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Offline Flex

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #60 on: September 28, 2020, 12:51:25 AM »
Wallace: We’ll make right decision.
By Ian Prescott (Express).


Besieged leader of the United TTFA (Trinidad and Tobago Football Association) group, William Wallace, says he and his team will make “the right decision” concerning how they proceed with their court action against FIFA.

Wallace made the disclosure during an interview with Andre “The Fearless One” Baptiste, on his show on i95FM, on Saturday night.

“We would make the right choice over the next couple of days, over the next week... We will make the right decision,” Wallace told Baptiste.

Pressed later in the programme as to what T&T needs to do so that the ban could be lifted, Wallace said: “We would do what we have to do over the coming days. I have nothing else to say on this. We are going to act as we see fit...we are going to take whatever action we deem necessary over the coming days.”

After the United TTFA members missed FIFA’s second deadline to withdraw a High Court case against the world football’s governing body, last Wednesday at 3 p.m., FIFA announced the suspension of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) from international football, citing grave violations of the FIFA Statutes.

Wallace said after a meeting with the membership last Tuesday night, at which the overwhelming majority indicated their desire for the United TTFA to withdraw their case against FIFA, its lawyers filed the withdrawal the next day. After FIFA’s suspension announcement on Thursday, Wallace said he was “shocked” and the United TTFA quickly filed a withdrawal of their original notice of withdrawal request, then filed an injunction with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for a hearing, to ensure T&T would get an opportunity to be involved in the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup draw, scheduled for today at 8 p.m.

That point became moot after CONCACAF announced later Friday that T&T would be drawn for the 2021 Gold Cup. “However, they will only participate in the competition if the suspension imposed on the TTFA is lifted by FIFA by 5 p.m. ET on December 18, 2020,” the CONCACAF communique stated.

Wallace told Baptiste that the main reason for re-submitting their High Court case was to be in proper standing when they filed their CAS injunction so they could ensure T&T would be part of the Gold Cup draw.

Wallace and company have been challenging FIFA’s decision on March 17 to remove them and install a Normalisation Committee (NC). In their its release last Thursday, FIFA stated the suspension would only be lifted when the TTFA fully complies with its obligations as a member of FIFA, including recognising the appointed NC and bringing its own statutes into line with the FIFA statutes.

Asked if he felt the suspension could have been avoided if the United TTFA filed withdrawal documents on time, Wallace said: “Based on what I saw we were going to be banned anyway.”

He added that United TTFA acted in good faith while FIFA did not, by still suspending T&T despite the United TTFA beginning the process of withdrawal. “I did what I was supposed to do and I do not file documents to the High Court of T&T,” Wallace said.

Asked if he could understand why people would draw certain conclusions based on their urgency to resume their case, contrasted with the missed deadline to withdraw the case, Wallace said: “Well what can I say let them draw conclusions...there is nothing about that, that is difficult to understand so...based on where you are situated and what your agenda is, you can draw any conclusion you want to.”

Wallace added he was satisfied with himself and the actions that he had taken. “I am satisfied in myself in terms of standing up against something and I don’t need support to stand up. I have a mind of my own and I take a stand whatever that legacy is to people. Let it be!”

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

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

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #61 on: September 28, 2020, 11:20:46 AM »
Plenty ah allyuh is some coward f0(kaz! I backin WW all the way, right is right! F da house negro bs!  FIFA overlook all the shite DJW do and then conveniently install normalization committee when he get he kakahole break open in de elections.  Now because the fight getting difficult allyuh want to back down?!!  This is what people with resources and what they feel is unlimited power always try to do.  They will squeeze you and try to exhaust your efforts and resources until you comply.  People watching this 3pm deadline like that was something.  Where else in the world does anyone set an arbitrary time not congruent with the close of business in that region for a court matter to be handled?  Further if it was ever in good faith 23 minutes would easily be overlooked if indeed the intended purpose was for the matter to be removed from T&T High Courts.  I agree with WW that FIFA always intended to ban T&T and seized a very convenient opportunity to do so and avoid further scrutiny of their behavior.

Offline LKMaryTrini

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #62 on: September 28, 2020, 02:40:54 PM »
If WW really wanted to avoid the suspension they could have submitted 23 mins before the deadline and not 23 minutes after.  Furthermore, if WW was so sure FIFA was going to ban us anyway, why bother to submit the withdrawal.  You thought they were bluffing and they lowered the boom! What exactly was the mindset behind that?  No logical thought process went into their court case.  Don't get me wrong, DJW is another fool who should never have any involvement in TT football ever again, and bears some responsibility for where we are today, but WW is the one that took us over the proverbial cliff.  WW, if you really believe that you are doing the right thing then you are either in denial or the biggest fool.  I hope that you are in denial





Offline asylumseeker

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #63 on: September 28, 2020, 05:35:55 PM »
Coaches are not seeing this thing clearly. It's not WW or United TTFA who are on the hook for paying you.  Why ask him the question? Was your agreement with Hadad/NC conditioned on United TTFA action? Was United TTFA at the table when that agreement was arrived at? Do tell.

In fact,  I would submit that if the coaches submitted their quarrel to litigation there would be no cloudy area regarding who the non-compliant party is.  Would you sensibly sue United TTFA? No.  Would you sensibly sue WW? No.  It's not hard to arrive at the proper conclusion if you construct the correct frame of the matter.  Asking Wallace a question just because Hadad rerouted you is to be seduced by a distraction. The reason you're not being paid is because of a lack of political will, not due to a lack of capacity to pay or breach of other form.  You are being yo-yo'ed as a pressure point. Don't go to the courts though because this matter is winding down and going to the courts would impede your interest in a GC berth and the prospect of your jobs bearing relevance . Payment is relatively imminent.  Asking Wallace was a waste of a press release ...well,  it was an e-mail that transformed into what effectively became a media release. In the context of it being a private email, it's less onerous but it's still barking up the wrong tree ... or,  perhaps barking should be happening at more than one tree trunk simultaneously.

I feel your pain doh.
« Last Edit: September 28, 2020, 06:33:47 PM by asylumseeker »

Offline Controversial

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #64 on: September 28, 2020, 11:54:21 PM »
Plenty ah allyuh is some coward f0(kaz! I backin WW all the way, right is right! F da house negro bs!  FIFA overlook all the shite DJW do and then conveniently install normalization committee when he get he kakahole break open in de elections.  Now because the fight getting difficult allyuh want to back down?!!  This is what people with resources and what they feel is unlimited power always try to do.  They will squeeze you and try to exhaust your efforts and resources until you comply.  People watching this 3pm deadline like that was something.  Where else in the world does anyone set an arbitrary time not congruent with the close of business in that region for a court matter to be handled?  Further if it was ever in good faith 23 minutes would easily be overlooked if indeed the intended purpose was for the matter to be removed from T&T High Courts.  I agree with WW that FIFA always intended to ban T&T and seized a very convenient opportunity to do so and avoid further scrutiny of their behavior.

Finally a comment that makes sense on this damn board

Offline Flex

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #65 on: September 29, 2020, 12:36:30 AM »
TTFA to file CAS submissions on Oct 5
By Derek Achong (Guardian).


The determination of an application for a stay of FIFA's decision to suspend the T&T Football Association (TTFA) has been deferred.

Guardian Media Sports understands that when lawyers representing embattled TTFA president William Wallace and his remaining executive members applied to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) based in Lausanne, Switzerland, for the temporary injunction on Friday, they requested that it be determined before Concacaf's 2021 Gold Cup draw in Miami, Florida, USA at 8 pm on Monday.

However, as Concacaf subsequently agreed to hold this country's place until December 18, in the hope that the suspension is eventually lifted by then, there was no longer an urgent need for a hearing on the stay.

Sources told Guardian Media Sports, that FIFA's lawyers will now file their submissions against the stay on October 5, before it is determined by the CAS.

The date for the filing of submissions comes four days before Wallace and his team's controversial lawsuit against FIFA, which was the catalyst for the suspension, comes up for trial before Justice Carol Gobin on October 9.

Last Wednesday, Wallace and his team missed FIFA's extended 3:00 pm deadline for withdrawing the case as their application was filed at 3:23.57 pm (TT Time) which was minutes after the deadline had elapsed and was not served or determined by Gobin.

After FIFA announced the indefinite suspension (T&T Republic Day) the following day, Wallace filed another application seeking to withdraw the initial withdrawal application, in which he admitted that he was grudgingly discontinuing the case based on a majority vote during an emergency meeting between his team and stakeholders. (21 votes to withdraw; 8 to continue and 3 abstained).

The legal manoeuvre coincided with an announcement from Wallace's second vice president Susan Joseph-Warrick, that she resigned as president of the women's body and as the TTFA second vice president.

On Thursday night, Concacaf announced that its council had met and agreed to conditionally keep T&T's place in the draw.

In the event, that the suspension is not lifted by either FIFA or the CAS by 5:00 pm on December 18, T&T will be replaced by Antigua and Barbuda as the next highest-ranked team based on performances during the 2019 Concacaf Nations League.

Through the lawsuit, Wallace and his three vice presidents — Clynt Taylor, Joseph Sam Phillips, and Joseph-Warrick are seeking a declaration that the decision to remove them in March and replace them with a Normalisation Committee (NC) comprising of businessman Robert Hadad, attorney Judy Daniel, and retired banker Nigel Romano as a member, was null, void, and of no legal or binding effect.

They were also seeking a permanent injunction barring FIFA from meddling in the TTFA's affairs by allegedly seeking to circumvent the democratic process by removing duly elected executive members.

Wallace and his team initially brought proceedings against FIFA in the CAS in but were forced to withdraw in May as they could not pay the 40,000 Swiss francs (TT$276,000) in associated costs.

Their position was partly due to FIFA's policy to not pay its share of the fees and CAS's rules, which require the other party to pay the full costs when the other fails in its obligations.

Sources said that the costs associated with the application for injunctive relief, which is currently before the CAS, are considerably less than for the substantive appeal.

After the local case was filed, FIFA applied for it to be struck out as it claimed that the TTFA, by virtue of its membership with FIFA, agreed to forgo all legal action in local courts in favour of proceedings before the CAS.

The application was initially blanked by Gobin, who ruled that the local courts were the appropriate forum to resolve the dispute.

FIFA appealed with a hearing set for October 21.

While the appeal was still pending, Gobin set the date for the trial of the case on October 9 and gave FIFA an extension to file its defence.

FIFA failed to meet the deadline as it maintained its position that it did not accept the jurisdiction of the court in the matter. Its decision means that its legal team would now have limited scope to challenge the substantive case when it goes to trial before Gobin.

Wallace and his team also obtained an injunction against the normalisation committee after it attempted to facilitate an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) among members to vote to withdraw the case.

The injunction, which will remain in place until discharged by Gobin, was not opposed by FIFA and was granted.

Wallace and his colleagues are being represented by Dr Emir Crowne, Matthew Gayle, Crystal Paul, and Jason Jones, while Christopher Hamel-Smith, Jonathan Walker and Cherie Gopie are appearing for FIFA.

RELATED NEWS

Wallace tells coaches: "Bare with us two weeks again"
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).


"Bare with us two more weeks again and your matter concerning salaries will be taken care off," said William Wallace, president of the now-suspended T&T Football Association (TTFA) to the coaches of this country's national teams.

The coaches expressed concerns over the none payment of their salaries from a Steering Committee comprising Angus Eve, Clayton Morris, Wayne Sheppard, Jefferson George and Richard Hood, after ongoing negotiations with Normalisation Committee chairman Robert Hadad broke down over the TTFA's decision to challenge FIFA's ban, and reinsert their legal battle in the T&T High court with FIFA.

