William Wallace Thread

[Flex]

Wallace mum on TTFA finances before key meeting.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian Reports).

New T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent William Wal­lace is mum on con­cerns that his as­so­ci­a­tion may be in­sol­vent.

Wal­lace, whose ad­min­is­tra­tion had promised spon­sor­ship in abun­dance, in­clud­ing a lu­cra­tive deal with Unit­ed States-based sports­wear gi­ant Nike, if they were to as­sume gov­er­nance of T&T foot­ball, on Mon­day told Guardian Me­dia Sports he could not say any­thing about the fi­nan­cial af­fairs of the foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion un­til their first meet­ing of the board on De­cem­ber 14.

Wal­lace’s com­ment came even as pres­i­dent of the Vet­er­an Foot­ball Foun­da­tion Sel­by Browne is­sued a re­lease to the me­dia on Mon­day, ques­tion­ing why the Wal­lace-led TTFA had to scale down the re­cent­ly launched League of Cham­pi­ons due to lack of fund­ing and de­scribed it as lu­di­crous.

Browne said fund­ing has to be the least of the prob­lems of the new TTFA.

Ac­cord­ing to Browne, “This ad­min­is­tra­tion is now re­spon­si­ble for pro­vid­ing sup­port fund­ing for not just the TT Pro League and oth­er TTFA Leagues, but all na­tion­al teams and tech­ni­cal pro­grammes which are all in­clud­ed in the more than $30 mil­lion deficit bud­get ap­proved by del­e­gates at the TTFA AGM held on No­vem­ber 24th. More­over, this ad­min­is­tra­tion is now re­spon­si­ble for the an­swers to make pay­ment of the now more than $48 mil­lion debt of the TTFA in ad­di­tion to the $15 mil­lion state­ment of claim by Mr Jack Warn­er.”

He added, “The new TTFA will need to im­me­di­ate­ly bring the US$30 mil­lion spon­sor­ship funds to in­clude re­ceiv­ing the promised Nike spon­sor­ship mil­lions to avoid the TTFA from be­ing de­clared bank­rupt or avoid­ing in­sol­ven­cy. It is my hum­ble view that any right-think­ing TTFA del­e­gate at­tend­ing the AGM would have con­sid­ered the ques­tion of ad­dress­ing the sol­ven­cy of the Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion a ma­jor pri­or­i­ty be­fore cast­ing their vote.”

Browne con­clud­ed by say­ing he hopes the an­swers to this re­al con­cern will be im­me­di­ate­ly ad­dressed by the new TTFA ad­min­is­tra­tion be­fore those ques­tions are asked by the CON­CA­CAF, FI­FA and the Gov­ern­ment.

Con­tact­ed for com­ment on Born­we’s claim yes­ter­day, how­ev­er, Wal­lace said he was not at lib­er­ty to dis­close the fi­nances of the TTFA as yet, say­ing this would not be pos­si­ble at least un­til the first of­fi­cial board meet­ing is held on Sat­ur­day from 1 pm.

“I would not com­ment on any re­lease that Mr Browne sent out at this point in time. I have a board meet­ing next Sat­ur­day and at that meet­ing, we will ap­prise the board on it,” Wal­lace said.

Wal­lace said they are still get­ting a clear­er pic­ture on the TTFA’s fi­nances and will soon be seal­ing some of the promised spon­sor­ship con­tracts as their par­ties have been work­ing on it.

[Flex]

Strong message sent.
By Jelani Beckles (Newsday).

T&T sporting bodies support WADA’s Russia ban…

PRESIDENTS of T&T sporting bodies are supporting the decision by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to ban Russia for four years from major international sporting events, saying a strong message had to be sent to athletes.

The four-year ban was delivered after Russia failed to comply with drug testing rules. The lengthy ban means Russia will not compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and at the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar.

President of the TT Football Association (TTFA) William Wallace agreed with WADA’s decision. “Definitely I support action like that. I think we have to try to maintain a level playing field for those persons who are working hard to get better at (their) sport. There should not be a disadvantage for persons who are using enhancement drugs, so I totally support that ban.”

Wallace said clean Russian athletes will pay the price. “It is unfortunate that there are persons who would not have been guilty, but are now affected by this. It means that various associations must play a greater role of treating with their athletes and try their due diligence as far as their athletes are concerned.”

Wallace, who was only elected as the TTFA president two weeks ago, said the local football body will try to revamp its drug policies going forward. “I think that signals at least that association’s must play a greater role, so I think that it is something that we would need to pay closer attention to as we go forward.”

President of the National Association of Athletics Administrations (NAAA) Ephraim Serrette discussing the Russia ban, said, “It is harsh, but I guess they are sending a message to all the countries where the use of drugs in sport is concerned.”

The NAAA president said people in Russia may be turned away from sport and sports may die especially in the case of sports such as football where it will be difficult to compete as a neutral.

A total of 168 Russian athletes were allowed to compete under a neutral flag at the 2018 Winter Olympics after the country was banned following the 2014 Games.

Serrette said T&T track and field athletes are tested. “Under the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations), besides WADA, they have the Athletes Integrity Unit (AIU) in T&T. Just this past year we were mandated to have both in and out of competition testing and we had to do at least 75 in and out of competition testing. They were here and would have conducted those tests here...so it is something that they are doing much more regularly than in the past.” The AIU was formed in 2017 to fight doping in track and field.

Serrette said through the T&T Olympic Committee they tests national athletes at the annual National Open Senior Championships.

[Flex]

Wallace played critical role in Walkes contract.
By Keith Clement (Guardian).

Af­ter the Trinidad and To­ba­go Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion's ac­counts were re­cent­ly frozen by for­mer em­ploy­ee Kendall Walkes, who served as tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor from 2014 to 2016, many ques­tions were left unan­swered sur­round­ing the de­vel­op­ment which ef­fec­tive­ly paral­ysed the or­gan­i­sa­tion fi­nan­cial­ly, as it di­rect­ly af­fects the front­line stake­hold­ers of the sport, among them the ad­min­is­tra­tion, play­er and tech­ni­cal staff.

One of the key ques­tions be­ing asked by some mem­bers of the TTFA board di­rec­tors, led by pres­i­dent William Wal­lace, is why the body didn't ap­peal the judge­ment?

To­day, Guardian Me­dia Sports in­ves­ti­gates the cir­cum­stances which led to the dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tion in which the Wal­lace-led TTFA has now found it­self and which could even­tu­al­ly lead to FI­FA and CON­CA­CAF in­stalling a Nor­mal­i­sa­tion Com­mit­tee to run the af­fairs of the cashed-strapped body.

In 2014, An­ton Corneal re­signed as TTFA tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor sight­ing non-pay­ment of salaries for al­most four years, a fig­ure which stood at TT$3.5 mil­lion. In March 2015, the TTFA hired Walkes as Corneal's re­place­ment.

But con­cerns over this were raised by the then-new TTFA elect­ed in No­vem­ber 2015 with David John-Williams at the helm and FI­FA got in­volved via a meet­ing held here in T&T.

Guardian Me­dia Sports has seen a let­ter of Feb­ru­ary 2016 which FI­FA wrote to then act­ing TTFA gen­er­al sec­re­tary Aza­ad Khan in­di­cat­ing that Walkes' con­tract “con­tains er­rors or mis­lead­ing in­for­ma­tion and is miss­ing in­for­ma­tion.” FI­FA al­so not­ed that “the salary and oth­er com­pen­sa­tion in­clud­ed in the con­tract does not co­in­cide with the cur­rent fi­nan­cial sit­u­a­tion of the TTFA. There­fore, we strong­ly rec­om­mend that you re­view and re­do the afore­men­tioned con­tract.”

Re­li­able sources in­di­cat­ed that af­ter sev­er­al meet­ings with Walkes to fix the con­tact act­ing on FI­FA's ad­vice failed, a cor­re­spon­dence was is­sued to him in March 2016 by John-Williams.

<TTFA let­ter to Kendall Walkes>

Re: Your Em­ploy­ment sta­tus

I re­fer to the mat­ter at the cap­tion and the on­go­ing dis­cus­sions be­tween your­self and the TTFA.

Af­ter con­sid­er­able de­lib­er­a­tion, we have con­clud­ed that the TTFA has no al­ter­na­tive but to ter­mi­nate your em­ploy­ment with them.

I ask that you note that we did make every ef­fort to lo­cate an orig­i­nal con­tract of em­ploy­ment be­tween your­self and the TTFA, but notwith­stand­ing ex­ten­sive search­es, we were un­able to lo­cate this doc­u­ment – you al­so con­firmed at our meet­ing on the 1st March 2016 that you did not have an orig­i­nal du­pli­cate of your con­tract and would be re­ly­ing on the pho­to­copied doc­u­ment here­to at­tached.

It is our con­sid­ered view that this doc­u­ment is not on­ly in­com­plete but has al­so not been prop­er­ly ex­e­cut­ed.

In light of the find­ings of FI­FA and the ab­sence of a prop­er­ly ex­e­cut­ed and valid con­tract of em­ploy­ment, we are forced to con­sid­er your en­gage­ment with the TTFA as a month to month rolling con­tract. Please note that we will re-ad­ver­tise the po­si­tion and you are in­vit­ed to re­sub­mit your ap­pli­ca­tion for our con­sid­er­a­tion.”

DJW

<Court rul­ing & ap­peal dead­line>

On Sep­tem­ber 27, 2019, in a rul­ing, the High Court award­ed Walkes un­der US$800,000 for breach of con­tract.

