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Offline vb

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #210 on: October 28, 2020, 07:39:11 AM »
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Offline Flex

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #212 on: October 28, 2020, 02:30:40 PM »
TTFA withdraws appeal before Court of Arbitration for Sport
By Jada Loutoo (Newsday).


THE TT Football Association (TTFA) executive has withdrawn its appeal of FIFA’s suspension of T&T from international football before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland.

On Wednesday, deputy president of the CAS appeals arbitration division Dr Elisabeth Steiner ruled that the appeal between the TTFA and FIFA was terminated and removed from the court’s roll.

Wednesday’s order was given without costs, except for the court office fee already paid by the TTFA.

On Monday, the TTFA withdrew its appeal, which was filed on September 25.

This withdrawal follows Sunday’s extraordinary general meeting, at which the majority of the TTFA membership voted to accept the normalisation committee appointed by FIFA in March.

Since then, TTFA’s president William Wallace and his executive have been in a battle against FIFA, first over the appointment of the committee and then the world governing body’s suspension of T&T from international football.

On Friday, the Court of Appeal overturned Justice Carol Gobin’s decision that FIFA acted illegally in removing Wallace’s executive.

Wallace also confirmed his battle against FIFA has ended, and that he will not be taking the matter to the Privy Council as speculated. He denied allegations he was considering appealing the Appeal Court’s decision.

Wallace confirmed to the Sunday Express that his fight is over and that he will take no further action in either local or international courts or at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

“Definitely not. The Privy Council is out of the question,” Wallace confirmed. “I am not taking any more action. This is the end, as far as I am concerned.”

RELATED NEWS

Wallace pulls final matter out of Swiss court.
By Ian Prescott (T&T Express).


CAS(E) ENDS

WILLIAM WALLACE followed up on his promise, officially withdrawing from court yesterday the final matter in the seven-month battle between his ousted Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) executive and FIFA, the governing body for world football.

Yesterday, Dr Elisabeth Steiner, deputy-president of the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS) appeals arbitration division confirmed via an e-mailed letter that the TTFA’s matter before CAS had been terminated.

Wallace’s second appeal to CAS for 2020 began on September 25, when his attorneys filed an urgent application for a stay of the decision rendered by the Bureau of the FIFA Council, which a day earlier suspended the TTFA, for breach of its statutes regarding domestic court litigation. The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association, were represented by Dr Emir Crowne, Matthew Gayle, Crystal Paul and Jason Jones, while Dr Emilio Garcia and Miguel Lietard represented the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).

In terminating Wallace’s action, CAS said: ‘The Deputy President of the Appeals Arbitration Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, ruling in camera, pronounces: The procedure CAS 2020/A/7411 Trinidad & Tobago Football Association v. FIFA is terminated and removed from the CAS roll. The present Order is rendered without costs, except for the Comi Office fee of CHF 1,000 (Swiss francs) which was paid by Trinidad & Tobago Football Association and which is retained by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.’

Wallace’s latest step follows Friday’s T&T Appeal Court decision in which Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Justice Nolan Bereaux, ruled in favour of FIFA. The Court overturned an October 13 decision of lower court Justice Carol Gobin, which had briefly re-instated Wallace as TTFA president and deemed FIFA’s decision to appoint a normalisation committee as null and void. The Appeal Court’s decision confirmed that both the TTFA constitution and FIFA statutes gave FIFA the right to appoint a normalisation committee.

Wallace has been further stripped of all power by TTFA delegates, who on Sunday voted unanimously to accept FIFA’s normalisation committee, as replacement for Wallace’s executive. Wallace had promised to resign following the T&T Appeals Court verdict. His last position was that his resignation was “moot’, now that he is no longer TTFA president and FIFA’s normalisation committee is in charge.

Trinidad and Tobago remain under international suspension by FIFA due to Wallace’s decision to pursue local High Court action against the world governing body (FIFA), when challenging FIFA’s March 17 decision to replace his four-month-old executive with its own normalisation committee.