A letter expressing the concerns of the coaches on Monday stated: "The T&T technical staff members have been locked in negotiations with the FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee for the better part of the last month. At present, we believe that we have an understanding and agreement between both parties, of the payment amounts due to us and the mechanism by which we will be paid.

"In previous newspaper articles and interviews, you and other members of the United TTFA have indicated that you were not opposed to the office staff and coaches being paid by the FIFA or Concacaf, and would not interfere or act in any manner to negatively affect the payment of staff. On Saturday 26th September, however, we were informed by the Normalisation Committee that FIFA is unwilling to make these payments because of the reinstated court action by the United TTFA. We, the national staff members, would appreciate hearing from you on how you can assist us with regards to our remuneration in the existing circumstances."

Wallace gave the assurance that a solution will come in two weeks time, October 9, when the court is expected to rule on their fight against FIFA for the legitimacy of having the normalisation committee replace them (TTFA) as the rightful administrators of football in T&T.

Wallace said although FIFA has money set aside for the payment of coaches, his group has already started working on a way to pay the coaches if the judge rules in their favour.

"If the judge rules against us, then it would be easy, as we will drop the case against the FIFA and the normalisation committee will pay them," Wallace explained.

However, if the judge rules in their favour, then they will call an emergency meeting among their members to decide how they will move forward. He did not say where monies to pay the coaches will come from if they are recognised as the legitimate administrators of local football.

Wallace, who said he took appropriate steps to ensure that the country is not left out of the Concacaf Gold Cup Draw last night by filing an Injunctive Relief in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Switzerland on Friday.

The TTFA also agreed to challenge the suspension by FIFA in the CAS, as well as reinsert the court battle with the FIFA back in the High Court.

Wallace assured they will not prevent the payment of salaries by the normalisation committee. He noted that matter is still the same way, as it was last month, as the matter is still in the court.

Wallace and his three vice presidents — Clynt Taylor, Joseph Sam Phillips, and Joseph-Warrick are seeking a declaration that the decision to remove them on March 17, and replace them with a Normalisation Committee (NC) comprising of businessman Robert Hadad, attorney Judy Daniel, and retired banker Nigel Romano as a member, was null, void, and of no legal or binding effect.

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

Offline pull stones

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #66 on: September 29, 2020, 01:52:04 AM »
Plenty ah allyuh is some coward f0(kaz! I backin WW all the way, right is right! F da house negro bs!  FIFA overlook all the shite DJW do and then conveniently install normalization committee when he get he kakahole break open in de elections.  Now because the fight getting difficult allyuh want to back down?!!  This is what people with resources and what they feel is unlimited power always try to do.  They will squeeze you and try to exhaust your efforts and resources until you comply.  People watching this 3pm deadline like that was something.  Where else in the world does anyone set an arbitrary time not congruent with the close of business in that region for a court matter to be handled?  Further if it was ever in good faith 23 minutes would easily be overlooked if indeed the intended purpose was for the matter to be removed from T&T High Courts.  I agree with WW that FIFA always intended to ban T&T and seized a very convenient opportunity to do so and avoid further scrutiny of their behavior.
absolute rubbish mate. wallace had our full support until he started doubting himself and flip flopping. yes he may be a great guy who wants the best for the sport, and I don’t doubt that for a minute, he has demonstrated that he would have made an excellent federation president, my only regret is that fifa favored him over DJW or that mr timkee did not meet his demise as soon as he did, just maybe his expertise would have came in handy at a time like this, but it clearly wasn’t meant to be.

WW had me until he claimed that he was about to fold then mark bassant’s story broke which gave him courage to carry on, that revelation lead me to believe that he was flying blind all along. he then kept trying to reach out to fifa to negotiate, then waited until the congress which worked against him when infantino read the play that they wanted to put fifa on the hot seat at the congress. gianni as cunning as he is did not use the opportunity to get the federations involved, instead he went to his magnificent six yes man team to do his dirty work.

from that moment he should have known that it was only a matter of time before fifa banned him and should have dropped the high court case that friday and moved it the CAS instead of calling most of the stake holders together for a meeting to drop all the cases on Tuesday, including going back to CAS by abandoning the whole fight altogether, then if that wasn’t shady enough he went back on his word to drop the case in the high court the next day following the ban reinstating his stance after a unanimous decision rendered by the football fraternity.

and here’s the icing on the cake, he never has anything decisive to tell the fans who are obviously hurting, we only get to follow along in the dark, and I say enough of this bullshit. if you’re gonna go for the ban then go for it, if you’re gonna try to save face by stepping aside and allowing the popular opinions of the stake holders to dictate the pace then fine.

but it’s ironic that no one is moved by the fact that if fifa did not ban us and accepted the truce, they weren’t even going to take the fight to CAS, that would have been it, over squashed....done, would you so called warriors have a problem or called him out for cowardice?

these people are clueless mate, and you’ll find out sooner or later. you’ll see.
« Last Edit: September 29, 2020, 02:33:09 AM by pull stones »

Offline pull stones

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #67 on: September 29, 2020, 02:29:55 AM »
Mr wallace, please do yourself a favor and either take this case back to CAS or step aside and let these people do what they have to until they call a new election is called, your just delaying the inevitable. in the mean time you could be organizing yourself to come back stronger than before by getting new prospects for sponsorship on board.

I know it’s a hard pill to swallow but you have exhausted all your options and to no avail. you have not garnered support in CFU or concacaf on the whole so the next best thing would be to allow the people who you will have to go back to begging for their votes to forget and get over the bitter taste they might have for you.

please mate from here on this thing could only end bad for you, there’s nothing to be gained by this can’t you see? fifa is adamant and is not going to soften their position, if that was the case they would have done it already. even if you win in the local courts, which could be tired up for months, by the time it’s all over your term would have ended and with nothing accomplished.

Please sir, I need you to think and think hard. you're still a young man and hopefully you have many years ahead of you to make your contribution. next month would already be one year in office so just step aside and leave fifa to play themselves, there’s nothing to be gained if they ban you from ever contesting another election. Please mate be wise and just walk away and let good sense prevail.
« Last Edit: September 29, 2020, 02:38:32 AM by pull stones »

Offline Trini

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #68 on: September 29, 2020, 08:27:07 AM »
Agree there above Pull Stones.

All that matters now is getting re-instated to play ball. Not just for the Senior Men Team, but the Women and different ages.

No one person, no one administration is above that.

The TTFF highest level mandate is to facilitate our football development.

Not playing is far worse than losing on the field.

This is football death. Not stagnation. Not development.

And most importantly, this is not about principle.

Wrong forum to fight this idea.


Offline Tallman

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Fifa bullying backfires
« Reply #69 on: September 29, 2020, 11:12:47 AM »
Fifa bullying backfires
By Philippe Auclair (josimarfootball.com)


It seemed that the long-running feud between the Trinidad & Tobago Football Association (TTFA) and Fifa had come to a conclusion when, on 24 September, Fifa announced that the rebellious Caribbean FA had been suspended. The seven men of the Bureau of the Fifa Council – Gianni Infantino plus the presidents of Fifa’s six constituent confederations – explained their decision in those terms: “The suspension was prompted by the former leadership of the TTFA lodging a claim before a local court in Trinidad and Tobago in order to contest the decision of the FIFA Council to appoint a normalisation committee for the TTFA. This course of action was in direct breach of article 59 of the FIFA Statutes, which expressly prohibits recourse to ordinary courts unless specifically provided for in the FIFA regulations“.

As in the old fable, the clay pot had been no match for the iron pot: what could break did break, and what could inflict the blow had dealt it. It did not matter that the TTFA had won the case it had brought against Fifa in Trinidad & Tobago’s High Court, the supreme legal authority in their own country. In Fifa’s eyes, the rule of T&T law did not apply to Fifa, even if the TTFA had been established by an Act of Parliament in the Caribbean nation. Consequently, it did not matter that Justice Gobin had issued a judgement which expressly called into question the overarching power of Fifa over its 211 Member Associations.

Or rather, it mattered a lot, as TTFA’s victory was the first of its kind and could encourage other MAs and FAs finding themselves on the wrong side of Fifa’s decisions to contest them outside of the agreed protocol, with CAS being the sole ultimate arbiter for disputes of this kind. This was more than a challenge to Fifa’s authority; it was a challenge to the legitimacy of Fifa’s own statutes, something which Justice Gobin made absolutely clear in her first judgement at the High Court. This was too dangerous a precedent to be allowed; in fact, it was widely expected that suspension would follow, should the TTFA not agree to withdraw its case in the T&T High Court; Fifa simply could not be seen to have lost. A deadline was set, which TTFA – according to the letter of the law – failed to meet.  Suspension was swift to follow.

Yet, this was not to be the end of this complex affair. Remarkably, within 24 hours of Fifa suspending TTFA , the tables had turned again. Despite the ban, Trinidad & Tobago were among the nations included in the draw for the 2021 Gold Cup, and Fifa found itself in the dock again, not just in Trinidad and Tobago but also in Switzerland. The clay pot had, somehow, managed to mend itself, like one of those Tex Avery cartoon cats which miraculously keep on chasing mice after being blown to smithereens. It’s not all over, folks!

What follows is the scarcely believable chain of events which led to this reversal of roles and fortunes.

To the man in the Port-of-Spain street, suspension meant that the country’s national team, the Soca Warriors, wouldn’t be able to take part in the draw for the CONCACAF Gold Cup which would take place on 28 September. To those employed by the TTFA, it also meant that Fifa funds would no longer be available to anyone involved in the running of football in the Caribbean nation. This ‘anyone’ included the normalisation committee headed by local businessman Robert Haddad, despite the fact that this normalisation committee had been put in place by Fifa themselves. This was no surprise. It had remained entirely silent on this affair throughout, as if it had never really existed, or just as a fig leaf for a vacuum.

These implications posed an existential threat to a football body which is riddled with debts after years or mismanagement and worse, and, beyond that, to any kind of organised football in the country which qualified for the 2006 World Cup, one of a handful of teams from the region which managed to take part in the game’s great jamboree.

The gravity of the situation was such that, on Tuesday 22 September, the day before Fifa’s ultimatum ran out, the members of the TTFA agreed – not without considerable hand-wringing from all sides – that it would be better if its president William Wallace bowed to Fifa’s demands and withdrew the case lodged at the High Court. TTFA’s lawyers were then instructed to do that, something which was immediately reported in the local media. An application to withdraw was filed at the High Court.

However, 24 September being a Bank Holiday – in celebration of Trinidad & Tobago becoming a Republic in 1976 – Fifa were not notified in time, and suspension was decreed. TTFA had missed the deadline for filing the withdrawal of its case by two minutes, having done it at 15:02 rather than the 15:00 as notified for Fifa, which also happened to be the time at which the T&T High Court Civil Registry closed for the day.

Regardless of TTFA’s questionable efficiency (or feeble attempt at legal gamesmanship) – which prompted the resignation of TTFA’s vice-president Susan Joseph-Warrick – that the harshest of punishments which could be inflicted by Fifa was meted out to TTFA because of a 120 second delay had more than a hint of absurdity about it.

The T&T Minister of Sports and Community Development Shamfa Cudjoe (who had aligned her position on Fifa’s from day one of the dispute) blamed Fifa’s decision on ‘the egos and actions of a few jokers’, i.e. the TTFA board elected in November 2019; but it is fair to say that her take on the events wasn’t shared by everybody else. Quite the opposite in fact: the suspension was greeted with shock, anger and disbelief in the archipelago.

“They could have said: ‘allyuh [‘you all’ in Trinidadian English] were two minutes late but we win’”, said Keith Look-Loy, president of the TT Super League and chairman of the TTFA Technical Committee. “But that wasn’t enough for them. They wanted to put our faces in the mud and humiliate us. They wanted to show us and the rest of the world who is boss, despite the fact that we followed our membership’s wishes and Fifa’s wishes—they still went ahead with the ban.”