On De­cem­ber 23, 2019, Jus­tice Joan Charles is­sued her writ­ten rul­ing in the mat­ter – the fi­nal or­der hav­ing been made on No­vem­ber 7, 2019 and then amend­ed on De­cem­ber 31, 2019.

The TTFA had 42 days from that date to ap­peal (un­til Feb­ru­ary 11, 2020) the rul­ing.

On Feb­ru­ary 13, 2020, Walkes, through at­tor­ney Melis­sa Roberts-John, took out a gar­nishee court or­der that froze the TTFA's ac­counts, ef­fec­tive­ly shut­ting down its op­er­a­tions. On Feb­ru­ary 18 and 19, 2020, cur­rent TTFA pres­i­dent Wal­lace and gen­er­al sec­re­tary Ramesh Ram­dan, via the me­dia, ex­pressed dis­may that the ac­tion was tak­en, as they were in ne­go­ti­a­tion with Walkes. How­ev­er, they ac­cept­ed it was the le­gal right of the Unit­ed States-based coach.

"We are not in any po­si­tion to treat with the mat­ter at this point,” Wal­lace said then. “But we have a debt re­duc­tion project that we want to start lat­er in the year and we want him to con­sid­er us and hold his hand. We are ask­ing for an ad­vance from our for­eign spon­sors to get some ear­ly mon­ey.”

Wal­lace ad­mit­ted that nei­ther he nor his gen­er­al sec­re­tary had yet in­formed the TTFA board (7 days af­ter the news broke) even as the foot­ball fra­ter­ni­ty had heard the news par­tial­ly in an I95.5FM re­port on Feb­ru­ary 18.

Wal­lace al­so told the me­dia, “This sit­u­a­tion was such a sur­pris­ing one and we have been try­ing to work out how to re­solve it. We are try­ing from our end to find a res­o­lu­tion be­fore we make an is­sue of it but we will have to in­form the board and Ramd­han is try­ing to get an ad­vance from over­seas spon­sors—we are get­ting some trac­tion there.”

He con­tin­ued, “We asked (for­mer gen­er­al sec­re­tary) Shel­don (Phillips) not to go through the court process and those talks are on­go­ing. The Walkes and Phillips con­tracts are two of the worst con­tracts we have ever seen. They were heav­i­ly weight­ed against the TTFA and leave all the op­tions open to the em­ploy­ee. But the fact is there is a con­tract and the man is owed, so we have to treat with it.”

Both Walkes and Phillips were hired by late for­mer TTFA pres­i­dent Ray­mond Tim Kee.

In the case of Walkes, ac­cord­ing to Wal­lace, he had a clause which al­lowed him to uni­lat­er­al­ly re­new his own con­tract. So Walkes told the High Court that he would en­force that right and, as a re­sult, the foot­ball body must pay his salary from 2015 to 2022.

<TTFA vows to set­tle Phillips mat­ter out of court>

Al­so, via a news re­lease on De­cem­ber 15, 2019, ti­tled De­ci­sions Tak­en — one of the items high­light­ed was that the Shel­don Phillips le­gal mat­ter would be im­me­di­ate­ly with­drawn from the In­dus­tri­al Court and an out of court set­tle­ment agreed with Phillips.

In doc­u­ments seen by Guardian Me­dia Sports, Phillip sought a set­tle­ment from the John-Williams ad­min­is­tra­tion of US$1,442,053.35 based on a pur­port­ed con­tract worth US$15,500 per month. We have seen doc­u­ments, job let­ters and re­turned cheques from the bank in­di­cat­ing that Phillips' salary was, in fact, US$4,000 a month plus hous­ing.

Wit­ness state­ments, cor­re­spon­dences and a copy of the Walkes' con­tract re­lat­ed to the case vs the TTFA al­so re­veal some star­tling de­tails.

<TTFA 3 Wit­ness state­ments in sup­port of Walkes>

It's in­ter­est­ing to note that for­mer TTFA pres­i­dent Tim Kee, Phillips and Wal­lace all pro­duced and signed wit­ness state­ments in sup­port of Walkes' mat­ter against the TTFA and there were sim­i­lar­i­ties in all three. What there­fore was the re­la­tion­ship be­tween these three in­di­vid­u­als?

For­mer TTFA gen­er­al sec­re­tary Shel­don Phillips' wit­ness state­ment read in part:

“A tech­ni­cal com­mit­tee “here­after the com­mit­tee” was formed by the de­fen­dant to over­see the hir­ing process of the va­cant tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor po­si­tion. The com­mit­tee com­prised of Mr Richard Quan Chan (the com­mit­tee’s chair­man), Mr Neville Fer­gu­son, Mr Stephan Hart and my­self.”

“In Feb­ru­ary 2015, I was present at a round­table meet­ing at the de­fen­dant's head­quar­ters. The de­fen­dants, then pres­i­dent Mr Ray­mond Tim Kee, the de­fen­dant’s team man­ag­er Mr William Wal­lace, were al­so in at­ten­dance at the meet­ing. Mr William Wal­lace served as an ad­vi­sor in the hir­ing process of the va­cant po­si­tion of the tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor, hence his at­ten­dance at the meet­ing.

“The dis­cus­sion al­so in­volved the terms and con­di­tions of his em­ploy­ment which in­clud­ed his re­mu­ner­a­tion and du­ra­tion of the con­tract as well as oth­er con­trac­tu­al in­cen­tives such as re­lo­ca­tion com­pen­sa­tion, health ben­e­fit, trans­porta­tion, hous­ing and tele­phone al­lowances.”

Tim Kee's wit­ness state­ment in part read:

In Feb­ru­ary 2015, I met with Mr Walkes at the de­fen­dant's head­quar­ters. Al­so present at that meet­ing were Mr William Wal­lace, the then team man­ag­er (who served as an ad­vi­sor in the hir­ing process of the tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor) and Mr Phillips. The pur­pose of the meet­ing was to speak to Mr Walkes since he was rec­om­mend­ed by the com­mit­tee as the best per­son for the job among ap­pli­cants."

Judg­ing from the con­tents of the three wit­ness state­ments Guardian Me­dia Sports have seen from Wal­lace, Phillips and Tim Kee, the cur­rent TTFA pres­i­dent was fa­mil­iar with the de­tails of Walkes’ con­tract.

If that is so, the ques­tion is why Wal­lace, now TTFA pres­i­dent, re­cent­ly told the me­dia, "The Walkes and Phillips con­tracts are two of the worst con­tracts we have ever seen. They were heav­i­ly weight­ed against the TTFA and leave all the op­tions open to the em­ploy­ee. But the fact is there is a con­tract and the man is owed, so we have to treat it.”

<Why didn't TTFA ap­peal>

So why did the present TTFA and for­mer pres­i­dent John Williams did not ap­peal the mat­ter?

Guardian Me­dia Sports reached out to John-Williams, who was very re­luc­tant to speak on the mat­ter.

He said, "I want to stay very clear of the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion fac­ing the TTFA at present. I am no longer the pres­i­dent."

Pressed fur­ther for a re­sponse as to why the mat­ter was not ap­pealed, he said, "In­struc­tions via email in late Oc­to­ber 2019 to the then TTFA at­tor­ney to pre­pare an ap­peal against the court rul­ing and at the same time ap­ply to the court for a stay in the mat­ter."

John-Williams' term of of­fice end­ed on No­vem­ber 24, 2019.

Guardian Me­dia Sports al­so reached out to TTFA at­tor­ney An­nand Misir.

He said, "I ceased to be the TTFA le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tive on 10 De­cem­ber 2019 and sug­gest­ed that all ques­tions be di­rect­ed to the cur­rent TTFA. "

Wal­lace told the me­dia on Feb­ru­ary 18 and 19 that, “I wrote to Kendall (Walkes) on Feb­ru­ary 3, in­di­cat­ing that we ac­cept­ed the judg­ment of the court (against the TTFA) and we are not in any po­si­tion to treat with the mat­ter at this point.”

When con­tact­ed and asked why the TTFA did not ap­peal the mat­ter, Wal­lace said, "The judge­ment was hand­ed down 27th Sep­tem­ber and we as­sumed of­fice on 25th No­vem­ber. "

Yes­ter­day, Wal­lace told Guardian Me­dia Sports that, "the lawyer did meet with the TTFA and an up­date was giv­en. In­ci­den­tal­ly, he ad­dressed the Hart mat­ter. I as­sumed the pe­ri­od had passed for the Walkes mat­ter. We did com­mu­ni­cate with Mr Walkes' At­tor­ney and her client is re­quest­ing 50% of what is due to him."

<DJW re­port to 2018 TTC­FA AGM>

So why did the cur­rent TTFA ad­min­is­tra­tion head­ed by Wal­lace not ap­peal the mat­ter hav­ing full knowl­edge of the facts sur­round­ing the case and FI­FA's con­cerns with the con­tract, in­clud­ing rais­ing the fi­nan­cial po­si­tion of the TTFA.

Ac­cord­ing to a re­port pre­sent­ed to the mem­bers and del­e­gates at the 2018 TTFA AGM, the Walkes court mat­ter and all the de­tails sur­round­ing it were high­light­ed in a re­port pre­sent­ed by John-Williams with re­gards to the TTFA debt.

The sec­tion of the re­port per­tain­ing to the Walkes mat­ter reads:

"I will like to share with the mem­ber­ship be­fore it gets dis­tort­ed in the pub­lic do­main the fol­low­ing.