The CAS appeal began on September 25, when the CAS court office initiated an appeals arbitration procedure under the reference CAS at Wallace’s request. On October 5 FIFA responded to the appellant’s (TTFA) application for a stay if FIFA suspension and on October 15 the TTFA followed up when filing a statement of appeal with respect to the decision rendered by the Bureau of the FIFA Council to suspend the TTFA. In its final action, Wallace withdrew the matter from CAS on October 26 and confirmation was received from Steiner two days later on October 28.

The Swiss court further said it is able to render a termination order due to the case not having commenced. An appeal brief had not yet been filed by the appellant (TTFA) and no panel of judges had been constituted by CAS. Therefore, the matter cost the TTFA nothing, except the 1,000 swiss franc filing fee, which has been retained by the Court of Arbitration.

« Last Edit: October 30, 2020, 11:47:20 AM by Flex »
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Offline pull stones

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #213 on: October 28, 2020, 02:39:45 PM »
Corruption wins

https://www.hail-caribbean-sport.com/
yes it did, but wallace gave it a huge helping hand over the finish line by taking the worst advice imaginable. william wallace should have shut his pie-hole and go to the government for help to pay his way to CAS especially when he got the attention of the prime minister who asked him to do the right thing.

believe me VB that man is a fool. he went to the high court when FIFA would never adhere to any judgment handed down, not only that, even when he won in the high court they would still be suspended , something the high court cannot over turn.

so he wasn't reinstated, he lost in the end, he has a huge legal bill to pay for fifa and final conclusion is that he's lost the very people that elected him, so even if he wanted to run again for president he will most likely find the membership hostile towards him, so what was all that fighting for?

IMO he was supposed to take the case to CAS and took his chances, in the end he could have asked the court to have FIFA pay his legal fees, because i believe he would have beaten fifa in the court of abitration since he had a very strong case for victimization. the man took stupid rubbish advice from gale and crown. those two lawyers are clueless. 

Offline vb

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #214 on: October 28, 2020, 03:14:50 PM »
Corruption wins

https://www.hail-caribbean-sport.com/
yes it did, but wallace gave it a huge helping hand over the finish line by taking the worst advice imaginable. william wallace should have shut his pie-hole and go to the government for help to pay his way to CAS especially when he got the attention of the prime minister who asked him to do the right thing.

believe me VB that man is a fool. he went to the high court when FIFA would never adhere to any judgment handed down, not only that, even when he won in the high court they would still be suspended , something the high court cannot over turn.

so he wasn't reinstated, he lost in the end, he has a huge legal bill to pay for fifa and final conclusion is that he's lost the very people that elected him, so even if he wanted to run again for president he will most likely find the membership hostile towards him, so what was all that fighting for?

IMO he was supposed to take the case to CAS and took his chances, in the end he could have asked the court to have FIFA pay his legal fees, because i believe he would have beaten fifa in the court of abitration since he had a very strong case for victimization. the man took stupid rubbish advice from gale and crown. those two lawyers are clueless. 

I assume you mean pay his costs after he had won the case which would mean he still would have had to come up with the money in any case. Yes he could have approached the TT Govt. but they knew of the situation and could have approached him.

VB
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Offline pull stones

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #215 on: October 28, 2020, 07:40:37 PM »
The point is verseen it was all for nought. the endless jabber, the standing in the way of the normalization committee with the inaccessibility of the bank accounts where coaches and staff could not be paid, the firm stand on principle, the holding your ground, all that giant better have all just to resign and walk away accomplishing absolutely nothing of substance, and just to say we stood up against fifa?

It’s like a skinny mild mannered man fighting a big strong bully for a seat on the bus and wound up losing his front grill in the process, when he could have been smart enough to walk away and let him have the seat and call the police to deal with him and keep your teeth in the long run.

don’t get me wrong I full supported wallace, but the flip flopping was too much for me to bare, the man was going to CAS today and the high court tomorrow and negotiating the day after and meeting with the membership the day after the day after, William Wallace IMO was clueless, when a man decides to take on a giant he better have all his bases covered and his business in order. that man wanked off and gift fifa with the ability to further victimize him by playing right into their hands.