Reverend Dr. Iva Gloudon, herself a former international athlete, head of T&T’s women football and the Republic’s ex-High Commisionner to Jamaica, used much stronger words in an open letter to Gianni Infantino. ” What I want to say to you is that you represent the worst of what sport has become. A mighty conglomerate which is focused on making money; wielding power; and imposing your superiority and power on the athletes and fans who have now become mere pawns and no longer the central players in sport”, she wrote. “[…] So, the mighty Fifa is bigger than prime ministers, presidents, ministers of sport, athletes and, I daresay, God? Your laws, articles and clauses can be executed and applied in all situations without regard for human beings and the diversity of peoples?

Shame on you Mr Infantino!

I CANNOT BREATHE!“

What’s more, the Bureau of the Fifa Council had taken its decision a mere six days after Fifa’s 70th Congress, a virtual event which gathered all of its Member Associations. The fourth statutory item on the Agenda of the Congress was none other than: ‘suspension and expulsion of a member’.

Why then not use this opportunity to openly discuss the TTFA case and put the matter of the sanctions it could incur to the MAs which make up Fifa? Could there be a better platform to address this difficult issue in Gianni Infantino’s ‘transparent’ and ‘democratic’ Fifa 2.0? Look-Loy told Josimar that a couple of Caribbean MAs had intended to speak out if and when the matter was broached at the Congress.

The discussion never took place, however. Item 4 remained buried in the order of proceedings. Yet, less than a week later, Trinidad and Tobago had been thrown out, at least temporarily, of the ‘football family’. There would be no Gold Cup for the Soca Warriors, or so we thought. We were wrong.*

“Miami, FL (Friday, September 25, 2020) – Concacaf has noted FIFA’s decision to suspend the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA). This matter was discussed during an emergency meeting of the Concacaf Council last night, and the following was agreed: For the purposes of the 2021 Gold Cup draw, scheduled to take place on Monday September 28, at 8:00 pm ET, Trinidad and Tobago will be drawn in the Prelims as planned”.

Nobody expected this statement (*), least of them the president of the suspended TTFA William Wallace, who had lodged a last-ditch ‘application for Injunctive Relief’ to CAS, which,  “if successful, would allow Trinidad and Tobago to participate in the Gold Cup draw card for Monday 28th September 2020”. Wallace was genuinely unaware that Concacaf was about to extend an olive branch to the MA they had refused to support in any shape or form until then. Regardless of Fifa’s decision, Trinidad & Tobago were to be included in the Gold Cup draw, and were, in Pot 1, as one of ‘pre-seeded teams’.

TTFA supporters could barely conceal their surprise – and their joy – at the news. For months, they’d desperately tried to reach out to their Confederation, without success, even suspecting that CONCACAF was singing from the hymn book that Fifa had put under their nose. Fellow Caribbean FAs had been very careful not to raise their heads above the parapet, at least in public. This was different. It gave TTFA some breathing space, and at a crucial moment.

In almost perfect synchronicity with Concacaf’s unexpected statement, William Wallace had also decided to ‘withdraw the withdrawal’ of his case against Fifa at the High Court – in short, to resume his legal fight in his country’s supreme tribunal, whilst confirming that “our appeal against FIFA’s decision to suspend Trinidad and Tobago will remain before CAS”.

On 9 October, Justice Gobin would pass judgement on the second, ‘substantial’ TTFA v. Fifa case, for which the defendant had chosen not to file a defence (as it would acknowledge the legitimacy of the process in Trinidad & Tobago, and therefore undermine the supremacy of Fifa’s statutes over domestic laws). The question she’d have to answer this time would be: ‘was Fifa justified in removing the TTFA board and imposing a normalisation committee?’. Judging by the tenure of her first judgement, it was doubtful that her answer would be ‘yes’.

This was also happening shortly after The Guardian Media’s lead editor of the investigative desk Mark Bassant had published the results of a long investigation into the financial affairs of the previous TTFA administration, and particularly of its former president David John-Williams, the same John-Williams who’d been a key supporter of Gianni Infantino in the Fifa presidential election, and who’d been been supported by Infantino in return – in fulsome terms – when he vied, unsuccessfully, for re-election at the head of TTFA in November 2019. Bassant’s findings have since prompted T&T’s Fraud Squad, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACIB) and the Financial Investigations Branch (FIB) to launch a formal investigation.

According to Bassant, who’d had access to a number of incriminating bank documents, a large proportion of the funds – well over $2m – allocated by Fifa to John-Williams’s TTFA for the purpose of building a supposedly state-of-the-art ‘Home of Football’ in Couva, south of the capital Port-of-Spain, had somehow ended in accounts directly and indirectly linked to John-Williams himself, including one in Panama. The ‘Home of Football’ had been inaugurated in great fanfare by Gianni Infantino in person days before the TTFA election; it was, however, totally unfit for purpose, as the authorities found out when they tried to use it as a facility in the fight against COVID-19 a few months later.

What was all the more embarrassing for Fifa, and particularly for Infantino’s old friend and ally Véron Mosengo-Omba, then in charge of associations in Africa and the Caribbean, was that the alleged ‘ financial mismanagement and malfeasance at the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association’ which the T&T fraud squad is now investigating had happened under their own noses, when it was their responsibility to make sure that Fifa’s money had been spent properly, and when they had the power to ensure that was the case.

This was in stark contrast to Gianni Infantino’s boast when he addressed the Fifa Congress on 18 September and said: “we have the money [to help] because in the new FIFA, the money doesn’t disappear”.

Except that, in Trinidad, it apparently had.


What follows now – until Justice Gobin’s judgement on 9 October, which could well redraw the lines of the conflict –  is almost impossible to guess. Concacaf’s decision to – de facto – ignore Fifa’s ban and include T&T in the 2021 Gold Cup draw could hint at a willingness to be used as a mediator in the dispute; or it could be read as a genuine shift of position from the confederation, following the pressure of MAs concerned by Fifa’s jackhammer tactics in its fight against TTFA; or it might simply mean that Concacaf just wished everyone to take a time-out in a quarrel that had escalated beyond what they considered reasonable. It could even be that Fifa is not too dissatisfied with Concacaf pouring some oil on choppy waters and playing the good cop while it puts the truncheon aside for a while.

The TTFA itself is not a homogenous block. Wallace’s rule, methods and actions are not beyond reproach and have been openly challenged and criticised from within. Had Fifa shown a little bit more patience and less vindictiveness in its action, it is not unlikely that Wallace could have lost much of his authority and of his fragile support at home. But when Fifa ignored Jean Cocteau’s advice (‘to know to which point it is possible to go too far’), all it achieved was to strengthen what unity there was. Former international defender Clayton Morris, for example, who collected 36 caps for the Soca Warriors, could not be described as a hardcore supporter of Wallace and his team; yet he could say: “Trinidad and Tobago is now recognised, not just for being the smallest country to have qualified for a [Fifa men’s] World Cup back in 2006, but as a country that decided on principle to stand up to Fifa. I think a lot of smaller countries like in Africa and those places would take strength from the position that we just took against Fifa”.

Which is exactly what Fifa didn’t want to happen.

(*) T&T’s participation in the 2021 Gold Cup is still subject to certain conditions: “However, they will only participate in the competition if the suspension imposed on the TTFA is lifted by FIFA by 5:00 pm ET on December 18, 2020. If the suspension imposed on the TTFA is not lifted by FIFA by 5:00pm ET on December 18, 2020, Trinidad and Tobago will be replaced in the Gold Cup Prelims by the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association as the next highest ranked team based on their 2019 Concacaf Nations League performance”.
The Conquering Lion of Judah shall break every chain.

Offline LKMaryTrini

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #70 on: September 29, 2020, 09:12:00 PM »
Fifa bullying backfires
By Philippe Auclair (josimarfootball.com)

With all due respect Mr. Auclair, you really believe FiFA lost in this battle?  It is not even a war because one fighting with a machine gun and the other have a cutlass.  There was never any intention for WW and co. to remove the suit.  They were given ample time to do so and chose to submit, as you mentioned, 2 minutes after the deadline (definition - the latest time or date by which something should be completed).  It was an insult to FiFA and the footballing nation.  We all know that FiFA has their own skeletons but the rules explicitly states that the action taken by United TTFA is prohibited.  As a member of the FiFA, you signed up for all the rules that apply.  I hardly think that this action taken by United TTFA will inspire more nations to do the same when they fell wronged by FiFA.  As far as CONCACAF goes, the window is open for us to participate which appears to me as an olive branch.  Let's be honest, neither DJW nor WW did an admirable job when they were in charge.  To United TTFA..time to swallow your pride and put the advancement of our youth at the forefront. 

Offline Deeks

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #71 on: September 29, 2020, 10:41:16 PM »
Let's be honest, neither DJW nor WW did an admirable job when they were in charge.

You comparing 4 months to 4 years ?

Offline Flex

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #72 on: September 30, 2020, 12:44:59 AM »
William Wallace: Respect our views.
By Ian Prescott (T&T Express).


NOTHING TO REGRET

Even with Trinidad and Tobago currently suspended by the world governing body because of High Court action undertaken by his United TTFA group, William Wallace has no regrets over the action they have taken since FIFA appointed a normalisation committee to look after local football in March.

Justice Carol Gobin is due to give a final judgement on October 9, as to whether elected president Wallace or the FIFA-appointed committee headed by businessman Robert Hadad has the legitimate right to conduct the affairs of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association. But since FIFA announced T&T’s suspension from football last Thursday, the United TTFA group has come under added criticism for its court action. One of its members, Susan Joseph-Warrick has since resigned as one of Wallace’s vice-presidents in the TTFA.

However, Wallace is not sorry for the stance he and his group has taken.

“I can’t say that I regret anything because the reason for taking the action has not changed. I can’t regret anything,” he told the Express on Monday.

Wallace described the takeover by the normalisation committee as “an act of total injustice, disrespect.”

And referring to his failed attempt to withdraw the case against FIFA at the behest of the majority of T&T delegates last week, he added: “My concern would have been that Trinidad and Tobago football would not be suspended and I think FIFA has acted in bad faith when they knew the matter (to withdraw the case) would have been removed from the court. Even while the matter was before the court they acted to ban Trinidad and Tobago. Again we say they acted in bad faith. There is a process for something to be removed from the court. What was the haste in making that decision (to suspend)?”

Yesterday, on TV6’s Morning Edition programme, Wallace also again responded to accusations that he and his group were on an ego trip at the expense of the local game.

“I always respect other people’s views...and I want that people respect our views,” he said, adding further that, “there are persons who are also saying that this might be best time in Trinidad and Tobago’s football in terms of resetting, in terms of starting over because we are at an extremely low ebb at this point in time.

“The persons who are making the most noise are the persons we are hearing, but there are many other sober-minded persons who are saying that this might very well be the best thing for Trinidad and Tobago football at this point in time.”

And Wallace also stated again that the seven-month old saga will have a final conclusion next month.

“One of the things we did immediately when we were suspended was to appeal the suspension at CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) and that suspension is still pending. I think we have received a date. We also applied for injunctive relief. I think one of those matters would come up on the fourth of October, so we would know CAS’s decision on that, and the matter in Trinidad is on the ninth, so the dates are lining up properly here, so that by the ninth we should have a clear picture as to what happens next.”

Wallace also explained what United TTFA would do once Justice Gobin rules.

“If we are unsuccessful of course, we walk away and I think we walking away with our heads held high. If not (and United TTFA is successful), then the membership would decide what happens from thereon in.”

Wallace said should United TTFA gain a successful outcome at the High Court, he would go back to the TTFA membership to decide the next step for the Association ”within ten to 12 days.”