1. The sit­u­a­tion with our for­mer tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor Mr Kendall Walkes

2. The claim against TTFA by the for­mer pres­i­dent’s son (Ray­mond Tim Kee).

3. The claim against TTFA by the for­mer gen­er­al sec­re­tary

4. A claim made by Jack Warn­er against the FA

I must share with mem­bers some facts sur­round­ing these four mat­ters.

Kendall Walkes:

Up­on as­sum­ing of­fice we could not find on file with­in the TTFA a con­tract for Mr Walkes yet we dis­cov­ered some pay­ments made to him and on his be­half in terms of salary and rent which to­talled more than TT$90,000.00/mth. Sub­se­quent­ly, Mr Walkes pre­sent­ed a con­tract to us. At a time when fund­ing was sus­pend­ed by FI­FA and who was at the time ad­vis­ing fed­er­a­tions in the re­gion on what a TD com­pen­sa­tion pack­age should be (USD 4500-5000 per month), the ques­tion must be: based on what pro­ject­ed in­come was Mr Walkes pack­age based up­on.

Up­on re­ceiv­ing of the said doc­u­ment and pre­sent­ing same to FI­FA, which was a re­quire­ment for the reestab­lish­ment of the FAP fund­ing, we were ad­vised cer­tain ac­tions to be tak­en in this mat­ter. The mat­ter is be­fore the courts of T&T.”

The at­ten­dance records of that AGM of 2018 shows that among those present were three cur­rent TTFA board mem­bers in the per­sons of Kei­th Look Loy, Richard Quan Chan and Brent San­cho.

At that meet­ing, San­cho was ap­point­ed as a scru­ti­neer by the meet­ing to re­view the sup­port­ing doc­u­ments pre­sent­ed by then-pres­i­dent John-Williams. The doc­u­ments in­clud­ed the Walkes con­tract.

The TTFA is now faced with a dif­fi­cult task of set­tling a huge debt to Walkes but more im­por­tant­ly, in the short term, ne­go­ti­at­ing an agree­ment to have the gar­nishee lift­ed so that staff, coach­es and oth­ers can be paid if not this month-end cer­tain­ly in the com­ing months.

Asked for an up­date on the mat­ter yes­ter­day fol­low­ing the an­nounce­ment of a four-year TT$25 mil­lion Avex kit deal, Wal­lace said, "We are cur­rent­ly in dis­cus­sions to treat with the frozen ac­counts and more im­por­tant­ly the his­toric debt. We are hop­ing to re­solve the sit­u­a­tion as soon as pos­si­ble."

Guardian Me­dia Sports watch­es on with in­ter­est since there are oth­ers like Shel­don Phillips, An­ton Corneal, Rus­sell Lat­apy, Stephen Hart and for­mer TTFA ad­vi­sor Jack Warn­er and sup­pli­ers who can fol­low in Walkes' foot­step with gar­nishee or­ders of their own. In fact, Guardian Me­dia has seen an­oth­er court or­der dat­ed Feb­ru­ary 2019 for TT$.7mil­lion from a sup­pli­er who is just wait­ing to cash in.

[Flex]

Wallace promises to deliver after TT$25M kit deal.
T&T Guardian Reports.

The T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTFA) has se­cured the largest com­mer­cial tech­ni­cal kit deal since qual­i­fi­ca­tion for the 2006 FI­FA World Cup, with a con­tract val­ued at TT$25mil­lion over the next four years.

A re­lease from the foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion’s of­fice yes­ter­day stat­ed that the agree­ment with in­ter­na­tion­al sup­pli­er Avec re­flects an as­so­ci­a­tion with a proven and ex­pe­ri­enced brand which has sup­plied many glob­al­ly recog­nised Eng­lish clubs over the years, such as Crys­tal Palace, Sun­der­land, Sheffield Unit­ed and Brad­ford City along­side many oth­ers in the Eng­lish and Scot­tish Foot­ball Leagues.

Avec’s his­to­ry of sup­ply­ing tech­ni­cal play­ing and train­ing kit to all lev­els and age groups from the Eng­lish Pre­mier League through to acad­e­mies, schools and col­leges have been an im­por­tant con­sid­er­a­tion in es­tab­lish­ing this new as­so­ci­a­tion.

The con­tract will com­mence in June 2020 and Avec will sup­ply pre­mi­um play­ing kit and train­ing wear to all TTFA rep­re­sen­ta­tive sides in­clud­ing the men’s and women’s se­nior sides and all age group cat­e­gories.

The new range will al­so be avail­able to fans through phys­i­cal and on­line re­tail out­lets, mean­ing that fans will be able to wear the same de­sign of play­ing and train­ing wear worn by all the rep­re­sen­ta­tive teams.

Pres­i­dent of the T&TFA William Wal­lace said: “The lev­el of this part­ner­ship re­flects a land­mark mo­ment for the TTFA and we are de­light­ed with the out­come. The chal­lenge was to find a new ap­par­el part­ner who could pro­vide the best pos­si­ble com­mer­cial out­come and en­sure a smooth sup­ply of ap­par­el to every sin­gle team on our ros­ter. The search was com­pre­hen­sive, but our unan­i­mous con­clu­sion was that Avec of­fered an over­all propo­si­tion that was a per­fect fit in all as­pects.”

“We now have a deal in place which of­fers un­ri­valled terms for the sup­ply of kit at all lev­els and a Part­ner who will be ag­ile and re­spon­sive to our play­ing and re­tail re­quire­ments at any giv­en mo­ment.”

“This type of deal is un­prece­dent­ed in the TTFA’s his­to­ry. It is a com­plete­ly fresh and ex­cit­ing part­ner­ship which sits per­fect­ly as part of the new era for T&T foot­ball.”

The lo­cal foot­ball boss said what was im­por­tant by this deal, com­pared to the 2006 kit deal, was that you had a sup­pli­er com­ing on board af­ter we had qual­i­fied.

“Here we are, and if you look at the TTFA now and if we are to be judged by what’s hap­pen­ing around us, we still have a part­ner who is will­ing and be­lieves in the dream we have to move the FA from where it is at this point. So they have come on board, blind you can say, bi­ut at least they un­der­stand the vi­sion that we have.”

He promised that some of the promis­es made on the elec­tion cam­paign last year will come through this year. He not­ed that his ad­min­is­tra­tion was sur­prised by the con­di­tion they found the FA in, but as­sured that they will rise, in­-spite of the chal­lenges they face cur­rent­ly and will take the sport out of the hole it cur­rent­ly finds it­self in.

Avec Sports Chair­man, Pe­ter Craw­ford said: “We are de­light­ed to be­come the of­fi­cial kit part­ners to the TTFA Na­tion­al teams. We tru­ly be­lieve this is an ex­cit­ing time to be in­volved with the TTFA and a fan­tas­tic op­por­tu­ni­ty to work across all lev­els of the na­tion­al side.”

“We are proud that the Avec brand has been cho­sen to sup­ply the TTFA in what is our first in­ter­na­tion­al part­ner­ship, es­pe­cial­ly with the over­all project that is now start­ing to take place un­der the new ad­min­is­tra­tion, which was some­thing we re­al­ly want­ed to be a part of.”

“We are look­ing for­ward to cre­at­ing and de­vel­op­ing the new kits and train­ing wear for the So­ca War­riors, and we look for­ward to en­sur­ing we de­vel­op a de­sign that sup­port­ers can wear with pride.”

Ac­cord­ing to Craw­ford: “We hope the part­ner­ship will bring suc­cess both on and off the pitch.”

Ter­ry Fen­wick said “This is about look­ing good, feel­ing good, en­joy­ing the kit and equip­ment they are us­ing so we can per­form at the high­est pos­si­ble lev­el. It has not been good over the past years but we are slow­ly and and sure­ly, and me­thod­i­cal­ly try­ing to change things around. I see the Avec deal as a fan­tas­tic deal for T&T.”

[Tiresais]

One in the hand and all that. Can't see how he'd clear that debt in 3 years though, unless he renegotiates it down.

[Flex]

Wallace denies intimate knowledge of Walkes contract.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian Reports).

Trinidad and To­ba­go Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Williams Wal­lace is deny­ing that he had any hand in the now con­tro­ver­sial con­tract which was award­ed to for­mer tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor Kendall Walkes.

Wal­lace made the state­ment yes­ter­day as he re­spond­ed to a T&T Guardian ar­ti­cle pub­lished on Thurs­day ti­tled "Wal­lace played crit­i­cal role in Walkes con­tract." on pages 60 and 61.

The ar­ti­cle was based on con­tents from four wit­ness state­ments in the on­go­ing le­gal bat­tle be­tween Walkes and the TTFA which were filed on June 8, 2018, by then for­mer TTFA pres­i­dent Ray­mond Tim Kee (de­ceased), for­mer gen­er­al sec­re­tary Shel­don Phillips, Walkes and Wal­lace. The state­ments gave tes­ti­mo­ny that Wal­lace was in­volved in the process of Walkes’ con­tract from the in­cep­tion and was asked to take an ad­vi­so­ry role by the TTFA at their first meet­ing with the US-based coach. Walkes is now in­volved in a le­gal bat­tle to re­cov­er some in TT$5.3 mil­lion in salaries owed to him and the wit­ness state­ments be­came pub­lic dur­ing the court mat­ter.

On Thurs­day, how­ev­er, Wal­lace chal­lenged the ar­ti­cle, say­ing it made in­cor­rect and in­ac­cu­rate judg­ments based on er­ro­neous in­for­ma­tion.

