­mer TTFA pres­i­dent al­so said a fig­ure in the range of $150 thou­sand is owed to him and was not in­clud­ed in the debt he pre­sent­ed at the press con­fer­ence. He went fur­ther to ad­vise, “When you are in­volved in foot­ball at an ex­ec­u­tive lev­el, don’t make the mis­take and spend your own mon­ey… We have a ten­den­cy to put your hands in your pock­et to re­cov­er when sit­u­a­tions change but what I have found is that when you do that there are ques­tions peo­ple ask, and the ques­tion is whether you want to go through that with all the al­le­ga­tions.”

Tim Kee was then asked if he felt, ac­cord­ing to his state­ment, when Warn­er gave of his per­son­al fi­nances, that there was a risk of him not get­ting it back. He re­spond­ed by say­ing, “I didn’t bear any in­ten­tion not to pay the debt, that’s why I paid the amount I did. I paid 27 peo­ple from 48… so my phi­los­o­phy is to pay the debt.” How­ev­er, the for­mer TTFA pres­i­dent, who served be­tween 2012 and 2015, said he opt­ed to pay the small­er cred­i­tors be­cause they need­ed it more ur­gent­ly.

Warn­er’s de­ci­sion to take le­gal ac­tion was met with im­me­di­ate op­po­si­tion by the Morn­ing Brew pan­el of for­mer T&T foot­baller Brent San­cho, and for­mer Cale­do­nia AIA chair­man, Louis Lee Sing.

The lat­ter said, “Not be­cause some­thing that was not in the best in­ter­est of the game hap­pened un­der his stew­ard­ship should we en­cour­age it in the now. Times have changed.” San­cho, on the oth­er hand, re­marked, “Let foot­ball stop air­ing their dirty linen in pub­lic. It’s un­for­tu­nate to hear that Mr Warn­er is go­ing to con­tin­ue in this vein of crush­ing the fed­er­a­tion.”
The Conquering Lion of Judah shall break every chain.

Offline Flex

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #354 on: April 29, 2019, 12:28:42 AM »
DJW calls off Board meeting after High Court blocks attempt to move Look Loy; national youth teams left in limbo.
By Lasana Liburd (Wired868).


Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) president David John-Williams abruptly called off a Board meeting today, with less than an hour’s notice to members, after a High Court injunction blocked him from fulfilling his threat of jettisoning perceived rival, Keith Look Loy.

On Glorious Saturday, John-Williams, through his fresh-faced general secretary Camara David, made the potential removal of Look Loy his first order of business after the review of minutes on the Board’s agenda today.

However Justice Robin Mohammed today upheld a legal request by Look Loy—through his legal team of Matthew Gayle, Dr Emir Crowne and Crystal Paul—which blocked the controversial football president from ‘seeking to impugn the Applicant’s status as a director of the [TTFA]’ pending judicial review.

And, in a significant double move, Look Loy also formally initiated the process to compel John-Williams and David to provide all bank details, paid cheque stubs and other information necessary for him to conduct his job as a TTFA Board member.

John-Williams, through David, ‘adjourned’ today’s Board meeting to an unspecified date in the future, within minutes of the verdict. His decision meant the TTFA body could not formally discuss other pressing agenda issues including the appointment of a coaching staff for the Men’s National Under-23 and Women’s National Under-20 and Under-17 Teams.

The National Under-23s are competing for a spot at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and play their opening match on 17 July. However, the TTFA is yet to appoint a coaching staff and there is no squad in training at present.

The Women Under-20 Team are drawn against Haiti, Panama and the Cayman Islands  in the Concacaf qualifying series, which serves as the first step towards the India 2020 Women’s Under-20 World Cup. However, despite their competition also starting in three months, the under-20s are without a coaching staff too.