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: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #73 on: September 30, 2020, 04:29:17 AM »
Dear editor: Do Fifa appeasers want everyone to ‘shut up and dribble’?
Wired868.com


“[…] Before the Black Lives Matter movement gained global momentum, one Fox News  anchor admonished NBA star Lebron James to ‘shut up and dribble’. Put another way she meant: ‘bat in your crease’—stick to entertainment and don’t be so farse as to tell powerful people how to run ‘their’ country.

“Maybe we in Trinidad and Tobago should do the same and ‘shut up and dribble’, albeit on a football field instead of on a basketball court…”

In the following Letter to the Editor, former St Augustine Secondary principal Andre Moses shares his view on the Fifa-TTFA impasse:

A lot of injustice is and has been perpetrated by guns and violence. Paradoxically another reason for the persistence of injustice is the successful propaganda gambit of the oppressor, which is to destroy the manhood and self-esteem of the oppressed to the extent that they become unwitting but fierce defenders of the unjust status quo, while at the same time reserving their impatience and ridicule for those willing to fight for what is right.

Thanks and praises to Hy Arima, Toussaint L’Ouverture, Nelson Mandela and Muhammed Ali, who all stood their ground and swam against the tide. Their actions affirmed that Spanish decimation of the First Peoples, slavery and apartheid as well as the Vietnam War were crimes against humanity—no matter how powerful were the oppressors they faced, or how futile their resistance and advocacy may have seemed to some.

Everyone has a right to their own opinion. But someone who has devoted almost 30 continuous years to the development of youth and community football, and another who has spent a comparable two decades as an educator and a first rate administrator in two co-curricular disciplines, are cast as the heartless villains of the piece, whilst others who only remember Trinidad and Tobago exists when it suits their self-interest, get a free pass no matter what their history might be.

Before the Black Lives Matter movement gained global momentum, one Fox News  anchor admonished NBA star Lebron James to ‘shut up and dribble’. Put another way she meant: ‘bat in your crease’—stick to entertainment and don’t be so farse as to tell powerful people how to run ‘their’ country.

Maybe we in Trinidad and Tobago should do the same and ‘shut up and dribble’, albeit on a football field instead of on a basketball court.

At the end of the day it comes down to cost versus benefit and every stakeholder has the right to make their own calculation on that score. But as the young people say, ‘miss me with that BS that right is wrong and wrong is right’.

RELATED

Dr Gloudon: Fifa, I can’t breathe; Infantino take your knee off my neck!
Wired868.com


“[…] What I want to say to [Fifa president Gianni Infantino] is that you represent the worst of what sport has become.

“A mighty conglomerate which is focused on making money; wielding power; and imposing your superiority and power on the athletes and fans who have now become mere pawns and no longer the central players in sport…”

The following Letter to the Editor on Fifa’s decision to suspend the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) from the international game was submitted to Wired868 by Reverend Dr Iva Gloudon—a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago and former international athlete, sport administrator, university director of sport and former ambassador to Jamaica:

 have been in sport all of my life; from elementary school to high school to club sport, to university, as a national field hockey team member, a director of sport at the university level, an academic in sport, as the president of Women’s Football and as the president of Women’s Field Hockey in Trinidad and Tobago.

Mr Gianni Infantino, sport has been my life and much of what I have achieved has been through sport. These days, however, I am mostly focused on being a ‘woman of the cloth’ and became a Reverend in 2012. I say this as I am praying that I can be reverential in what I am about to say to the mighty Fifa.

HOW DARE YOU!

I am not even going to attempt to justify who is right and who is wrong, as I do not believe that is the issue. I am not going to even attempt to address the issue of corruption, as this would only lead me to conclude that not many have surpassed Fifa in this regard.

What I want to say to you is that you represent the worst of what sport has become. A mighty conglomerate which is focused on making money; wielding power; and imposing your superiority and power on the athletes and fans who have now become mere pawns and no longer the central players in sport.

Do you even understand the pride that a country of 1.3 million people takes in their sporting accomplishments? Do you understand the pride we have when we are able to conquer the larger countries in the world to win gold, silver and bronze medals at the Olympics or make it to the finals of the World Cup?

Do you even understand how many of us only have the pathway of sport to lift us up out of poverty and hardship?

You are trying to convince me that the only management solution that you are competent at is throwing our duly elected football executives aside, defying our local courts and sitting around your table with six other men (yes, no women) in the hallowed hallways of Fifa and throwing an entire country, yes country, under the proverbial bus?

YOUR HIGHHANDEDNESS IS MESMERIZING!

We might be a small nation, but we are a very proud people. What about all of the other paradigms that exist which allows for a less confrontational solution? One in which all parties are taken into consideration and all parties can benefit.

Good leaders do not wield power just because they have power. Good leaders do not demand that their subjects bow to their every whim and fancy.

Good leaders do not demand that we go to a court that we cannot afford and which is certainly prejudiced towards us smaller nations.

So, the mighty Fifa is bigger than prime ministers, presidents, ministers of sport, athletes and, I daresay, God? Your laws, articles and clauses can be executed and applied in all situations without regard for human beings and the diversity of peoples?

Shame on you Mr Infantino!

I CANNOT BREATHE!

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: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #74 on: September 30, 2020, 04:29:57 AM »
‘Infantino wanted to humiliate us!’ How Fifa’s suspension backfired and what’s next for T&T football.
By Lasana Liburd (wired868).


On Wednesday evening, Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) president William Wallace applied to withdraw his case against Fifa for their implementation of a normalisation committee on the twin island republic.

By Friday morning, Wallace had twice as many cases running against the world governing body in as many countries.

The TTFA has not only ‘withdrawn its withdrawal’ of the substantive motion against Fifa but also filed an appeal against its international suspension at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Wallace, in a 980-word statement, explained that his United TTFA slate—now minus second vice-president Susan Joseph-Warrick, who resigned this morning—are responding to yesterday’s ruling of the Bureau of the Fifa council, led by president Gianni Infantino, to suspend the TTFA.

(United TTFA is the slate under which Wallace successfully contested the TTFA elections on 24 November 2019.)

The local football body missed Fifa’s deadline to withdraw the High Court case by two minutes on Wednesday and did not directly notify the governing body, through its local attorneys or normalisation committee.

“I believe that the recent punitive action taken by Fifa against the TTFA because the TTFA is engaged in a legitimate action before the Trinidad and Tobago High Court, even after the TTFA filed documents to discontinue the action before the Court,” stated Wallace, “is high-handed, unreasonable, and does not accord with the principle of ‘fair play’ which lies at the heart of the sport of football; but instead is consistent with ‘fear play’.”

United TTFA member and Trinidad and Tobago Super League (TTSL) president Keith Look Loy was even more blunt.

“Fifa caused all of this,” said Look Loy. “They could have said: ‘allyuh were two minutes late but we win’. But that wasn’t enough for them. They wanted to put our faces in the mud and humiliate us.

“This would have all been done yesterday but they prolonged it because of their vindictive attitude. They wanted to show us and the rest of the world who is boss, despite the fact that we followed our membership’s wishes and Fifa’s wishes—they still went ahead and ban.”

Trinidad and Tobago has not competed in a Fifa tournament since hosting the Women’s Under-17 World Cup in 2010, while the Soca Warriors’ only Men’s World Cup appearance came at the 2006 Germany edition.

Yet, Infantino may be hearing the words ‘Trinidad and Tobago’ far too often these days, and he probably shudders every time.

Wallace explained that the TTFA filed an injunction with CAS this morning, which was meant to overturn Fifa’s suspension and safeguard the Warriors’ participation at the 2021 Gold Cup tournament.

That request became, arguably, moot at 11.55am today, when Concacaf announced that it would save a space for Trinidad and Tobago at next year’s Gold Cup—so long as they satisfy Fifa’s requirements and their international suspension is lifted by 13 December.

Had Fifa and Concacaf reversed the sequence of their respective pronouncements, Wallace and his team might have still walked. However, although grateful for Concacaf’s ‘wiggle room’, Wallace has a second wind now.

“Concacaf’s announcement this afternoon that Trinidad and Tobago will remain in the draw was welcoming news,” said Wallace, “and I have since instructed the attorneys to inform CAS that we are withdrawing the application for injunctive relief. But our appeal against Fifa’s decision to suspend Trinidad and Tobago will remain before CAS.”

Why did the TTFA return to CAS after complaining of bias and being priced out of justice by the body in May?

Look Loy noted that the new cost of the application meant it was a worth a shot. Their initial tussle with Fifa over the latter’s right to remove the TTFA’s officials carried a bill of between 40,000 to 50,000 Swiss francs (TT$277,000 – TT$366,000).

In contrast, the TTFA’s request for a second opinion on their suspension is apparently a straightforward disciplinary matter and should only cost 1,000 Swiss francs (TT$7,314).

Why resume the High Court case though? Why not deal with CAS exclusively?

“Well, if Wallace dropped his claim to be the legitimate president of the TTFA,” asked Look Loy, “under what authority could he approach CAS to stop the suspension?”

So the United TTFA can now justify using the High Court to determine whether they remain the local body’s bonafide representatives, as a means of saving Trinidad and Tobago from suspension—a suspension brought on by their late withdrawal from the very same court case.

“We can’t drop [the High Court case] because we have to have standing before CAS,” said Look Loy.

It is left to be seen what the TTFA’s member delegates make of Wallace’s new legal manoeuvre, which was again taken without consultation. Yet, simultaneously, Infantino might be facing a whisper campaign of his own within Fifa’s corridors.

Already facing criminal charges for corruption in Switzerland, Infantino has proved utterly incapable of dealing with a virtually bankrupt association in a country of 1.3 million people.

Is Infantino really the most capable person to lead a company with cash reserves estimated at US$2.7 billion?

“The decision of the former leadership [of the TTFA] to go to a local court to contest the appointment of the normalisation committee,” stated Fifa, on Wednesday, “jeopardises not only the future of football in Trinidad and Tobago but also endangers the overall global football governance structure, which relies on the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) as the exclusive forum for resolving disputes of this nature.”

Yet, the court case is back on stream now. If Wallace and the United TTFA are likely to face some backlash for it, will the same be true of Infantino?

On 9 October, High Court Judge Carol Gobin is due to rule on whether Fifa was justified in removing the TTFA’s Board. Fifa has not filed a defence and Infantino’s attempt to strong-arm the TTFA into abandoning the case has backfired spectacularly.

So what next for the TTFA?

“If Justice Gobin comes on the 9th [of October] and says Fifa had the right to bring in a normalisation committee,” said Look Loy, “then it is done and we will ride off into the sunset. The membership will then have to find a way to invite Fifa back into Trinidad and Tobago, through a normalisation committee or whatever.”

Concacaf’s extended deadline of 13 December means there would be still plenty time for the TTFA’s members to acquiesce to Fifa’s demands.

But what if Justice Gobin declares that Fifa is wrong and Wallace remains the rightful head of the TTFA?

“If Justice Gobin says we win and Wallace and his elected officers are the legitimate leaders of the TTFA,” said Look Loy, “then the elected officers will call a bonafide EGM and ask members what they would like to be done. If the members want the normalisation committee to be in charge at that point, then it will be in charge.

“By the ninth, this will be settled one way or the other and I assure you that this will be all done long before December 2020.”

Look Loy said he has already written his resignation as TTFA technical committee chairman and Super League president.

“My resignation has been pending for weeks now—from the TTFA, from the Super League, from everything,” he said. “[…] I have reached my limit. I am just waiting on the right time to send it.

“After that, whoever wants to jockey for position and so on can go right ahead, and everybody can be happy.”