"My role at the one and on­ly meet­ing I at­tend­ed in re­la­tion to Mr Walkes’ ap­point­ment as TTFA tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor was as an as­sis­tant to the sec­re­tari­at and in my ca­pac­i­ty as se­nior men’s team man­ag­er dur­ing the can­di­date iden­ti­fi­ca­tion process,” Wal­lace wrote in a let­ter.

“The items dis­cussed dur­ing this meet­ing which re­quired my in­put in­clud­ed lo­gis­tics and plan­ning for Mr Walkes’ re­turn to Trinidad once he was se­lect­ed. There were not fi­nal con­trac­tu­al de­tails at this point. There­after I was nev­er privy to any de­tails on Mr Walkes’ fi­nal con­tract."

In Wal­lace's wit­ness state­ment, which Guardian Me­dia Sports re­ceived a copy of, he was list­ed as team man­ag­er from 2013 to 2016 and he de­tailed all that was dis­cussed at the first meet­ing.

The wit­ness state­ments of Tim Kee, Walkes and Phillips, which Guardian Me­dia Sports al­so has copies of), list­ed Wal­lace an ad­vi­sor at the meet­ing which dis­cussed terms and con­di­tions of Walkes’ im­pend­ing deal.

Part of Phillips' state­ment, which list­ed all who were present at the meet­ing, read: “The dis­cus­sion al­so in­volved the terms and con­di­tions of his (Walkes’) em­ploy­ment which in­clud­ed his re­mu­ner­a­tion and du­ra­tion of the con­tract as well as oth­er con­trac­tu­al in­cen­tives such as re­lo­ca­tion com­pen­sa­tion, health ben­e­fit, trans­porta­tion, hous­ing and tele­phone al­lowances.”

In their wit­ness state­ments, Phillips and Tim Kee iden­ti­fied Wal­lace as an ad­vi­sor while in his state­ment, Walkes said, "Mr Wal­lace was at the meet­ing in the ca­pac­i­ty of an ad­junct ad­vi­sor in the hir­ing process of the va­cant tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor po­si­tion."

Wal­lace al­so took is­sue with the fol­low­ing quote: “The Walkes and Phillips con­tracts are two of the worst con­tracts we have ever seen. They were heav­i­ly weight­ed against the TTFA and leave all the op­tions open to the em­ploy­ee. But the fact is there is a con­tract and the man is owed, so we have to treat it.”

He said this was in­cor­rect­ly at­trib­uted to him. In fact, this quote was made by cur­rent TTFA act­ing gen­er­al sec­re­tary Ramesh Ramd­han in re­sponse to the re­cent de­ci­sion by Walkes to gar­nish the TTFA’s ac­counts.

[Tallman]

Board members seek details from Wallace today
By Keith Clement (T&T Guardian)

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion's (TTFA) board of di­rec­tors will be seek­ing an­swers from pres­i­dent Williams Wal­lace with re­gards to his roles in both the Kendall Walkes and Shel­don Phillips court mat­ters when it meets at the Home of Foot­ball in Bal­main, Cou­va, to­day.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia Sports on the con­di­tion of anonymi­ty, a board mem­ber yes­ter­day said if what the T&T Guardian re­port­ed ear­li­er this week is true, then Wal­lace has to say some­thing to the board be­cause he can­not be a wit­ness to a le­gal mat­ter in­volv­ing Walkes and now sit on be­half of the TTFA to lead ne­go­ti­a­tions in­volv­ing Walkes. The board mem­ber said this was a con­flict of in­ter­est.

Con­tact­ed on the is­sue, Brent San­cho, an­oth­er board mem­ber who rep­re­sents the T&T Pro League, said, "With re­gards to the Walkes and Phillps court mat­ters which are en­gag­ing the TTFA, there are three sides to a sto­ry and I am wait­ing to hear from the pres­i­dent him­self at our board meet­ing to­mor­row (to­day) be­fore I com­ment."

On Feb­ru­ary 13, 2020, Walkes, through at­tor­ney Melis­sa Roberts-John, took out a gar­nishee court or­der that froze the TTFA's ac­counts, ef­fec­tive­ly shut­ting down its op­er­a­tions, fol­low­ing a rul­ing by the High Court which award­ed Walkes just un­der US$800,000 (TT$5.3 mil­lion) for breach of con­tract by the as­so­ci­a­tion in 2016.

A team from FI­FA, the sports world body, which com­pris­es Fi­nance Co­or­di­na­tor (FI­FA) Mehmet Dir­lik, Fi­nance Man­ag­er (CON­CA­CAF) Ale­jan­dro Ke­sende, mem­ber of the CON­CA­CAF Fi­nance De­part­ment Dal­ly Fuentes and Amer­i­can Va­le­ria Yepes, an in­de­pen­dent au­di­tor, were in T&T ear­li­er this week to ver­i­fy the T&TFA's cur­rent debt and get a sense of the le­gal mat­ters that are be­fore the courts. (See page 54)

It was the same sit­u­a­tion in 2019 when the Fut­sal team won a court or­der for TT$544,943 for un­paid salaries, match fees, per diem, al­lowances and ex­pens­es and Veron Mosen­go-om­ba was at the helm of that CON­CA­CAF team that vis­it­ed.

The TTFA has al­so with­drawn Phillips' mat­ter from the In­dus­tri­al Court based on a promised set­tle­ment from the Wal­lace's ad­min­is­tra­tion of US$1,442,053.35.

Mean­while, when asked about the new TT$25 mil­lion dol­lars uni­form deal from the UK Sports com­pa­ny Avec, San­cho said, "Again, I can­not com­ment be­cause I, like most board mem­bers, have not seen the con­tract."

Ac­cord­ing to the source, how­ev­er, Wal­lace must let the board know what was his in­volve­ment in both mat­ters be­fore the board can make an in­formed de­ci­sion.

Guardian Me­dia Sports has seen wit­ness state­ments in the on­go­ing le­gal bat­tle be­tween Walkes and the TTFA which were filed on June 8, 2018, by then for­mer TTFA pres­i­dent Ray­mond Tim Kee (de­ceased), for­mer gen­er­al sec­re­tary Shel­don Phillips, Walkes and Wal­lace.

The state­ments gave tes­ti­mo­ny that Wal­lace was in­volved in the process of ham­mer­ing out Walkes’ con­tract from the in­cep­tion and was an ad­vi­sor to the TTFA at the meet­ing which start­ed the talks to hire the US-based coach. Walkes is in a le­gal bat­tle to re­cov­er some in TT$5.3 mil­lion in salaries owed to him and the wit­ness state­ments be­came pub­lic dur­ing the court mat­ter.

On Thurs­day, how­ev­er, Wal­lace chal­lenged the ar­ti­cle, say­ing it made in­cor­rect and in­ac­cu­rate judg­ments based on er­ro­neous in­for­ma­tion.

"My role at the one and on­ly meet­ing I at­tend­ed in re­la­tion to Mr Walkes’ ap­point­ment as TTFA tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor was as an as­sis­tant to the sec­re­tari­at and in my ca­pac­i­ty as se­nior men’s team man­ag­er dur­ing the can­di­date iden­ti­fi­ca­tion process,” Wal­lace wrote in a let­ter.

“The items dis­cussed dur­ing this meet­ing which re­quired my in­put in­clud­ed lo­gis­tics and plan­ning for Mr Walkes’ re­turn to Trinidad once he was se­lect­ed. There were not fi­nal con­trac­tu­al de­tails at this point. There­after I was nev­er privy to any de­tails on Mr Walkes’ fi­nal con­tract."

In Wal­lace's wit­ness state­ment, which Guardian Me­dia Sports re­ceived a copy of, he was list­ed as team man­ag­er from 2013 to 2016 and he de­tailed all that was dis­cussed at the first meet­ing.

Part of Wal­lace's wit­ness to the Court reads:

“In on around Feb­ru­ary 2015 the De­fen­dant (TTFA) had a round ta­ble in­ter­view with Mr Kendall Walkes “here­after the Claimant” at the De­fen­dants then Hase­ly Craw­ford Na­tion­al Sta­di­um Head­quar­ters. The De­fen­dants, then-Pres­i­dent Ray­mond Tim Kee as well as the De­fen­dant's then-Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Mr Shel­don Phillips “here­after Mr Phillips” were present at the said in­ter­view. I was al­so present at this meet­ing.

“These dis­cus­sions in­clud­ed but not lim­it­ed to month­ly re­mu­ner­a­tions and/or hous­ing, tele­phone ben­e­fits as well as oth­er con­trac­tu­al in­cen­tives such as re­lo­ca­tion and trans­porta­tion com­pen­sa­tion with re­spect to the po­si­tion. Pri­or to the in­ter­view con­clud­ing there was a ver­bal of­fer be­tween the Claimant and the De­fen­dant with re­spect to the Tech­ni­cal Di­rec­tor po­si­tion.”

[Storeboy]

William Wallace has a lot of mess to clean up.  From the looks of things, he is up for the task. But could he keep up? Every day reveals millions of debt from bad contracts and decisions made by the last three administrations that has set us back decades. Good luck, sir!

https://newsday.co.tt/2020/03/17/ttfa-to-pay-part-of-owed-to-ex-technical-director/

[Flex]

FCB gets new deadline from Wallace's lawyer.
By Derek Achong (Guardian).

A legal wrangle over control of the T&T Football Association (TTFA)'s bank account appears set to go to court.

In a legal letter sent to lawyers representing First Citizens Bank (FCB) on Thursday morning, lawyers representing former TTFA president William Wallace and his executive team questioned the bank's response to its previous letter of April 17, seeking information on an alleged request by Fifa's normalisation committee to change the signatories to the TTFA's account.