Look Loy, who is also the Trinidad and Tobago Super League (TTSL) president, suggested that the TTFA was not in a position to continue carrying out its function as the local guardians of the game anyway, since a freeze on its bank accounts by the National Futsal Team—due to an unpaid debt—has left the body as bankrupt financially as it is morally.

TTFA office staff, according to an anonymous source, still have not received salaries for March and are uncertain about pay at the end of April too. Look Loy confirmed that he heard the same thing.

“The staff in the TTFA office is demoralised,” said Look Loy. “The leader of the sinking ship has still not even spoken to them about what is going on and when they are going to be paid. All of this is also affecting football on the field in terms of the new T-League (a merger between the Pro League and TTSL).

“It is past the point of implosion; nothing is happening in TTFA.”

Arguably, John-Williams’ decision to cancel today’s Board meeting, with local football at a virtual standstill at domestic level, suggests that his own political survival is now more important than the administering of the TTFA.

The attempt to replace Look Loy, based upon a three-month old query about the latter’s appointment by North East Stars director Michael Awai and a recent legal opinion by attorney Elton Prescott SC, seemed shaky from the start.

Awai’s complaint was already addressed internally—albeit informally—and dismissed by Football Referees Association (TTFRA) vice-president Osmond Downer, one of the framers of the current TTFA constitution.

Downer reiterated his earlier position with a series of accompanying documents this morning, via email. The former FIFA referee insisted that there was a quorum for Look Loy’s appointment, despite Awai’s claim, but further noted that a quorum was unnecessary since he was elected to his Board role by the TTSL and not the General Meeting.

And Downer said it would be illegal for John-Williams to attempt to remove Look Loy at a Board meeting anyway since his appointment could only be revoked by the TTFA’s general membership.

Neither John-Williams nor David appeared to respond to Downer’s email. David, who was controversially appointed in February, also ignored requests from at least four Board members to shift the start of Board meetings from 3pm to 5pm, so as to make it easier for working members to attend.

Prescott told Wired868 on the weekend that his legal opinion on Look Loy’s appointment only considered information provided by David and he was not provided with relevant articles of the constitution.

Look Loy suggested that David, a former TTSL employee who controversially began acting as TTFA general secretary while his predecessor Justin Latapy-George was still on the job, is blinded by ambition and ego.

“I have noticed that Camara has taken to signing off his emails with ‘general secretary/CEO’ but the TTFA doesn’t have a CEO,” said Look Loy. “That gives you an insight into his overambitious mentality; a young fellah who now come in football but is consumed by his own ambition and position; and […] is going ahead blindly.”

Just seven months away from the completion of his term as football president, the John-Williams-led administration has failed to properly activate its standing committees with only one operational—the referees committee—from a minimum of 16 standing committees meant to effect the smooth running of the local football body.

Look Loy thinks it instructive that, rather than address the defunct finance, legal or technical committees, John-Williams tabled a move to activate the emergency committee instead.

The emergency committee, which is meant to comprise of the president, vice president and four other Board members, is meant to handle important business that may arise in between Board meetings. At present, John-Williams has the support of at least seven from 13 Board members.

The current TTFA Board members are: John-Williams (president), Ewing Davis (vice-president), Raeshawn Mars (Northern FA), Richard Quan Chan (Southern FA), Anthony Moore (Tobago FA), Joseph Taylor (Trinidad and Tobago Football Referees Association), Sharon Warrick (Women’s League Football), Julia Baptiste (TT Pro League), Collin Partap (Central Football Association), Bandele Kamau (Eastern FA), Sherwyn Dyer (Eastern Counties Football Union), Selby Browne (Veteran Footballers Foundation of Trinidad and Tobago) and Look Loy (TTSL).

The constitution states that decisions by the emergency committee ‘shall have immediate legal effect’ while the Board would be notified of such decisions for ratification at its next meeting. In theory, issues like the re-appointment of National Senior Team head coach Dennis Lawrence or the TTFA’s response to the garnishing of its bank accounts could have been handled by the emergency committee.