At this stage, it may still be too early to guess how local football history will remember the United TTFA. But, at this rate, Fifa—and Infantino in particular—will have a hard time forgetting them.

RELATED NEWS

Wallace: ‘We won’t bow to Fifa fear play’; TTFA president explains return to CAS and resumption of case.
Wired868.com.


“[…] I believe that the recent punitive action taken by Fifa against the TTFA because the TTFA is engaged in a legitimate action before the Trinidad and Tobago High Court—even after the TTFA filed documents to discontinue the action before the Court—is high-handed, unreasonable, and does not accord with the principle of ‘fair play’ which lies at the heart of the sport of football; but instead is consistent with ‘fear play’…”

In the following press statement, Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) president William Wallace explains why he has taken Fifa to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and resumed his case before the local High Court:

On Wednesday 23 September 2020, I instructed the TTFA attorneys to file the necessary documents to withdraw the claim between the TTFA and Fifa before the High Court of Justice in Trinidad and Tobago.

This followed an informal meeting held with the TTFA membership on the evening of Tuesday 22 September 2020. Many of our members were of the view that although they supported the court case in principle, the threats by Fifa on at least two occasions to take punitive action against the TTFA was too high a cost to pay for continuing with what is a legitimate action before the Trinidad and Tobago High Court of Justice.

As a result, the majority of our members indicated that they were of the opinion that the matter should be withdrawn from our court.

To this end and in accordance with the Civil Procedure Rules in Trinidad and Tobago, a Notice of Application for permission to withdraw and discontinue the claim was in fact filed on the 23rd September 2020 and was supported by my affidavit and a draft order.

However, on the 24th September 2020, as Trinidad and Tobago commemorated Republic Day, the Bureau of the Fifa Council suspended the TTFA with immediate effect and indicated that the suspension will only be lifted when: ‘the TTFA fully complies with its obligations as a member of Fifa, including recognising the legitimacy of the appointed normalisation committee and bringing its own statutes into line with the Fifa Statutes’.

It is unfortunate that, notwithstanding the TTFA having taken steps to withdraw the claim before our High Court, Fifa seemingly found it fit, fair and/or proper to not only take punitive steps against the TTFA but to introduce a new and further condition—requiring the TTFA to ‘bring its own statutes into line with the Fifa Statutes’.

With the shifting of the goal post, we don’t know exactly whether this new and further condition declared to us on our nation’s Republic Day 2020 is meant to dictate to the Trinidad and Tobago Parliament, since the TTFA is an organisation created by an Act of Parliament. This remains to be seen.

It is now clear however, that Fifa intended to take punitive action against the TTFA regardless of whether or not steps were taken by the TTFA to withdraw and discontinue the claim before our High Court of Justice on the 23rd September 2020.

It is also now clear that the decision to suspend the TTFA amidst the upcoming draw for the Gold Cup 2021 is meant to, amongst other things, provoke public furore against the properly and democratically elected executive of the TTFA.

It is for this reason that last night I gave instructions to the TTFA attorneys to file an emergency appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), challenging the sole issue of the suspension of TTFA in the face of illegal threats and coercive acts by Fifa.

The attorneys were also asked to make an application for Injunctive Relief so that, if successful, this would allow Trinidad and Tobago to participate in the Gold Cup draw carded for Monday 28th September 2020.

Concacaf’s announcement this afternoon that Trinidad and Tobago will remain in the draw was welcoming news and I have since instructed the attorneys to inform CAS that we are withdrawing the application for injunctive relief. But our appeal against Fifa’s decision to suspend Trinidad and Tobago will remain before CAS.

This morning and on my further instructions, the TTFA attorneys also filed the relevant documents to continue with the claim before the High Court of Justice since this is the only way that we can legitimise our application to CAS.

The obvious question would be, why CAS?  The answer is that the action taken against the TTFA is a disciplinary one and CAS is charged with dealing with such matters. It must also be noted that our only financial obligation in this matter is the filing fees.

I believe that the recent punitive action taken by Fifa against the TTFA because the TTFA is engaged in a legitimate action before the Trinidad and Tobago High Court—even after the TTFA filed documents to discontinue the action before the court—is high-handed, unreasonable, and does not accord with the principle of ‘fair play’ which lies at the heart of the sport of football; but instead is consistent with ‘fear play’.

Further, I do not believe that this punitive action of Fifa against the TTFA and the people of Trinidad and Tobago will withstand objective scrutiny before any competent tribunal.

I have committed my life to the development of the youth in Trinidad and Tobago as a member of the teaching service for over 30 years. I have served as president of Secondary Schools Cricket League and Secondary Schools Football League and in many other areas where the focus was on the development of our youth.

For those who do not know, these many years of service to young people in Trinidad and Tobago was all voluntary, so for those who indicate that I don’t care about our young people you need to speak to what you know.

What I do care about though is that we must stand up against injustice and as Archbishop Desmond Tutu said: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse would not appreciate your neutrality.”

The duly elected executive of the TTFA now calls on all right-thinking, principled and patriotic citizens of Trinidad and Tobago to let you voices be heard as resounding as Reverend Dr Iva Gloudon’s and all the others that have spoken out against Fifa’s action.

We might be a small nation, but we are a very proud people.

Concacaf extends olive branch and fresh deadline, as TTFA-FIFA tussle enters slapstick territory.
By Lasana Liburd (wired868).


At 11.55am today, Concacaf offered an olive branch to the Soca Warriors. On Monday 28 September, Concacaf will hold its draw for the 2021 Gold Cup, which is its showcase tournament, and there will be a special arrangement for the Trinidad and Tobago Men’s National Senior Team.

Yesterday, Fifa suspended Trinidad and Tobago from international football and its secretary general Fatma Samoura warned Fifa’s 210 full member associations not to have any contact with any football teams from the twin island republic.

But, last night, Concacaf president Victor Montagliani held an emergency meeting with his executive which decided on a compromise.

“Concacaf has noted Fifa’s decision to suspend the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA),” read a Concacaf statement, just before midday. “This matter was discussed during an emergency meeting of the Concacaf Council last night, and the following was agreed:

“For the purposes of the 2021 Gold Cup draw, […] Trinidad and Tobago will be drawn in the Prelims as planned. However, they will only participate in the competition if the suspension imposed on the TTFA is lifted by FIFA by 5:00 pm ET on 18 December 2020.

“If the suspension imposed on the TTFA is not lifted by FIFA by 5:00pm ET on 18 December 2020, Trinidad and Tobago will be replaced in the Gold Cup Prelims by the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association, as the next highest ranked team based on their 2019 Concacaf Nations League performance.”

If Fifa president Gianni Infantino played the role of ‘bad cop’ yesterday, by suspending the TTFA for a late withdrawal of its High Court case—Montagliani tried to be the ‘good cop’.

The problem was, while Concacaf was deciding how to deal with the TTFA, the United TTFA members were also meeting.

And, at 7:38am today, the TTFA’s attorneys informed the High Court that Wallace and his colleagues—now minus the resigned second vice-president Susan Joseph-Warrick—wanted to resume the fight.

By the time that Concacaf offered the TTFA an olive branch at 11:55am, Wallace already had his gloves back on.

It is a scenario exacerbated, in large part, by Fifa’s refusal to communicate directly with Wallace and his team, who the governing body refers to in public statements as the ‘former officials’.

Will Wallace withdraw a second time, as a result of Concacaf’s offer? And what of the opinion of the TTFA’s member delegates?

On Tuesday night, roughly 70 per cent of the TTFA’s members asked the elected officials to end the case, so as to avoid a potential ban. It was an informal meeting and not binding, but their feedback was said to be the catalyst for Wednesday’s withdrawal.

The members were not consulted on Friday morning when the case was resumed. What does Wallace say to them now?

TTFA v FIFA timeline:

17 March: The Bureau of the Fifa Council announces that Wallace, his vice-presidents and the TTFA Board have been replaced by a normalisation committee, as a result of their massive debt and ‘extremely low overall financial management methods’.

18 March: Fifa declares that TTFA accountant Tyril Patrick, the man who oversaw the ‘extremely low overall financial management methods’ in the first place and was targeted for an internal probe, was the perfect fit to run the local body in the interim.

21 March: Patrick tells Fifa ‘thanks but no thanks’, after his appointment was quickly met by legal threats from the TTFA’s attorneys.

27 March: Robert Hadad, whose family-owned company holds the Häagen-Dazs franchise in Trinidad, accepts the job of normalisation committee chairman and is immediately on the back-foot as he unconvincingly tries to distance himself from controversial former president David John-Williams.

6 April: Wallace appeals against Fifa’s decision to implement a normalisation committee in Trinidad and Tobago at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), as permitted by Fifa’s Statutes.

7 May: Wallace realises why Fifa likes CAS that much. “We feel we are basically being set up!” he says. TTFA withdraws from the Switzerland-based CAS and turns to the local High Court itself.

18 June: Bambi has claws. Up to this point, Wallace has been painted as an innocent victim of Fifa’s machinations. Turns out that ‘Honest Wallie’ was guilty of some dodgy backroom dealing himself. Outspoken United TTFA member Keith Look Loy calls Wallace a replica of former president David John-Williams. Ouch. Still, the officials decide to remain united in the face of the Fifa threat.

13 August: High Court Judge Carol Gobin rips Infantino a new one, as she bins Fifa’s attempt to have the case moved to CAS.

“If Fifa disputes the authority of Mr Wallace and others to act on behalf of TTFA, and TTFA is under the control of the normalisation committee,” said Gobin, “how does it reconcile that with its insistence that these very persons who have no authority to file these court [documents] should commence arbitration proceedings in Switzerland?”

26 August: Infantino, sore from Gobin’s spanking, has had enough of these legal niceties. Secretary general Fatma Samoura emails Hadad and issues a public missive, which gives the TTFA’s ‘former leadership’ three weeks to drop the case. The deadline of 16 September is on the eve of a Fifa Council meeting and two days before the annual Fifa Congress.

“We firmly request the TTFA to ask the TTFA former leadership for an immediate withdrawal of the claim at the Trinidad and Tobago High Court by 16 September 2020, at the latest,” stated Samoura. “In view of the above, we deem that a failure to comply with this directive would result in the commencement of suspension proceedings via the relevant Fifa bodies.”

5 September: Hadad announces EGM on 15 September, after request from the TTFA’s member delegates. But it turns out that holding a proper EGM is not as easy as serving ice cream and Hadad’s procedural errors are immediately pointed out.

14 September: Justice Gobin endorses a requested injunction from the TTFA against the Fifa-appointed normalisation committee, which stops Hadad and his gang from holding an EGM or so much as using the TTFA’s stationery. If Infantino and Samoura had not misled the TTFA delegates about who was legally in charge of the local game, the call for an EGM might have worked. But there is no time now for that.

18 September: The Fifa Congress and Council meetings pass with nary a word about the TTFA. Was Infantino bluffing? Nope. The Congress had barely ended when Fifa sent the TTFA a new deadline of 23 September. As it turns out, Infantino does not want to put the Trinidad and Tobago impasse to a vote between 210 member nations—but he is happy to drag the TTFA before his seven member cabal, cough, Bureau.

Oh and, for the first time, Concacaf is going to hold its Gold Cup draw nine months before the tournament, on 28 September. Only non-suspended members allowed. Hint, hint.

22 September: The TTFA calls an informal meeting to hear what its members think about fighting Fifa and possibly facing a suspension. Thirty-six from 47 members attend (maybe Netflix had something too good to miss!) and 70 per cent of them ask their elected officers to shoulder arms.

23 September: United TTFA puts out a statement at 1pm confirming the withdrawal of the High Court case. Curiously, it is not signed by president Wallace or vice-president Clynt Taylor. Worse, the withdrawal is filed electronically two minutes after the close of court and not sent to Fifa’s attorney as a matter of courtesy—so Fifa has only the 1pm press statement to go by.