While their lawyer Matthew Gayle suggested that his previous correspondence may have been inadvertently misinterpreted, he stated that his client resisted the temptation to draw adverse conclusions from the response issued by FCB's lawyer Kendell Alexander on Tuesday. 

"My client's directors were taken aback by the aggressive tone and defensive nature of your email," Gayle said. 

Gayle was careful to note that in his original correspondence, he merely sought to point out that his clients were lawfully elected to the TTFA board in November, last year, and had received information that an attempt had been made to change the signatories to the TTFA's account, after Fifa appointed a normalisation committee to take control of the organisation on March 27. 

Gayle said: "There is no, as Mr Alexander, puts it, assertion/implication that your client has engaged in these matters, whether deliberate or inadvertently. The fact that you have seen it fit to deny with such force allegations which have not been levelled at your client is very concerning to my client." 

Gayle also firmly denied that his letter potentially defamed the bank. 

"In actual fact, if your client's image and/or reputation has been reduced in any way, it is by your summarily failing to respond to my client's principal concerns, and your client's failure to deny the contents of the 18th April 2020 article referred to above," Gayle said, as he questioned Alexander's request for 28 days in which to respond to his letter. 

"One would expect a competent and prudent financial institution to provide an instantaneous assurance that no such attempts would be entertained, not a request for 28 days which will do little to address my client's concern, and may only serve to be interpreted as an attempt to delay and obfuscate," Gayle said. 

In the letter, Gayle gave FCB until 8 am on April 27 to respond to his clients' concerns before he files a lawsuit over the issue. 

Gayle also stated that he was ready to respond to the bank's defamation allegation after it complies with pre-action protocols for such lawsuits. 

"In particular, your email fails to particularise the words complained of, the meanings attributed to the words, who the words were spoken of and fails to give an explanation as to why the words are defamatory," Gayle said. 

In his response on Tuesday, which was also obtained by Guardian Media Sports, Alexander denied any wrongdoing on FCB's part and stated: "Be advised that our client has strict policies and procedures in place which must be adhered to and require that all the requisite due diligence must be completed before the Bank can act on any request to transfer or change signatories on any account." 

Wallace and his three vice presidents Clynt Taylor, Susan Joseph-Warrick and Joseph Sam Phillip are also currently challenging FIFA's decision to remove them from office at the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS). 

[Flex]

Wallace: Cudjoe is right on timeline but don’t blame us for DJW’s behaviour.
By Lasana Liburd (Wired868).

Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) president William Wallace confirmed that he did not seek a meeting with Minister of Sport Shamfa Cudjoe before March but denied suggestions that he only reached out to her when they were in trouble with Fifa.

Wallace previously claimed that he tried unsuccessfully to meet Cudjoe and was only promised an audience last month, just two weeks before Fifa ordered a normalisation committee and declared that the local football body was under new management.

Cudjoe denied that she ignored the TTFA president.

“Wallace did not ask for a meeting with the Sport Minister,” said Cudjoe. “It is only about two weeks before [the normalisation committee] that they reached out. Before that they reached out to everyone but me.

“[…] Two years ago, there was an issue with the Women’s National Senior Team and their manager Jinelle James asked for the ministry’s intervention. When [then president David] John-Williams came here, he said ‘I don’t know what I’m doing here because I never requested this meeting. TTFA reports to FIFA’.

“And that has been the position and posture of TTFA ever since. So don’t play a different game with me now that you’re having trouble with FIFA.”

Wallace admitted that the sport minister was correct about the timeline of his request for a meeting. However he said it was unfair to blame his administration for the belligerence of his predecessor, John-Williams.

“The first time I would have written to Shamfa [Cudjoe] would have been when the bank accounts were frozen,” said Wallace. “However she did say that it is only when we got in trouble that we contacted her which was not true… She spoke about the attitude of the previous TTFA president but that [behaviour] didn’t come from us.

“I did meet with the Sport Company in January. But there was no urgent need to meet with the sport minister until March. And it didn’t have anything to do with Fifa.”

At present, Wallace is seeking to block Fifa’s move to replace him with normalisation committee chairman Robert Hadad and has appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). He also wrote to First Citizens Bank and ordered them not to allow Hadad access to the TTFA’s bank account.

FCB is seeking legal advice before making a determination on the claims from Hadad and Wallace.

Although the TTFA is formed by an act of Parliament and its constitution does not permit a president to be moved by any outside party, including Fifa, the government has already begun talks with Hadad, as the de facto local football boss.

Minister of National Security Stuart Young negotiated with Hadad last week for use of the TTFA Home of Football facility and ignored a letter from Wallace, which voiced concern about the snub.

[Flex]

Wallace wants to sign TTFA cheques.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).

Robert Hadad, head of the FIFA's normalisation committee, could have the final say on whether the staff of the T&T Football Association (TTFA) as well as the technical staff, could be paid by next week.

The staff of the TTFA has not been paid for March and April, and its general secretary had to borrow money to pay its salaries for February.

There is a legal wrangle between former president William Wallace and FIFA's Normalisation committee for the TTFA accounts. Attorney for Wallace, Matthew GW Gayle, in a second letter to TTFA bankers First Citizens Bank (FCB) on Thursday, gave the bank until today to respond to a request which was made last Monday after a letter was sent to the institution, three days earlier.

This latest development between the normalisation committee and the ousted football association's executive, which is headed by Wallace, means that the staff may have to wait much longer before they can be paid.

However, yesterday Wallace told Guardian Media Sports that he's willing to perform all his duties as TTFA president in the interest of ensuring the payment of staff from monies which the organisation is expecting from FIFA, the world governing body for the sport.

Wallace and his vice presidents Clynt Taylor, Sam Phillips and Susan Joseph-Warrick are challenging FIFA over its March 27 appointment of the normalisation committee to run the affairs of T&T football, through the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The former officers believe that handing over the TTFA accounts to the normalisation committee is an act of surrendering their challenge. Wallace's role for the payment of workers is one of a signatory, once all documentation has been prepared and signed by TTFA finance manager Tyril Patrick.

The other signatory to the accounts is former general secretary Azaad Khan since new general secretary Ramesh Ramdhan did not officially receive the position as a signatory, following the United TTFA victory during the TTFA annual general meeting (AGM) on November 24, last year.

Wallace told Guardian Media Sports yesterday that he is willing to be a signatory to the payment of staff but was not willing to give up his power of being a signatory or change his signatories on the TTFA accounts.

FIFA recently announced that it was handing over grants to its member associations, particularly those in need of help during the current COVID-19 pandemic environment. It also announced that a FIFA Relief Fund will also be accessible to vulnerable member associations.

This means the embattled football association is in line to receive US$1.2 million (an estimated TT$6.7million), plus a CONCACAF US$160,000 grant, as well as an unknown amount for the relief fund once the parties (Hadad/FIFA and Wallace) can agree on how it can be done.

Payment of funds by FIFA is usually done on Wednesdays and Fridays, which means the sport's governing body can release the cheques by this week but office and technical staff members will have to wait for a further three to four days before monies can show up in their accounts.

Guardian Media Sports made calls to Hadad's phone but they went unanswered.

Guardian Media Sports then sent messages to Hadad which asked: "If he would consider an option by Wallace for the TTFA account to be used for the FIFA transfer of funds. Wallace has said he is willing to put his signature to sign off for payment of TTFA staff but was not willing to change his signatories, is that something you will consider?"

The message was read but Hadad did not respond.

Meanwhile, a member of the TTFA who wished to remain anonymous, said he believed it was a good proposal for Wallace to remain as a signatory to the account in the interest of the staff being paid.

He told Guardian Media Sports the situation is a workable one although FIFA can choose to wire the monies into Hadad's personal account if it did not want to use the signatories of the former executives. He noted that because it is unsure of how long the legal battle between TTFA and FIFA will take place, the staff members will be unable to take care of their families for an indefinite period.

[Tallman]

Big William’s last stand
T&T Express

No matter how it all ends, you have to give William Wallace his pips.

History may contradict me, but I cannot recall a president of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association or any of its incarnations having to deal with the kind of challenges that Wallace has had to face since assuming office in November of last year.

First of all, there is the debt, all $50m-plus of it.

Going into the job, Wallace and his United TTFA slate of candidates knew they had a lot of people to pay and a lot of cash to find. But as they pored over the accounts, the enormity of the task that faced them grew with each new file uncovered.

Thirteen legal cases had to be dealt with. Then there was the Home of Football, a strong campaign pillar for Wallace’s predecessor, David-John Williams, but one with many holes - including an outstanding bill of $1.7 million.

Then there was the actual business of re-organising the football and blending together a variety of personalities like technical committee chairman Keith Look Loy and new national men’s coach, Terry Fenwick.

Those issues were onerous enough. But then comes the month of March with the Covid-19 virus and the FIFA tsunami.

To hear Wallace speak now, he and his team ought to have been on the lookout for the action the world governing body took on March 17 to appoint a normalisation committee. The official explanation for supplanting Wallace and company with businessman Robert Hadad and his fellow appointees was the Association’s accumulated debt—debt, as has been noted previously, Wallace’s TTFA was not responsible for accruing. But Wallace has always contended that the money owed was a red herring. Lately, he has been raising the issue of the bill for the Home of Football—for which he claims there is no proper paper trail—as the key to FIFA’s true motive.

Whatever the truth may be, the governing body has swamped the TTFA with its normalisation move.

So, faced with these massive waves of problems, it would have been easy for Wallace to look to the shore and swim for safety, leave FIFA to deal with its business and wait for two years to try again.