“They could bypass the Board [through the emergency committee] and run TTFA football that way, which is what they have been de facto,” said Look Loy. “But this will allow them to operate without the Board while having constitutional authority at the same time.

“They have the votes to put whoever they want on the emergency committee.”

Although John-Williams retains his political strength, Look Loy believes he is no longer fit to effectively run local football and claimed the TTFA cannot recover with the current president at the helm.

“The David John-Williams administration is like a punch drunk boxer on the ropes—semi-conscious at best, but would not concede,” said Look Loy. “They seem determined not to go down and to hold out, because they have some political support. But as far as the public and football fans go, people just want to see their backs.”

The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Offline Deeks

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #355 on: April 29, 2019, 02:15:11 AM »
Give them hell Keith.

Offline Mad Scorpion a/k/a Big Bo$$

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #356 on: April 29, 2019, 08:05:11 AM »
They are very transparent in their bullshit attempts to block KLL and the general public from being privy to what's going on with THOF project.

Offline Flex

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #357 on: May 15, 2019, 12:28:03 AM »
Judge reserve judgement in Walkes v TTFA matter.
By Derek Achong (Guardian).


For­mer T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTFA) tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor Kendal Walkes will learn the fate of his law­suit, af­ter he was fired from his post less than one year on the job, on Sep­tem­ber 27.

High Court Judge Joan Charles re­served her judge­ment in Walkes' breach of con­tract case at the end of a brief tri­al at the Hall of Jus­tice in Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day morn­ing.

Tues­day's hear­ing be­gan with the youth coach from Penn­syl­va­nia tes­ti­fy­ing over how he got the job in 2015.

Ac­cord­ing to Walkes, he was coach­ing in the Unit­ed States Vir­gin Is­lands when a col­league from the State As­so­ci­a­tion for Youth Soc­cer in Penn­syl­va­nia rec­om­mend­ed him for the job based on his ex­pe­ri­ence and his Trinida­di­an her­itage.

Walkes claimed that he had a tele­phone in­ter­view be­fore be­ing in­vit­ed for an­oth­er while he was in Trinidad to at­tend his sib­ling's fu­ner­al in Feb­ru­ary 2015.

He claimed that he was of­fi­cial­ly of­fered the po­si­tion dur­ing the meet­ing with the as­so­ci­a­tion's for­mer pres­i­dent Ray­mond Tim Kee, gen­er­al sec­re­tary Shel­don Phillips and na­tion­al team man­ag­er William Wal­lace.

While be­ing cross-ex­am­ined by TTFA's lawyer Anand Mis­sir, Walkes claimed that he could not re­mem­ber all that was dis­cussed dur­ing the meet­ing as it oc­curred over three years ago.

"It was a dis­cus­sion on the ten­ants of the con­tract and if it would be ac­cept­able to me," Walkes said.

Charles was re­peat­ed­ly forced to stop Mis­sir dur­ing his ques­tion­ing as she point­ed out that the is­sues raised in his ques­tions to Walkes were not men­tioned in the as­so­ci­a­tion's de­fence to the law­suit.

In its de­fence, the TTFA al­leged that it broke the con­tract with Walkes af­ter Fi­fa of­fi­cials wrote to it and raised is­sues over his re­port­ed $93,000 a month com­pen­sa­tion pack­age in light of the as­so­ci­a­tion's well known fi­nan­cial con­straints. It is al­so con­tend­ing that the con­tract was not valid.

While she did not make a fi­nal pro­nounce­ment on the is­sue, Charles sug­gest­ed that Walkes' con­tract may be held bind­ing as the for­mer TTFA of­fi­cials were em­pow­ered to sign the con­tract when they did and de­spite the fi­nan­cial con­straints, which she said would have been known to them at the time.

She al­so stat­ed even if the writ­ten con­tract was ques­tion­able, there was still a valid con­tract be­tween the par­ties as Walkes per­formed his du­ties and was com­pen­sat­ed be­fore the agree­ment was even­tu­al­ly ter­mi­nat­ed in March 2016.