24 September: It is a holiday, so the courts are still closed and Fifa still has no official update to their case. In truth, Justice Gobin would still have to accept the withdrawal in any case before it became final. Peeved, Infantino calls the six families of The Fifa to a Bureau meeting, to select the perfect Republic Day present for Trinidad and Tobago.

They opt for a horse’s head. The TTFA is suspended until they not only withdraw the case but also amend its constitution, so as to presumably make it easier to be shafted in the foreseeable future. Fifa reveals the decision at 4:26pm.

As it turns out, Concacaf president Montagliani, who is also a Bureau member, got permission to play ‘good cop’. He calls a Concacaf emergency meeting that same night, which offers the TTFA roughly three months more to make Infantino happy. Badda bing badda boom. The Concacaf members decide to sleep on their decision and release it in the morning. What could go wrong?

25 September: Just when he thought he was out, they pulled him right back… Wallace decides that, with the Gold Cup dream squashed anyway, he is going to go down with his boots on. At 7:28am—yeah, they were bright and early this time!—the TTFA attorneys tell the High Court that they are withdrawing their withdrawal. We are back beeyatch!

There is one casualty though. Second vice-president Susan Joseph-Warrick says the TTFA seems to be no longer fighting for its members or players and submits her resignation at 6:49am.

At 11:55am, the Concacaf executive—presumably operating on ‘Trini time’—gets around to issuing confirmation that the Soca Warriors have a ‘bligh’ and can compete in the Gold Cup, providing that the TTFA can make Infantino smile by 5pm eastern time on 18 December 2020.

So we are all good right? Right?

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

Offline LKMaryTrini

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #75 on: September 30, 2020, 12:58:25 PM »
Let's be honest, neither DJW nor WW did an admirable job when they were in charge.

You comparing 4 months to 4 years ?


In 4 months, questionable contracts to Terry Fenwick (he dictated his contract), Peter Miller, Ramesh Ramdhan nd the sponsorship with AVEC (which he was the only one who knew about it).  He inherited a pile of rubbish but he added gasoline and lit the match.

Offline ABTrini

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #76 on: September 30, 2020, 05:56:58 PM »
Let's be honest, neither DJW nor WW did an admirable job when they were in charge.

You comparing 4 months to 4 years ?


In 4 months, questionable contracts to Terry Fenwick (he dictated his contract), Peter Miller, Ramesh Ramdhan nd the sponsorship with AVEC (which he was the only one who knew about it).  He inherited a pile of rubbish but he added gasoline and lit the match.

Interesting take - using behaviour  technique where ones  past may indicate a lilikehood  for future behaviours then one could say what was accomplished in   Four months could have had the potential to be ten times  over if he was in there for four years
Ummm🤔🤔

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #77 on: October 01, 2020, 12:26:10 AM »
CFU boss: FIFA not trying to hurt T&T football.
By Jelani Beckles (Newsday).


PRESIDENT of the Barbados Football Association and president of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Randy Harris described the situation facing T&T football as “sad,” but said that FIFA “does not want to see the back of T&T.”

FIFA suspended the TT Football Association (TTFA) with immediate effect, on September 24, after the United TTFA failed to meet its deadline in withdrawing their High Court case. They needed to withdraw the case at 3 pm on September 23, but did so minutes after the deadline.

United TTFA has not given up the fight against FIFA to remove them as the executive of the TTFA and install a normalisation committee to run local football.

In another twist on Friday, the United TTFA sought to withdraw its withdrawal of its lawsuit against FIFA.

The William Wallace-led United TTFA remains adamant that its challenge should be played out in the local courts since it is a statutory body.

United TTFA was removed by FIFA in March after only being in office for four months.

In an interview with Newsday, Harris said, “I wasn’t surprised of the decision (by FIFA) because the TTFA made a decision that was against everything that we in the football fraternity agree that we would keep things out of the ordinary courts and that we would deal with football matters at CAS (Court of Arbitration) or among ourselves.”

The CFU president says this situation may not affect the region’s football image as a whole.

“I don’t think it really hurts the region as a whole because it is a decision made by a member association. However, it is sad because T&T is one of our leading lights in terms of quality of football in the region. It is sad to know they may be affected by this kind of decision.”

Harris believes FIFA wants T&T back on the field of play, but must follow the world football body’s wishes.

“I am sure that FIFA does not want to see the back of T&T. They are merely trying to get them to withdraw the case. I think the sooner they do that FIFA will lift the ban as normal in these cases. I don’t think that they are trying to hurt T&T.”

FIFA suspended TTFA due "to grave violations of the FIFA Statutes."

TTFA was in "direct breach of article 59 of the FIFA Statutes, which expressly prohibits recourse to ordinary courts unless specifically provided for in the FIFA regulations."

Harris said it is difficult for CFU to make an intervention in a case involving FIFA.

“Basically in the football world there is no intervention to make…FIFA was being portrayed as the bad guy (and) I don’t think that we have a case to really do any sort of representation in this matter.”

Harris reiterated that when a member association takes FIFA to the ordinary court the former will suffer. “That is where the real problem is. We will just hope that good sense prevails and that T&T can be brought back into the fold of football.”

Adrian Donovan, president of Barbados football club Paradise FC, said, “We in Barbados and by extension the entire region are really saddened by this (development) here in T&T. T&T and Jamaica for years have been the leaders in the forefront of regional football.”

Donovan said administrators “run the association like it is their personal club.”

Donovan added, “They don’t want to listen to the membership and some big egos get the better of the association.”

Jamaica (Reggae Boys) were the first English-speaking Caribbean nation to qualify for the World Cup when they made an appearance at the 1998 edition in France. Eight years later it was T&T’s turn when the Soca Warriors made their debut at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Donovan said the region was filled with joy seeing Caribbean countries at the World Cup.

“Whoever represented…you could be rest assured the entire region is behind them. We were extremely proud to have any kind of representation.”’

Former national midfielder Russell Latapy is the current coach of Barbados.

Donovan said, “He (Latapy) is doing a wonderful job. He has all the respect from the players which I have not seen in previous coaches from all over the world.”

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: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #78 on: October 01, 2020, 12:28:41 AM »
Gary Griffith advises Wallace to lay down his weapon.
By Ian Prescott (Express).


Ego trippers

“I have never seen such ego take over a situation and even at the expense of the future development of football. We have hundreds of young men and women. They are losing the opportunities for contract, for scouts, for scholarships.”

Police Commissioner and former hockey player Gary Griffith thinks that with his point now made, it’s time for battle-weary Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) president William Wallace to lay down his weapon — that is, pursuing court action against FIFA, international football’s governing body.

Griffith’s comments came in reaction to FIFA suspending Trinidad and Tobago from international football as a consequence of Wallace’s sidelined TTFA executive challenging their removal from office. FIFA statutes name the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) as the forum for such disputes.

With Wallace’s United TTFA group having gone to the local High Court, in contravention of FIFA’s laws, FIFA followed up by suspending T&T, giving the Association two conditions to have the ban lifted. Bowing to pressure, Wallace’s United TTFA sought to remove the matter from court in line with the FIFA ultimatum, but did not do so by the 3 p.m. deadline on September 23. Since then, United TTFA has returned to court.

However, speaking with regional broadcaster SportsMax, Griffith viewed Wallace’s action as holding the football community to ransom. Griffith thought there was no end game or win-win situation for Wallace, even if United TTFA won in the High Court. FIFA does not recognise the jurisdiction of local courts and will not make a defence when the matter comes up on October 9.

“I am always ready for battle. But there is one thing you must know: you cannot go ahead to do everything to win a battle and then lose a war,” Griffith declared.

Griffith himself is no stranger to ego accusations. However, the fiery commissioner feels that Wallace has to work for the greater good of all and not just the few members of his group.

Likewise, there are others, including T&T men’s coach Terry Fenwick, who believe that Wallace’s faction does not have the resources to run football without FIFA funding. The TTFA is approximately $100 million in debt. And in its seven-month battle with FIFA, United TTFA have been only able to raise USD 4,250 in funds, and none in four months. It has led to United TTFA abandoning its case before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, once FIFA opted not to pay its half of advance costs.

Until court proceedings are finished and the ban lifted, Fenwick’s national team, starved of FIFA funding, will not be allowed to participate in the 2021 edition of the Concacaf Gold Cup - the region’s top competition for national football teams- unless the ban is lifted by December 18.

“This is about egos. It is amazing what we are seeing here,” Griffith declared.

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

Offline asylumseeker

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #79 on: October 01, 2020, 01:52:09 AM »
Quote
Griffith himself is no stranger to ego accusations.


Ian Prescott delivering a ball with a line and length that can't be ignored by the batsman ... or the spectators. :)
« Last Edit: October 01, 2020, 01:54:01 AM by asylumseeker »

Offline pull stones

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #80 on: October 01, 2020, 05:37:21 AM »
This is why Africa and their diaspora would never develop past a former colonial state. it is seen repeatedly with black men where they sell out their values just because they stand to gain individually, now just listen to this bajan man talking of what he knows not. maybe fifa was right to suspend the ttfa, but he fails to mention anything of the normalization committee and whether or not fifa had any cause to make such over reaching steps.

no difference with jack warner another tyrant like infantino and his yes men, if blatter had decided to suspend a Caribbean nation in like manner back when batter was in the height of his reign, warner would have stood with his president and the notion of Caribbean unity would have never entered his thoughts, even though he was CFU president.

DJW is the perfect example of a black tyrant and in true african king fashion he denied the lads many opportunities just so that he could fill his greedy pockets. he wasn’t ashamed when the lads was traveling from country to country in each and every single international window taking beatings after beating, with not one game playing on home soil to recover some semblance of dignity, and only because because he collect match fees, not even warner and camps were so callous and cold hearted as this man.

randy Harris needs to know the facts, speak the truth or stay mum. no need to talk when you really don’t have to. and as much as I want WW to step aside (not because I don’t support his stance), I would never try to justify what fifa is doing. it’s just that wallace fight has no structure and it’s ill advised and in the end he would make thing near impossible for him to bounce back.

he needs to step aside and allow fifa to do their thing, and simply because he has no resources, no support from the local or regional membership and no powerful allies in or outside of the region, apart from that he is flip flopping knowing full well the real reason why fifa jumped in to stop the train.

if I was him I would have backed off, try an encourage the United States to investigate DJW, try and mend fences with the local football stake holders, go in search of sponsors, get influential people on board and launch another attack at the presidency, but the amount of bridges he burned already, I doubt if he could stand another chance with these thick headed knuckle dragging dimwits who has a say in Trinidad and Tobago football.


Offline pull stones

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #81 on: October 01, 2020, 05:40:51 AM »
Quote
Griffith himself is no stranger to ego accusations.


Ian Prescott delivering a ball with a line and length that can't be ignored by the batsman ... or the spectators. :)
that griffith bloke is all over the place isn’t he? my guess is that he ate a parrot’s tail as a child and can’t seem to get the taste out his mouth all this time. what a piece of work he is, my goodness.

Offline Deeks

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #82 on: October 01, 2020, 09:11:42 AM »
Gary, stick with security issues. That is your job. If you want to run TTFA, resign, and go and join Sancho and Hadad.

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #83 on: October 01, 2020, 03:44:21 PM »
Gary, stick with security issues. That is your job. If you want to run TTFA, resign, and go and join Sancho and Hadad.
Gary, stick with security issues. That is your job. If you want to run TTFA, resign, and go and join Sancho and Hadad.
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Offline Flex

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #84 on: October 02, 2020, 03:52:11 AM »
Wallace: Robert Hadad reneged on pay promise.
By Ian Prescott (Express).