That may still be the most practical thing to do. But Wallace and his vice-presidents Sam Phillip, Clynt Taylor and Susan Joseph-Warrick have chosen instead to swim against the tide.

Their decision to drop their appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland but to go instead through the local High Court is a bold one, fraught with risk.

However, thinking about it, I shouldn’t be surprised.

Physically, William Wallace is a solid man, not one who seems easy to push over. And when he speaks, his tone is deep and measured. In all respects he can hold his own. And retired school teacher that he is, Wallace would have considered all aspects of his FIFA problem, listened to the voices around him and calculated the cost of going to court.

In particular, the TTFA president must consider that in doing so, FIFA sanctions against local football could now become a possibility; something many of the personalities who have spoken publicly on this matter have raised concerns over. The fallout if that should happen would be painful, not so much for the TTFA president or his vice-presidents personally, but for those they took office to serve.

I have no doubt that the TTFA’s duly elected top man has given this risk deep thought. But clearly the magnitude of what by popular opinion is a major injustice inflicted on the TTFA, has fuelled a determination to stay the course.

Only time will tell whether or not this is a misguided decision borne out of a noble sense of duty. It may very well be Big William’s last stand.

However, give the man credit for standing by his convictions. His courage alone deserves respect. 

[pull stones]

Who wrote this article fazeer, because he and Collin Murray are the only journalist apart from liburd who took an object view of the situation. I have to say that all the other football circle in TT was very kiss ass in their support for fifa, including stern, in fact jack warner have more back bone than the whole string band if yes sir men.

[Flex]

Wallace: No change without consequences.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).

“There could be no change without consequences. Some people want to support our stance but are unwilling to accept the consequences.”

This was the statement yesterday from ousted T&T Football Association president William Wallace, who is leading a daring battle against the world governing body for football FIFA, for the right to manage the local game once more.

The team of Wallace, Clynt Taylor, Joseph Sam Phillip and Susan Joseph-Warrick was replaced by a FIFA Normalisation Committee appointed by the FIFA because the TTFA faced a real risk of insolvency.

T&T football is now being managed by that normalisation committee, comprising businessman Robert Hadad, the chairman, retired banker Nigel Romano and attorney Judy Daniel, after Wallace and his executive was removed from office on March 17 by FIFA, according to article 8.2 of its statutes.

Wallace, who on Monday took their battle with the FIFA to the High Court in Port-of-Spain, took a swipe at their detractors yesterday, saying the notion of taking a stand without risk is contradictory.

“They are basing this on what might happen, assuming that we will be banned for our stance. We are taking a calculated risk and we are getting the support of the international media,” Wallace said.

He added: “Right now our football needs to reset. For the past four years, our football had been going backwards, yet no one stood up and said anything but us (the United TTFA). Now they are telling me about where we are going wrong. This is not a decision that was made just so, we considered several factors before we arrived at this.”

Meanwhile, Stern John, a T&T Under-20 assistant coach, is calling on Wallace and his team to do the right thing.

“This is taking T&T football back to the stone age and I cannot support that. At the end of the day, football must be the winner. It must not be destroyed at the expense of someone proving a personal point,” John told Guardian Media Sports.

He said believes with the approach being taken, several young T&T footballers will suffer.

“I have a son who wants to represent this country but if we are banned, he may never get the chance, just as many other young players. I think Wallace has gotten it wrong here,” John, the country's all-time top goalscorer, explained.

The Wallace team's decision to take the FIFA to the local court is a violation of the FIFA Statutes for Member Associations, an action that leads to a ban. However, it is uncertain which ban FIFA could hand down, as one official said, “The country, on the whole, could be banned, or there could be a ban on individuals. This decision will be made at the FIFA Congress and that is if the FIFA decides to ban us for the stand we took.”

RELATED NEWS

TTFA gives Fifa eight days to respond.
By Jelani Beckles (Newsday).

LAWYERS representing the former TT Football Association (TTFA) executive are giving Fifa eight days to respond to claim documents.

On Monday, the former TTFA executive decided to take the matter against Fifa to the TT High Court instead, as they felt they would not get a fair hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The former TT executive, led by president William Wallace, is fighting Fifa on its decision to disband the group, claiming Fifa has no right to interfere with a democratically elected local body.

The Wallace-led executive was removed from office by Fifa on March 17 after less than four months in the job.

The former executive was replaced by a normalisation committee led by local businessman Robert Hadad. The committee will run the affairs of local football, including getting rid of the $50 million debt facing the local football body.

Gayle said Fifa has acknowledged receipt of TTFA’s email and the former TTFA executive is giving Fifa eight days to enter an appearance.

“They have to file what’s called a notice of intention to defend,” Gayle said. “They have to let the court know are they going to defend the case, are they going to concede the case, are they going to be part of the case and so on. They have to indicate that within eight days.”

The eight-day period started on May 19, the day Fifa received the documents from the TTFA lawyers Gayle and Dr Emir Crowne. Gayle said they will count eight full days from May 20, therefore the TTFA is hoping to get a response from Fifa by next Friday.

[Flex]

Baptiste: Players will suffer in TTFA battle.
By Jelani Beckes (Newsday).

AN African proverb warns that when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. Former TT footballer Kerry Baptiste shares a similar sentiment as he fears local-based players would bear the brunt of the damage in the ongoing battle between the TT Football Association (TTFA) and the FIFA normalisation committee.

Baptiste credits the embattled TTFA president William Wallace and his executive for fighting FIFA on their decision to appoint a normalisation committee to run local football, but believes it would be an uphill battle for the former TTFA executive.

“Anybody will put up a fight for that but like I said, this is FIFA…this is not just some local body you putting up a fight against, this is FIFA,” Baptiste said.

On March 17, FIFA removed the freshly-appointed TTFA executive and appointed a normalisation committee led by Robert Hadad. The main job given to the normalisation committee is to eliminate the TTFA's huge debts, which is said to be $50 million.

Wallace inherited most of the debts as he was only elected president in November 2019. The former Secondary Schools Football League boss decided to take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but on Monday switched strategy, instead taking their fight to the TT High Court.

Baptiste hopes a situation does not arise where FIFA prevents TT from playing in tournaments because of the current battle for power.

“I really hope it does not reach that level where FIFA wants to ban TT from participating in tournaments from the youngest age groups to the senior level…If FIFA is here to improve and upgrade, all well and good because at the end of the day we cannot think about us."

Baptiste continued, "We cannot be selfish in this situation here…it will affect a lot of players, not a manager, not a coach, not a physio, not a trainer, the players are going to feel it…the players well-being we have to focus on.”

Baptiste said Wallace was put in a difficult position when he came into office. “Unfortunately Wallace was given the opportunity to try his best in the position that he got to try and help local football, but at the end of the day there were so many things before Mr Wallace (came into office), so no disrespect to him.”

The former national player is counting on FIFA to fix TT football. “Let’s hope at the end of the day that a lot of things get resolved peacefully and they bring some of kind of stability and tranquillity to football in the country. A lot of people depend on football locally. There are a lot of things that need to be resolved, so many things were upside down back in the days and today we fighting the same battle.”

TTFA board member and chairman of the technical committee Keith Look Loy, on Tuesday, said the move by the former TTFA executive to take their case from CAS to the High Court was not a last resort in their battle against FIFA.

"FIFA regulations permit one to appeal to CAS, so we followed the rules," Look Loy said. "Then CAS orders us to pay the entire legal costs, although the said regulations require FIFA to pay half. So we protested and forced CAS to ask FIFA to pay their half. FIFA refused so we now resort to the local High Court, because of FIFA's behaviour."

According to Look Loy, "(FIFA) have no authority to remove an elected executive."

[Deeks]

Andre, go fly a kite!!!!!

[pull stones]

Andre, go fly a kite!!!!!

i think is Wallace who needs to go fly a kite especially when every Monday morning he changes his mind about the way forward, as of yesterday he wants to negotiate with fifa. don’t get me wrong, I am in favor of a protest be it in the high court in pos or CAS in Switzerland, but he better make up his mind or step aside and leave the foolish people with their football, go get yourself organized and come back in 2 years.

 I think right now they are not organized and need to fall back and let fifa drown themselves, in the mean time wallace could go get reinforcements and line things up for the next elections, because as it stands he’s simply not ready to fight.

[Flex]

Wallace to Sport Minister: You’re confusing me.
By Narissa Fraser (Newsday).

FORMER president of the TT Football Association William Wallace says Sport Minister Shamfa Cudjoe’s stance on the association’s ongoing legal battle against FIFA is confusing.

The world governing body of football, in March, removed the TTFA executive and appointed a normalisation committee owing to financial woes. It is chaired by businessman Robert Hadad.

The executive has since continued to state it is still in charge of TTFA’s affairs and has since filed appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) and TT’s High Court. They said based on the association’s constitution, FIFA cannot remove the executive.

In a release issued, on Saturday, Wallace said he has listened to each of Cudjoe’s “public pronouncements” on the matter. But, “each time, alas, I am left more confused.

He said in an interview on local radio station i95.5FM on Friday, she said, “William Wallace and his entourage should work with the normalisation committee”.

He said he found the statement “disrespectful,” and that the “duly, democratically elected vice-presidents of the TTFA” are not his “entourage.

“Ms Cudjoe is a member of the same parliament that has created and given life to the TTFA. Is she, then, suggesting that decisions made by the Parliament should be treated with scant courtesy? Is she, as Minister of Sport agreeing, that the constitution that governs the TTFA, or perhaps even the constitution that governs any national sporting organisation can be set aside by a foreign power?”