"The on­ly is­sue re­al­ly is what cir­cum­stances would have to ap­ply if the de­fen­dant wished to ter­mi­nate the con­tract," Charles said as she gave the par­ties dead­lines for fil­ing sub­mis­sions in the case.

In the event that Walkes is even­tu­al­ly suc­cess­ful in his claim, the al­ready cash-strapped as­so­ci­a­tion would be or­dered to pay him for the re­main­ing two years on his con­tract.

Tim Kee, Phillips and em­bat­tled TTFA pres­i­dent David John-Williams were all present for the hear­ing but sat at op­pos­ing sides of the court­room.

Walkes is be­ing rep­re­sent­ed by Ke­ston Mc Quilkin.

The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

Offline Flex

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #358 on: May 24, 2019, 03:09:56 PM »
Freeze on TTFA bank account off.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).


A freeze on the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion's bank ac­count, caused by a court gar­nishee has been lift­ed, Guardian Me­dia Sports has been told.

This means the pro­posed start of the new T-League, which will fea­ture a Tier 1 and 2 com­pe­ti­tions, will be ex­pe­dit­ed.

A high-rank­ing of­fi­cial of the foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion con­firmed yes­ter­day that fi­nal pay­ment of over $300,000 was paid ear­li­er this week to com­plete an over­all pay­ment of over $500,000 to the T&T Fut­sal team which dragged the David John-Williams-led TTFA to court for un­paid wages, per diem, re­fresh­ment and oth­er ex­pens­es.

How­ev­er, Clay­ton Mor­ris, the fut­sal coach said he nor his at­tor­neys were in­formed about the pay­ment up to yes­ter­day.

The TTFA of­fi­cial who spoke un­der con­di­tion of anonymi­ty, was re­luc­tant to con­firm the pay­ment made, for fear that some­one else be­ing owed by the em­bat­tled foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion, will grasp at the op­por­tu­ni­ty at an­oth­er gar­nishee or­der.

Fol­low­ing the or­der in April, the court seized $270, 871.33 and since then, the TTFA has been un­able to pay salaries to its of­fice staff and oth­er mem­bers of the T&T Un­der-17 team staff and play­ers who con­test­ed the re­cent CON­CA­CAF U-17 Cham­pi­onship, which was al­so a FI­FA World Cup Qual­i­fi­er in the Unit­ed States ear­li­er this month.

Guardian Me­dia Sports was al­so in­formed that some staff mem­bers from the un­der-15 team were al­so paid. The TTFA has been in­debt­ed to a num­ber of peo­ple, in­clud­ing its tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor An­ton Corneal.

The fut­sal play­ers who are set to ben­e­fit from the pay­ment are - Kevin Gra­ham, Adri­an Pirthys­ingh, cap­tain Jer­wyn Balt­haz­ar, Col­in Joseph, Ker­ry Joseph, Jameel Nep­tune, Ish­mael Daniel, An­tho­ny Small, Ke­vaughn Con­nell, Ke­ston Guy, Ka­reem Per­ry, Jamel Lewis, Noel Williams, Bevon Bass and Cyra­no Glen, the younger broth­er of for­mer TT strik­er Cor­nell Glen.

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day Brent San­cho, a mem­ber of the T-League com­mis­sion ex­pressed sat­is­fac­tion with the de­vel­op­ment. He said he was hap­py to have heard this, since many of their chal­lenges hinged on the in­abil­i­ty of the FI­FA, through the FI­FA For­ward Project and the Sport Com­pa­ny of T&T to de­posit monies in­to the TTFA ac­count for the pur­pose of start­ing the league.

"The re­al­i­ty is that we couldn't have done any­thing with no mon­ey. We had a press con­fer­ence on Tues­day to give an up­date on the T- League but we couldn't have giv­en a start­ing date or a bud­get for the tour­na­ment un­til we re­ceived the mon­ey."