Trinidad and Tobago Football Association president William Wallace is accusing normalisation committee head Robert Hadad of reneging on a deal to pay local coaches the salaries owed them by the TTFA, and of trying to blame his deposed executive for the coaches’ situation.

FIFA replaced Wallace’s executive with the committee in March. When he challenged their dismissal through the High Court FIFA funding was stopped and access to the TTFA’s bank accounts withheld from both parties by First Citizens Bank. Trinidad and Tobago was also banned from international football for breaching FIFA’s statutes.

Wallace deduces that since FIFA recognises the normalisation committee and not his executive, Hadad thus has to take all the blame for the coaches not being paid. Hadad’s committee had agreed to pay outstanding sums to 54 national coaches after recent meetings with coaching and technical staff representatives. Wallace’s comments came in a release after Hadad suggested that his recent return to the High Court was responsible for coaches not being paid. Hadad also stated he had nothing further to say on the matter.

“It is passing strange that the NC got money to pay office staff, promised coaches payment, all this while our matter is before the court and suddenly, with no change in the status quo, is now using the court matter as an excuse to justify reneging on the commitment made to coaches,” Wallace’s statement said.

“We are fully cognisant that the reason for this recent position by the NC is to continue their public pressure on us to withdraw the matter from the court. This new strategy is to add the voice of the coaches to those voices out there that are singing for their supper,” Wallace added.

The court action against FIFA is due to begin on October 9 but, not having recognised the local court’s jurisdiction, FIFA will not offer a defence. Wallace stated that he had done nothing to impede the work of the normalisation committee by going back to court, noting FIFA has clearly stated that the normalisation committee is in charge of football.

Wallace has promised to meet with the TTFA membership in the near future to decide the direction in which football heads.

“We are asking the coaches to allow us the opportunity to right a wrong and to put football back into the hands of the membership, where it belongs. We beg your indulgence over the next two weeks and whatever the outcome, what is due to you will be honoured,” Wallace wrote.

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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FIFA vs TTFA: is there really a virtue in there?
« Reply #85 on: October 02, 2020, 05:38:18 PM »
FIFA vs TTFA: is there really a virtue in there?
T&T Express


So, we are hearing feedback out there and in the newspapers that the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) is taking a principled stand against FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), and some good may yet come out of this.

Risking the future of football is well worth the sacrifice these local administrators are taking by struggling for local control of football in T&T. I agree being shut off from the mainstream of football by FIFA may give T&T football the time to do the introspection and adaptation necessary to bring about a positive administrative approach to our football. But isn’t this also achievable with the help of FIFA and application of its standard operating procedures as applied to all other countries?

Even though this too can be considered debatable.

As a story for comparison of context, let us say FIFA is like a multinational corporation (MNC) with its subsidiaries scattered across the globe. Looking at this through the lens of the corporate world, what are the legal measures usually open to governments that no longer wish to facilitate subsidiary companies of an MNC?

These local governments seek nationalisation of their local subsidiary, to compensate the MNC for its investment, and then take charge of their local resources and operations.

In the football context, what will the local High Court be capable of doing through its adjudication?

Rule in favour of effectively nationalising local football, by restraining FIFA from setting up its normalisation committee and keep them out of T&T football per se?

Will they compensate FIFA for its investment in T&T football as well? Can they also rule on measures that will dictate how FIFA must engage T&T football in the future, and provide ultimatums or penalty and charges to FIFA if they choose to deviate their involvement in local football?

Nobody seems to want nationalised football and even not to the extent that it excludes FIFA entirely. Then what will become the position of FIFA—running world football within the boundaries set by the T&T local High Court mandates, or even within the confines of the T&T political directorate, for that matter?

Wouldn’t that be a form of imperialism by T&T upon FIFA?

Won’t we then, in effect, be trying to do to FIFA the exact thing we are already accusing them of doing to us?

For another example, take the US and its membership in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In cases of disputes over unfair trade practices with other countries, the US will not accept any judgment imparted to it by the WTO, wherever such judgments go contrary to the desires of the US Congress.

Basically, if its governing institution disagrees or dislikes a WTO judgment then, as a trading country, the US will not be bound to accept that judgment. It is under those conditions the US eventually agreed to join the WTO.

What we are asking seems similar. FIFA must be subject to the deliberations and boundaries of our High Court before it can legally manage T&T football. Is it then we are defending T&T on the principle that we must be allowed imperialist status over FIFA?

This is the world we spent the last two centuries building, and at this juncture imperialism of this sort is mainly frowned upon. Seems to me the TTFA’s cause is more a backward one than forward-looking.

FIFA contributes millions to the operation and development of football in T&T, and this largess has become deeply coveted by a self-interested few. Could this be the real reason behind all this narcissism?

John Thompson
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Offline Flex

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #86 on: October 03, 2020, 04:03:24 AM »
TTFA vs FIFA puzzle—Pt 2: probity, perfidy and piss-poor presumptions about vows of poverty.
By Earl Best (Wired868).


Why did satisfying [Terry] Fenwick and [Peter] Miller matter so much to Mr [William] Wallace? That is the intriguing question posed by Wired868 reader Louis Carrington to which I am seeking to offer an answer.

Three more reminders: (1) This is opinion, not reportage. For my facts, I rely essentially on Wired868’s excellent, comprehensive reporting.

(2) I am not, however, impartial; In Pt 1, I asserted and argued here that Wallace, my friend of long-standing, is a decent man. He is, I contended, a ‘little unsuspecting sardine in a shark-infested ocean,’ who is guilty of errors of judgement.

I believe context and motive to be important when judging action. Which is why I reject out of hand Wired868’s classification as ‘scandals’ its revelations about Wallace’s secret unilateral signing of several contracts which emerged post-normalisation.

(3) “I thought the short-term future of T&T football was in their hands. And I thought I could trust them with it.”

I put those pithy 20-plus words into Wallace’s mouth as my answer to Carrington’s question.

All of that said, allow me now to present some of the embattled president’s own words, uttered in November 2019:

“The true mark of leadership is the willingness to take responsibility for things that go wrong, to acknowledge your mistake, to learn from it and to move on and remain focused on the job at hand.” (my italics)

None of that is just talk.

Remember how at the November launch of the United TTFA campaign, a mysterious, ‘fraudulent’ (said Wired868) letter of support from Junior Sammy was unveiled?

Do you know who provided the group with that letter? I don’t either. I just know that there was speculation about it being either the soon-to-be national coach or the soon-to-be general secretary. It was soon-to-be president Wallace who accepted full responsibility.

Fast forward to June 2020. The now president, Wired868 reveals, had unilaterally altered the contracts of both the GS and the national coach.

As Gefferson Goulart might attest, the latter bathes in the milk of human kindness. And Fenwick soon seemingly severs ties with United TTFA and finds himself a high-profile ally who talks enough for 11 XIs, let alone one coach!

But what does one hear from the two gentlemen themselves? I’m still waiting to hear from either that, in view of the circumstances, I agree to have my contract amended…

I mean, you scratched my back…

Or, alternatively, that: “I did not come to take from Trinidad and Tobago football but to give to it.”

That declaration comes instead from the under-the-gun president. And I take him at his word. He has been in the football business for three decades, Wired868, with nary a whiff of scandal.

We know—and he also now knows—that such altruism is rare. Even rarer is the candour of the PNM’s Desmond ‘All ah we tief’ Cartey and the UNC’s Brian ‘I never took any vow of poverty’ Kuei Tung.

Ditto the barefaced brazenness of former globe-trotting TTFA secretary Austin Jack Warner whose cravatious actions always spoke loudly for him, not least when a devastating earthquake hit Haiti in January 2010.

So even if you’re a leader determined to rescue national football because you’ve made a promise to your late friend, you simply cannot proceed as if everyone around you is sea-green incorruptible. In international football especially, if you’re going to err, it must be on the side of caution.

Here are three very good reasons: (1) Andrew Jennings’ 1992 Lords of the Rings, co-written with Vyv Simpson (2) Jennings’ 2007 Foul and (3) his 2017 The Dirty Game: Uncovering the Scandal at FIFA, an exhaustive study of corruption in football’s umbrella body.

But ignoring my early public warning, Wallace neglected the requisite due diligence.

Too deep in the trench? It might well be that, buried in a TT$50m hole, you simply don’t see or hear anything but offers of solid, material help. And of possible salvation.

Or it might be that, fired by reforming zeal, you focus on the job at hand to the exclusion of all else—including the machinations of those in your entourage, including but not limited to the foreigners.

“Let me reiterate here,” one reads in Wallace’s media statement, “that I didn’t think we had anything to lose by engaging Miller. If he were successful, I reasoned, the TTFA would also be successful; if he failed, then we would simply have remained in the hole that previous administrations had dug us into.”

“I didn’t think we had…” and “I reasoned…” but “we would…” From there to unilateral action is but a baby step…

Perhaps the fire of reforming zeal renders a leader blind and deaf to grammatical niceties. But does it also make him anosmic?

Long before Mark Bassant’s exposé. Wallace’s nose—and Keith Look Loy’s relentless insistence on accountability—has to have told him that something was rotten in the Home of Football. But instead of spawning extra caution, the succession of post-election discoveries about the steadily increasing depth of the debt hole seem to have merely strengthened his resolve to succeed with the rescue act he had initiated.

And such narrow focus on the job at hand meant failure to acknowledge that to his ‘if he failed, then…’ scenario, there was this massive rider:

Was Wallace’s naiveté so great as to allow him to take that for granted? Never to put that critical question to Fenwick’s friend and agent, Miller?

And, persuaded that the constitution permitted him to be the Voice of One, to speak unilaterally for the entire group, to sign on the dotted line, without a cast-iron, justiciable assurance from the horse’s mouth?

Or, alternatively, from trustworthy attorneys?

My answer, emphatically, is in the affirmative.

Because, to my mind, there is no disputing that Wallace came to perceive Miller as the goose that would lay the golden egg.

An egg, alas, made entirely of fool’s gold!

Voilà pourquoi, M Carrington, votre fille est malade…

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: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #87 on: October 03, 2020, 04:06:46 AM »
What crisis? Wired868 explains why almost everyone’s reading the TTFA-Fifa impasse wrong.
By Lasana Liburd (wired868).


As the clock ticks on the impasse between Fifa and the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA), the future of the ‘beautiful game’ on these shores is at stake—but not for the reason that most think.

The TTFA, despite the shrill bleating of uninformed voices, is not hamstrung by a legal stalemate. Rather it is paralysed by a glaring lack of analysis.

The TTFA Constitution states that an extraordinary general meeting, which has the power to order or remove any elected officer of the local football body, must be convened within 10 to 30 days of a request by member delegates.

So why are the likes of interim Pro League chairman Brent Sancho and Men’s National Under-17 head coach Angus Eve talking about the negative impact that a suspension can bring in 2021? Why stand outside of a house screaming and hurtling abuse at the occupants when you have a key in your pocket to enter?

At present, TTFA president William Wallace is contending that the local football body’s constitution does not permit an external body—yes, even Fifa—to remove its elected officers.

But do you know what Wallace has not argued? Neither he nor anybody else has said the member delegates cannot move him.

There is no dictatorship here. Only grown men and women who seem either unwilling to read or incapable of understanding a fairly straightforward document, or who insist on sitting on their hands and waiting for an external party to fly in and solve their problems.

Article 29.2-4 of the TTFA Constitution states:

‘The Board of Directors shall convene an Extraordinary General Meeting if a majority (more than 50%) of the accredited delegates to the General Meeting make such a request in writing. The request shall specify the items for the agenda.

‘An Extraordinary General Meeting shall be held within 30 days of receipt of the request,  unless the agenda includes the election of members of the Board of Directors or the members of the Electoral Committee, in which case the Extraordinary General Meeting shall be held within 60 days of receipt of the request.