He said when the decision was announced, in March, Cudjoe said she had known about the impending decision “for some time.” But he said she “changed her tune” after being asked about that and openly supported FIFA’s decision.

“However, when questioned, she declared that she remained neutral, having taken no sides in the matter. Displaying this brand of continuing neutrality yesterday, the Minister called on the elected officers to work with the appointed normalisation committee.”

He said it is no secret he and his team have proposed mediation to FIFA.

He alleged she and Hadad confirmed the decision to appoint the committee was made in early January or possibly earlier.

“It is also unfortunate that even now, with the matter before the court, the minister is continuing to make pronouncements as to what should happen. The minister has also said that since we were elected to office we did not ask to meet with her.”

He said to his knowledge, it is “standard practice” for the Sport Minister to congratulate any newly-elected sporting executive and invite the members to meet.

“We have taken what we perceive to be a stand against injustice. We are prepared to endure whatever pain we have to endure so that all of us may be better for it.

“We reject both positions out-of-hand. We have stood—and continue to stand—against all injustice. And if it comes down to a choice between country and ourselves, we are more than aware that this is not a real choice. Shalom.”

The letter was signed by Wallace, who referred to himself as the elected TTFA president.

[Tallman]

WATCH: William Wallace responds to questions on Terry Fenwick's TTFA contract irregularities

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/eBetZkVKqNw" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/eBetZkVKqNw</a>

[Trini _2026]

Wallace is getting  exposed now the kit deal was allegedly done with no board apporval

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/rS2huzV8FhY" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/rS2huzV8FhY</a>

[royal]

are the watch words of Trinidad and Tobago's football - Bacchanal, Bacchanal and more Bacchanal ?
It certainly not the national watchwords of Discipline, Production and Tolerance.   

[Tallman]

WATCH: Andre Baptiste interviews William Wallace

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/71EsvmD2LEU" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/71EsvmD2LEU</a>

[kounty]

so sad . The whole of them done rape we enough. I don't know that there will be anybody left to run TTFA who will garner the trust of the people. GG? Shaka?

[kounty]

Wallace is getting  exposed now the kit deal was allegedly done with no board apporval

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/rS2huzV8FhY" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/rS2huzV8FhY</a>

He completely switched the roles of who was who ~ 8:30 till about 10:00 concerning the Nike Kit deal. Could I trust that the rest is accurate?

[Flex]

United TTFA wants Wallace to account.
T&T Guardian Reports.

The future of William Wallace, president of the United TTFA (T&T Football Association) and his administration, could be in jeopardy with a general meeting of the TTFA membership set for Saturday via Zoom to discuss the blunders made in the contracts for national football coach Terry Fenwick, general secretary Ramesh Ramdhan and with UK sportswear suppliers, Avec Sports, earlier this year. All were not approved by the board of directors of the TTFA.

On Tuesday, United TTFA member Keith Look Loy, who was instrumental in the formation of the group to challenge David John-Williams for the right to govern T&T football at last November's TTFA AGM elections, said in a release they, the United TTFA members of Anthony Harford and vice presidents Clynt Taylor, Susan Joseph-Warrick, Joseph Sam Phillip and himself, were unaware of the contents of those contracts.

Tuesday's release added, neither did the board of directors of the TTFA approve the contracts, which varied significantly from what had been approved. Though the board had seen and approved a two-year US$17,500 with perks-deal for Fenwick, it was revealed that the Englishman had officially signed for US$20,000 with the option to increase the duration of contract dependant on his successes at the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Wallace was also one of two signatories to a $25 million sports apparel contract without board approval, which required the embattle football association to purchase £125,000 in uniforms and other replicas if the country's national teams were to be outfitted after the first year.

Guardian Media Sports has seen a copy of the Avec contract which is also signed by Ramdhan.

The UK company agreed to outfit all national football teams, from youth to senior levels, at the start with free uniforms at a cost of $1.4 million.

And in the other contract faux pas saw Ramdhan was given a two-year contract, although it was agreed by the board, via a six-to-one vote, with four abstentions, that he only could have gotten a one-year term.

However, Guardian Media Sports has seen the December 14, 2019 at a Board of Directors Meeting Minutes, and according to item 7.14 Mr Phillip moved a motion to appoint Mr Ramesh Ramdhan as the General Secretary of the TTFA for 1 year. Mr Edwards seconded the motion. A vote was taken, and the results were 6 yes, 1 No and 4 Abstentions.

In addition, Guardian Media Sports has also seen emails from two Board members who pointed out what the Board had agreed to. One of the email messages on December 19, 2019, read: "However, we agreed at our 1st meeting not to give any contracts at this time for more than 12 months /1 year initially with options to review (based on performance base indicators) either to retain or replace. Do hope this can be revisited."

Wallace called the move by Look Loy and vice presidents premature, saying, "I spoke to Keith because I realised I had a missed call from him, and he said they had a meeting and they decided to put out a statement and he said he would send the statement to me. I did not read the statement until I saw it. Guardian Media Sports has a copy of the statement.

"I was disappointed because I felt that, even if there was an issue, that we should have met to discuss the issue. I figured that if you're doing anything like that, I supposed to be part of that discussion."

Though the statement was said to be a consensus of the United TTFA members, Wallace explained his members have all expressed concern with the contents of the statements, hinting it was not what they had expressed.

Responding to the contracts Wallace said that the Ramesh contract was above board.

"I explained to him (Look Loy) the Ramesh contract and as far as I am concerned, I dealt with it based on the constitution. He wasn't too impressed with the constitution because the public outcry was more important than the constitution," said Wallace.

"My understanding is that the secretary is a creature of the president. The president takes the name to the board and the board can say 'yay or nay' but as far as my understanding goes, that is as far the board goes with that.

"In terms of the contract itself, the terms of the contract is negotiated by the president and the officers. The constitution clearly states that the board is responsible for all appointments and it named the appointments, all technical appointments etc. The only one it did not state and given the board the right too was the secretary. The only right the board has with the secretary is to say 'yes we're going with this person or no we're going with that person'.

"In my wisdom, based on what we have to roll out for the next couple of years, my secretary is very crucial in that rolling out, I gave my secretary two years."

Wallace also cleared up concerns about the about Avec and Fenwick's deals saying, the Avec contract was more based on people's opinions of what they feel was good or bad. However, upon reflection he believed they had made the right decision, saying: "We are ranked 105th in the world and we got a deal that may not have been the best in the world but based on where we are ranked, I took it to my executive and we felt it was a good deal.

"We set up a deal with (Omar) Hadeed at Sports & Games who felt it was doable. We were going to sell the shirts and get x-amount of money from the sale and we felt that at this point in time it was a good deal. When we got into office there were no uniforms available. It is a matter of opinion by some people that we could have gotten a better deal."

He admitted that the Avec contract was presented to the board but only after it was signed, noting they were in a haste to get it signed, a decision that he said he apologised to the board for at a meeting.

Wallace later admitted that there were some mistakes with the Fenwick contract, saying there were figures that got mixed up, such as the additional US$2,500 which was added on to the US$17, 500 which the TTFA agreed to, making it a lump sum. The US$2,500 was negotiated by Fenwick himself, based on his ability to reach out to sponsors.

Wallace told Guardian Media Sports that the board only saw the initial contract of US$17, 500 before the US$2,500 was added to make it US$20,000.

[ABTrini]

The beat goes on.......   different pile same sht

When's will TTFA  change it's constitution so that current inept executives - so e who can't even manage their own teams or leagues be prohibited from holding the office as president?

Everyone of those leaders. Have all failed at creating a viable financially pro fitting entirety - there ought to be no way that taxpayers dollars be used to subsidized privately owned teams - U tilt each team owner could demonstrate. Their competence in looking after their own house only then should they be considered for the likelihood of  running the TTFA.

A criteria should not be who could run bobol , profit of FIFA funds and become rich with side deals.

[Trini _2026]

So walace lied about peter miller eh

[Flex]

Wallace stands alone - A divided United TTFA?
By Colin Murray (Guardian).

The United TTFA (T&T Football Association) finds itself divided after their executive released a statement on Monday evening condemning former president William Wallace's behaviour with strong adjectives namely “unacceptable”, “unilateral”, “deceptive” and, perhaps most damning was the suggestion that it “...replicates the performance of former president David John-Williams”.

Suddenly, Wallace seems to now stand alone. I can easily visualise the former TTFA regime led by John-Williams singing and dancing to all that is going on with the administration of our football. I suppose that is human nature?

Wallace's problems have all stemmed in the last week or so from the regional broadcast sports station based in Jamaica - Sportsmax - which highlighted some discrepancies involving Terry Fenwick's contract as TTFA's senior men's national coach. In addition, a deal with UK company Avec Sport which related to the sponsorship of national team uniforms was largely controversial as the terms and conditions were allegedly very undesirable to the TTFA. Wallace apologised and the contract was presented to the board after the fact.

I understand the deal with Avec Sport was struck up as there were no other offers at the point in time. Desperation should never be an excuse for going into a bad deal, however, T&T was and still is ranked 105 and when the United TTFA had come into office, the cupboard, as expected, was bare. There were no uniforms, not even for a fete match team; certain documents could not be located; there was evidence of large amounts of shredded paper in the office, and they literally had to start from scratch - not continue from an organisation that was 112 years old.

It is not the first time I have heard of organisations changing administrations in a bitterly contested election that the new personnel not only have a hard time in locating important documents, but there is no handover process. It continues to amaze me why newly elected officers do not hire a few security guards and immediately after the election results are announced, no one other than elected officers should be allowed into the office building.