He not­ed, "Now I can as­sure you that a lot more in­fo will be forth­com­ing." The com­mis­sion, be­ing led by busi­ness­man Lyn­d­say Gillette, is ex­pect­ed to hold an­oth­er press con­fer­ence soon to pro­vide the in­for­ma­tion he could not pro­vide to the me­dia Tues­day.

San­cho said his com­mis­sion has al­so gone full speed ahead to ap­point key of­fi­cials for the man­age­ment of the T-League, such as a mar­ket­ing and pro­mo­tion­al, a li­cens­ing and a com­pe­ti­tions and tour­na­ment's of­fi­cial.

Ac­cord­ing to San­cho in­ter­views for these po­si­tions be­gan on Mon­day and will con­tin­ue to­day. He is pre­dict­ing top qual­i­ty com­pe­ti­tion in the two tiers, re­veal­ing that they are ex­pect­ing Ja­maican Sports Net­work Sports­max and FLOW to be on board when it starts.

The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

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Re: TTFA News Thread.
« Reply #359 on: May 29, 2019, 11:44:24 AM »
Look Loy: TTFA’s attempt to blame Concacaf ‘ridiculous’
By Joel Bailey (Newsday).


OUTSPOKEN TT Football Association (TTFA) board member Keith Look Loy has slammed the local football governing body’s attempt to blame Concacaf for the Association’s struggles to field men’s and women’s teams for the 2020 Olympic qualifiers.

On Monday, in a media conference at the Ato Boldon Stadium, in Couva, TTFA board member Richard Quan Chan called on corporate T&T to help offset the US$165,000 required to send the teams to their respective qualifiers.

According to Quan Chan, “We have complained that the release of dates of Concacaf is not in keeping with good planning. One of the problems we are having is with Concaaf and one we have raised with them on a few occasions – the timing that they release dates.

“It would be more economical and a better financial decision at this time to focus on the other tournaments that are coming up than try and prepare an Olympic team in six weeks,” Quan Chan added. With Olympic Games staged quadrennially – the 2020 edition will take place in Tokyo, Japan – Look Loy pointed out yesterday, “This argument is nonsensical, ridiculous and an attempt to blame Concacaf and provide cover for the incompetence of the TTFA. Everybody knows (when) the fixtures are, (they) are the exact (FIFA) match dates.

“Everybody knows when the qualifying tournament would be played. This is just camouflage for incompetence.”

Look Loy noted the Board has virtually no say on current TTFA matters. “The Board is now redundant because of the appointment of this emergency committee. They have enough votes now to no longer need the Board to do anything.”

The emergency committee comprises president David John-Williams, vice-president Ewing Davis, Quan Chan (Southern FA), Selby Browne (Veterans Football Federation of TT), Anthony Moore (Tobago FA) and Bandele Kamau (Eastern FA).

Look Loy, president of the TT Super League, continued, “This situation with the Olympic teams is just more salt in the TTFA’s wound. The TTFA is broke and this is not the first team that has essentially been abandoned. The most recent one was the beach (soccer) team that had to find private sponsorship to go. The TTFA didn’t help them at all.

“Before that we had the Under-20s, the Under-17s, the women and so on. This is just the latest in a long line of national teams that has been abandoned. This is further evidence of the incompetence of (this) administration. “

Turning his attention on the Home of Football in Couva, Look Loy said, “The Home of Football is of no use to the national teams because the teams have little or no preparation. The chairman of the commission of the new T-League (Lindsay Gillette) was quoted in the media praising the Home of Football and talking about how water polo players would be using it. That facility was not built for water polo players, swimmers and cyclists. It was built to service the needs for T&T football.

“I don’t want to hear about water polo players when my national teams can’t use it because we’re clocking out of competitions. ”

The real measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

 

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