‘If an Extraordinary General Meeting is not convened within the indicated time, the delegates who requested it may convene the Extraordinary General Meeting themselves. As a last resort, the Members may request assistance from Fifa and Concacaf.

‘The Members shall be notified of the place, date and agenda at least 10 days before the date of an Extraordinary General Meeting.

‘When an Extraordinary General Meeting is convened on the initiative of the Board of Directors, the Board of Directors shall draw up the agenda. When an Extraordinary General Meeting is convened upon the request of Members, the agenda shall contain the points raised by those Members.’

The High Court is due to rule on 9 October whether Fifa can legally remove the TTFA’s elected officers, through the implementation of a normalisation committee.

If Wallace and his remaining vice-presidents Clynt Taylor and Sam Phillip lose the case, the TTFA immediately falls under the control of Fifa—with two months left before the new 18 December deadline to ‘lift’ the current suspension and be confirmed for the Concacaf 2021 Gold Cup qualifying phase.

Should Wallace prevail, he promised to immediately call a proper EGM for direction from members. He can do so within 10 days, which means if the likes of Sancho and interim Veterans Footballers Foundation president Selby Browne want to see the back of him, they can remove him between 20 October and 9 November.

Again, there would still be more than enough time for members to prostrate themselves before Fifa president Gianni Infantino if they so desire.

If it is so simple to remove Wallace and his colleagues, you might ask, why has it not been done already? Well, ask Infantino.

For the Fifa president, who is currently under criminal investigation in his homeland, Trinidad and Tobago always seemed to represent something more than a professional relationship.

Former TTFA president David John-Williams, also supposedly the target of a corruption probe, was the first Caribbean football leader to pledge support for Infantino—when he ran to replace Sepp Blatter at the helm of Fifa in 2016.

And John-Williams claimed to have Infantino’s support when, that same year, he unsuccessfully contested the position of Caribbean Football Union (CFU) presidency.

It’s a matter of public record too that Infantino refused to act on several emails from TTFA board members urging a probe into John-Williams’ handling of the Home of Football construction. And, six days before last November’s TTFA election, the Fifa president was in Couva urging stakeholders to share his faith in ‘DJW’.

All of which to say that Infantino’s investment in Trinidad and Tobago is unusual and has never been about the benefit of the twin island republic—as a cursory glance at the TTFA’s record on and off the field under John-Williams will testify.

Infantino’s curious relationship with DJW and the TTFA might help explain why, instead of having the Member Associations read the riot act to the new TTFA administration, the Fifa jefe opted for the knife of the seven-member Bureau of the Fifa Council and ‘normalisation’ instead.

That intervention did not work as smoothly as Infantino might have expected and the Fifa president repeatedly bungled attempts to ‘bring the TTFA in-line’ ever since.

Meanwhile, the TTFA’s member delegates have been passive observers of the struggle, watching with popcorn in hand and no apparent interest beyond finding out the date for their next football match. (Apart, of course, from Sancho and his frantic but thoughtless efforts to prove himself useful to Fifa.)

All the while, they ignore Infantino’s clay feet as well as their own culpability in the farce.

Accustomed only to submission, Trinidad and Tobago administrators appear to lack the clarity of thought and/or self-belief to chart their own destiny—despite having the means to do so. They are in a cage of their own ignorance, yet, ironically, talk about passing on lessons to the nation’s youth.

Who has the power to straighten out Trinidad and Tobago’s football?

On this evidence, it is neither Infantino nor Wallace. But the people running about like headless chickens, screaming to be allowed into an open house.

To paraphrase Football Referees Association vice-president Osmond Downer, the people who are letting our young footballers down are the ones who want to lead, but not to read.

If Infantino wanted regime change, he might have done so long ago by leaking information of Wallace’s own violations and giving local delegates a nudge. But, apparently, that did not suffice. He seemed to want to ‘discipline’ Trinidad and Tobago for not electing the president of his choice on 24 November 2019; and, blinded by the infinite powers he thought he had, overreached.

Somehow, six months after the Bureau announced a normalisation committee in Trinidad and Tobago, Infantino remains unable to get the better of a former school teacher in charge of a functionally bankrupt organisation who showed himself to be anything but a shrewd negotiator in his handling of TTFA business this far.

Of course, this can only end one way. Local football will be under new leadership long before Christmas. But Wallace’s court actions will ensure that his eviction is done by his compatriots and not foreigners who almost certainly do not have Trinidad and Tobago’s interests at heart.

Does that matter? Well, everyone is entitled to their own opinion on that score. However, if the aim is to bring the era of the United TTFA slate to an end, member delegates should close their mouths and use their brains.

Open question to Brent Sancho: if TTFA delegates sent a request for an EGM to Hadad, and High Court Judge Carol Gobin said it was addressed to the wrong leader; who do you think is the right person to send that motion to?

Tick tock…

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

Offline Sando prince

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #88 on: October 03, 2020, 06:11:08 AM »
oh boy the usual drama in T&T football we have grown accustomed to all ah we life
.

Offline RichGFootball

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #89 on: October 03, 2020, 07:56:22 AM »
Piece dey Lasana..... Let dem think hard about the things they are not doing.

What crisis? Wired868 explains why almost everyone’s reading the TTFA-Fifa impasse wrong.
By Lasana Liburd (wired868).


As the clock ticks on the impasse between Fifa and the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA), the future of the ‘beautiful game’ on these shores is at stake—but not for the reason that most think.

The TTFA, despite the shrill bleating of uninformed voices, is not hamstrung by a legal stalemate. Rather it is paralysed by a glaring lack of analysis.

The TTFA Constitution states that an extraordinary general meeting, which has the power to order or remove any elected officer of the local football body, must be convened within 10 to 30 days of a request by member delegates.

So why are the likes of interim Pro League chairman Brent Sancho and Men’s National Under-17 head coach Angus Eve talking about the negative impact that a suspension can bring in 2021? Why stand outside of a house screaming and hurtling abuse at the occupants when you have a key in your pocket to enter?

At present, TTFA president William Wallace is contending that the local football body’s constitution does not permit an external body—yes, even Fifa—to remove its elected officers.

But do you know what Wallace has not argued? Neither he nor anybody else has said the member delegates cannot move him.

There is no dictatorship here. Only grown men and women who seem either unwilling to read or incapable of understanding a fairly straightforward document, or who insist on sitting on their hands and waiting for an external party to fly in and solve their problems.

Article 29.2-4 of the TTFA Constitution states:

‘The Board of Directors shall convene an Extraordinary General Meeting if a majority (more than 50%) of the accredited delegates to the General Meeting make such a request in writing. The request shall specify the items for the agenda.

‘An Extraordinary General Meeting shall be held within 30 days of receipt of the request,  unless the agenda includes the election of members of the Board of Directors or the members of the Electoral Committee, in which case the Extraordinary General Meeting shall be held within 60 days of receipt of the request.

‘If an Extraordinary General Meeting is not convened within the indicated time, the delegates who requested it may convene the Extraordinary General Meeting themselves. As a last resort, the Members may request assistance from Fifa and Concacaf.

‘The Members shall be notified of the place, date and agenda at least 10 days before the date of an Extraordinary General Meeting.

‘When an Extraordinary General Meeting is convened on the initiative of the Board of Directors, the Board of Directors shall draw up the agenda. When an Extraordinary General Meeting is convened upon the request of Members, the agenda shall contain the points raised by those Members.’

The High Court is due to rule on 9 October whether Fifa can legally remove the TTFA’s elected officers, through the implementation of a normalisation committee.

If Wallace and his remaining vice-presidents Clynt Taylor and Sam Phillip lose the case, the TTFA immediately falls under the control of Fifa—with two months left before the new 18 December deadline to ‘lift’ the current suspension and be confirmed for the Concacaf 2021 Gold Cup qualifying phase.

Should Wallace prevail, he promised to immediately call a proper EGM for direction from members. He can do so within 10 days, which means if the likes of Sancho and interim Veterans Footballers Foundation president Selby Browne want to see the back of him, they can remove him between 20 October and 9 November.

Again, there would still be more than enough time for members to prostrate themselves before Fifa president Gianni Infantino if they so desire.

If it is so simple to remove Wallace and his colleagues, you might ask, why has it not been done already? Well, ask Infantino.

For the Fifa president, who is currently under criminal investigation in his homeland, Trinidad and Tobago always seemed to represent something more than a professional relationship.

Former TTFA president David John-Williams, also supposedly the target of a corruption probe, was the first Caribbean football leader to pledge support for Infantino—when he ran to replace Sepp Blatter at the helm of Fifa in 2016.

And John-Williams claimed to have Infantino’s support when, that same year, he unsuccessfully contested the position of Caribbean Football Union (CFU) presidency.

It’s a matter of public record too that Infantino refused to act on several emails from TTFA board members urging a probe into John-Williams’ handling of the Home of Football construction. And, six days before last November’s TTFA election, the Fifa president was in Couva urging stakeholders to share his faith in ‘DJW’.

All of which to say that Infantino’s investment in Trinidad and Tobago is unusual and has never been about the benefit of the twin island republic—as a cursory glance at the TTFA’s record on and off the field under John-Williams will testify.

Infantino’s curious relationship with DJW and the TTFA might help explain why, instead of having the Member Associations read the riot act to the new TTFA administration, the Fifa jefe opted for the knife of the seven-member Bureau of the Fifa Council and ‘normalisation’ instead.

That intervention did not work as smoothly as Infantino might have expected and the Fifa president repeatedly bungled attempts to ‘bring the TTFA in-line’ ever since.

Meanwhile, the TTFA’s member delegates have been passive observers of the struggle, watching with popcorn in hand and no apparent interest beyond finding out the date for their next football match. (Apart, of course, from Sancho and his frantic but thoughtless efforts to prove himself useful to Fifa.)

All the while, they ignore Infantino’s clay feet as well as their own culpability in the farce.

Accustomed only to submission, Trinidad and Tobago administrators appear to lack the clarity of thought and/or self-belief to chart their own destiny—despite having the means to do so. They are in a cage of their own ignorance, yet, ironically, talk about passing on lessons to the nation’s youth.

Who has the power to straighten out Trinidad and Tobago’s football?

On this evidence, it is neither Infantino nor Wallace. But the people running about like headless chickens, screaming to be allowed into an open house.

To paraphrase Football Referees Association vice-president Osmond Downer, the people who are letting our young footballers down are the ones who want to lead, but not to read.

If Infantino wanted regime change, he might have done so long ago by leaking information of Wallace’s own violations and giving local delegates a nudge. But, apparently, that did not suffice. He seemed to want to ‘discipline’ Trinidad and Tobago for not electing the president of his choice on 24 November 2019; and, blinded by the infinite powers he thought he had, overreached.

Somehow, six months after the Bureau announced a normalisation committee in Trinidad and Tobago, Infantino remains unable to get the better of a former school teacher in charge of a functionally bankrupt organisation who showed himself to be anything but a shrewd negotiator in his handling of TTFA business this far.

Of course, this can only end one way. Local football will be under new leadership long before Christmas. But Wallace’s court actions will ensure that his eviction is done by his compatriots and not foreigners who almost certainly do not have Trinidad and Tobago’s interests at heart.

Does that matter? Well, everyone is entitled to their own opinion on that score. However, if the aim is to bring the era of the United TTFA slate to an end, member delegates should close their mouths and use their brains.

Open question to Brent Sancho: if TTFA delegates sent a request for an EGM to Hadad, and High Court Judge Carol Gobin said it was addressed to the wrong leader; who do you think is the right person to send that motion to?

Tick tock…
Trinidad and Tobago 1st
.......
.......
Everyone else is 2nd

 

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