The other issue to come to the spotlight is the contract given to Ramesh Ramdhan as TTFA general secretary, specifically the fact that it was for a two-year duration instead of one. Once again, Wallace has defended his decision and said he had the right to unilaterally give Ramdhan a two-year contract and chastised his team for being premature in their condemnation of his actions.

The TTFA president selects who he/she wishes for the position of general secretary. We can consider the last regime who hired one general secretary, fired him and appointed another one and the board had very little to say, as I understand from a board member, in the firing and hiring of the individuals.

If Wallace proposes that John Doe be his general secretary, he has to be appointed by the Board but once that is ratified, the general secretary reports to the president and the terms of the contract are set out and approved by the president. The president would obviously have to be comfortable with said terms. In this instance, perhaps Wallace thought that he could accomplish more by giving his general secretary a two-year term instead of one.

I recall the late Raymond Tim Kee informed me when he was TTFA president why he had appointed a particular individual as general secretary and if he was retained as president back in 2015, who he was going to appoint. Admittedly then, I was taken aback and I did say to him that surely he must go to his Board for them to appoint. He strongly rebuffed me by saying only he can propose or dismiss the general secretary and the board has no say.

However, Article 36 f) of the TTFA constitution states: “The Board of Directors shall appoint or dismiss the general secretary on the proposal of the president”. This is definitely a grey area as Article 39.3 then states “Only the president may propose the appointment or dismissal of the general secretary”.

So this subjectivity is likely part of the issue here. But was Wallace ultimately wrong to give Ramdhan, his proposed general secretary a contract for two years if, in his opinion, he felt one year was not enough time to accomplish anything? You be the judge.

I was recently told by a football fan that I should stop sticking my neck out for the United TTFA because “they are not transparent”. It matters not whether I favour the United TTFA. I felt then and still believe that the way FIFA went about this normalisation committee was wrong, unethical and unjust and I will not change my opinion to suit the rhetoric of “let's give it a chance” with the imposed normalisation committee. To do that is to turn a blind eye to a brazen injustice.

My real concern now is where does the United TTFA go from here? I have always said that when elections come around, slates are dangerous. This seems to be the modern-day norm to win elections in our major sports. It is, rather sadly, no longer about selecting the best individual who can do a job. But the way slates operate, everyone has to be on the same page; everyone has to be heading in the same direction and there must be trust and confidence, not only in one another but in the person at the helm.

It appears that Wallace now has to watch his back if some of these individuals can't sit down and sort out their problems instead of hanging their dirty linen in public. He also has to quickly ask if everyone is on the same page as him and if he is not comfortable with someone, then my advice to him is to remove the individual(s) quickly from the team or you will no longer be United TTFA but "Divided TTFA". Wallace is also learning of how lonely it can be at the top.

Editor's note: The views expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and do not reflect the views of any organisation of which he is a stakeholder.

[Flex]

Former TTFA President Wallace accused of secret deal.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).

"William Wallace was merely attempting to honour a request by Englishman Peter Miller to keep his contract private," a source of the T&T Football Association told Guardian Media Sports on Wednesday, as news broke in the media after he said he had allegedly lied about the Peter Miller contract which involved the T&T Football Association (TTFA).

This latest development came less than 24 hours after a report stated that Wallace who was removed from office with his three vice presidents by FIFA on March 17, was accused of signing three contracts without TTFA Board approval.

On Wednesday, he acknowledged that he was not truthful about a US$20,000 contract which he had signed with Miller without TTFA Board approval.

The source said that Miller has been a lifeline of the embattled football association, being the main source of sponsors for the debt-riddled organisation. Neither Wallace nor any of his vice presidents Clynt Taylor, Susan Joseph-Warrick and Joseph Sam Phillip, could have been reached for comment but the source who is close to the latest developments over the past two days, revealed in an interview to Guardian Media Sports that Wallace was obligated to honour a code of confidentiality because the football association had been strapped for cash, with a $50-million debt hanging over its head and no programmes to show how payment was going to take place.

The source said, "Peter Miller was shaken by the Nike deal which was announced by Wallace back on November 2, 2019, at the Launch of the United TTFA election slate. He was mentally drained by it and when we won the election he said he would continue to work on the Mike deal, so now he wanted to know if we could have engaged him officially with the TTFA. He wanted that assurance, noting that he has come across all type of unscrupulous people and therefore he wanted something signed."

"Wallace told him he could not sign it as it would have been difficult to take it to the TTFA Board of Directors. Peter then told him that for the programme he was going to embark upon, he wanted something to show, so that he can be paid. This programme included the Lavendar deal. But based on the fact that we did not have any money so Wallace said if you get a million dollars and I have to give you half a million dollars, then I would have half-a-million more than I had," the source explained.

According to the source, "Wallace said I will sign it because we have no money and I don't know where the next sponsor is coming from, so I will sign it to ease your mind. Peter said ok, but just keep it secret."

Wallace on Tuesday broke his silence on the senior men's national football coach Terry Fenwick contract which had a salary difference of US$2,500 from what the TTFA Board approved. The Board had approved US$17, 500 but the contract was signed for US$20,000. Wallace had said it was an error. He was also accused of signing a two-year contract for General Secretary Ramesh Ramdhan, after the Board and agreed to hire him for one year.

Meanwhile, Taylor and Anthony Harford, have come out in defence 0f their leader Wallace who was being compared to David John-Williams, the previous president of the football association for his decision to sign the contracts of Fenwick, Ramdhan and the now controversial Avec Sports deal without the approval of the board and with no communication to the membership.

Harford, the Northern Football Association (NFA) president who is also a founding member of the United TTFA said he became concerned with the series of allegations that he (Wallace) signed contracts outside the boardroom on behalf of the TTFA.

He noted: "It was therefore easy for me to agree to a decision to issue a statement. I gave my unequivocal support to the idea. It was completely my fault to think I would be able to read and comment before the release went out. Further, I thought we all understood the release from United TTFA of which I am a founding member, would be one of concern initially and not condemnation."

According to Harford: " Like with many other stakeholders, I am deeply concerned and hope that William Wallace will initially inform United TTFA of all the agreements he has reached outside the TTFA Boardroom. I thought it wrong for the statement to locate Mr Wallace in the same place as his predecessors, who had full terms to display their moral poisons. They also had ambiguous relationships with the truth and lacked the substance and ideas to head a billion-dollar industry."

Taylor, on the other hand, said, "We the vice presidents felt that if the president is making a decision he should communicate with us. It's not that we have a problem with the decision, but we felt that we campaigned on having this open and transparent form of governance, and we felt that even if he wanted to go in a different direction, no problem, but have a conversation with us. Don't let us find out in the media."

[Flex]

Harford: I am not ready to abandon Wallace.
By Jonathan Ramnanansingh (Newsday).

AILING United TTFA member Anthony Harford admits there are many questions to be answered by ousted TT Football Association (TTFA) president William Wallace. However, he holds firm to his belief that FIFA is inherently wrong to remove a democratically elected leadership.

Harford, alongside team members Keith Look Loy, Clynt Taylor, Susan Joseph-Warrick and Joseph Sam Phillip, was integral in carrying the now-defunct Wallace administration to the helm of local football, at the November 2019 TTFA general elections.

Since January, the veteran football administrator has been medically unfit and was unable to voice his concern on the fraternity’s recent administrative blunders.

However, the All Sport Promotions director, on Wednesday, threw his support behind Wallace’s legal battle against the sport’s global governing body who removed the executive in mid-March citing financial issues and massive debt. FIFA then installed a normalisation committee, headed by businessman Robert Hadad, to chart a way forward.

The Northern Football Association (NFA) president also urged citizens to make a clear distinction between this legal matter and those which depict Wallace’s mismanagement by way of his signing off on three contracts without approval from board members. “They are separate issues. How can FIFA be considered to act legitimately by ousting a democratically elected leadership sanctioned by FIFA within a few months of them taking office?

“You have 34 cases around the world of FIFA installing normalisation committees to work with the executive. But in T&T, you’ve thrown out the executive. To me, something is inherently wrong with that. It is an indication that FIFA is colonising T&T again. Why do that to us? I am fully in favour for us fighting for our sovereignty as a football nation,” Harford said. When asked to share his thoughts on the signing off on contracts to Avec Sport (uniforms), national coach Terry Fenwick and Ramesh Ramdhan without the board’s agreement, the NFA boss admitted these were a clear series of missteps by Wallace, who should also be accountable for his actions. Harford, though, maintains his support for Wallace and believes the former president must be responsible for his actions.

“I am not ready to abandon William Wallace. I am concerned, like all other stakeholders, that a series of mistakes have been made. My hope is that they don’t become a dance routine. At some point he is going to have to give a complete and unequivocal explanation as to what has transpired, what he has signed and not signed for and behalf of the TTFA so there is clarity,” added Harford.

In a press release Harford issued on Wednesday, he cited his medical challenges for his non-involvement in national football. He confirmed his zone supported the removed president for TTFA’s elections despite having to submarine the ambitions of its own members.

He reaffirmed his concern at Wallace’s shady decisions during his short stint at the helm of local football. As a founding member of United TTFA, Harford also called on members to rally around their downtrodden partner.

He said, “I believe Mr Wallace has made some mistakes, but not born out of malice, but rather in an effort to get the TTFA out of economic despair. I trust that the principles that gave birth to United TTFA still stand and that every member of this small group continue to support William Wallace. It is also my hope that Wallace gives the national community explanations for the missteps.”