Offline asylumseeker

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #216 on: October 28, 2020, 08:29:40 PM »
Statutory ambiguity
By Dr. Terrence Farrell (T&T Express)


THE decision of the Court of Appeal has drawn a line under the litigation between the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) and FIFA, a conflict which recalls the Creole aphorism: “Tief from tief does make God laugh!” Justice Gobin took the parties and the country on an excursion which brought to mind former Chief Justice Michael de la Bastide’s query, posed in the context of another matter adjudicated by Gobin J, as to whether judicial review legislation had opened the door to “judicial adventurism’’.

Justice Gobin’s frolic did, however, surface a significant issue, the legal status of certain entities created by statute and the justiciability of their actions.

To be sure, the issue is not really new. Justice Judith Jones (as she then was) had to interpret the Integrity in Public Life Act of 2000 and the related amendments to the Constitution.

Those pieces of legislation widened the ambit of the Integrity Commission to include boards of “statutory bodies and state enterprises, including those bodies in which the State has a controlling interest”. But the legislation did not define either.

After interrogating the Interpretation Act and the Constitution itself, Jones J opined that: “In their natural and ordinary meaning the term [statutory bodies] must be taken to mean: ‘those bodies or organisations established by statute’... there is no other possible meaning that can be ascribed to these words.”

And there lay the problem. There are a host of organisations—sporting, charitable, religious—that are established by statute. Attorney Tyrone Marcus (Guardian October 18) gave a list of sporting organisations created by statute. The Catholic Religious Education Development Institute, of which I am a director, was set up by statute. Ricardo Williams (Sunday Express October 25) has given an excellent summary of how such organisations come into being and from where their powers arise, which is not from the statute incorporating them.

These organisations are incorporated by statute for reasons of prestige or some other arcane reason. But as Bereaux JA pointed out, that does not mean that they have any defined public purpose or respond to any public policy.

They do not report to Parliament or to any government minister. They do not fall within the principle established in Datafin because they discharge no public duty. And even if, as with the TTFA, there is some public interest in what they do, that is not sufficient to bring them within the ambit of judicial review.

Despite the Jones decision, which has not been appealed, the Integrity Commission has wisely ignored these particular “statutory bodies’’ and has not required their boards to be subjected to its onerous strictures.

Incorporation by statute wrong-footed Boodoosingh J (as he then was) in the Look Loy v Gabriel matter, on which Gobin J relied, and which Bereaux JA suggests was also wrongly decided on that point. Bereaux JA, clear-headed and careful, and the antithesis of judicial activism, did not seek to legislate when a body created by statute should be treated as a private body and hence not subject to judicial review. However, his dicta on that point leaves open the question whether a body established by statute could, outside of resort to arbitration, oust the jurisdiction of the local courts if its legislation explicitly so provided, and whether or not our courts would accept such ouster.

The difficulties of statutory incorporation do not end there. There remains considerable ambiguity about the governance of State-owned enterprises. Yes, they do fall within the purview of the Integrity Commission, and, in accordance with section 119(9) of the Constitution, they do “report’’ to Parliament, usually long after horses have bolted. But because State enterprises are incorporated under the Companies Act, the only legitimate nexus to governance by the State is through the Minister of Finance (Corporation Sole) Act, which is wholly inadequate for effecting good governance. This lacuna has allowed corporate travesties such as UDeCOTT, Education Facilities, Petrotrin’s GTL project, EMBD, LifeSport, and a host of others to occur.

The applicability of judicial review to State enterprises was discussed in NH International v UDeCOTT with instructive judgments by Kangaloo and Warner JJA, and a powerful and persuasive dissent by Sharma CJ.

It is why the 2016 State Enterprise Review Committee recommended that all State-owned enterprises be governed under a two-tiered legal system of incorporation of the Companies Act, together with a New Zealand-style State Enterprise act which clearly legislates the powers of both the “line minister’’ and the finance minister, and would leave directors of state enterprises, who are now very exposed, much less exposed.

The TTFA-FIFA imbroglio will unfold and one hopes that there will eventually be an outcome that is positive for the game in Trinidad and Tobago.

The question of the status of private bodies incorporated by statute which probably should not be, and State enterprises which are not, but should be, ought to garner the attention of a Law Reform Commission, if we still have one.

Boss content.

That aside, somewhere between  the decision to seat solely two Justices to include the CJ, and the PM's untimely amplified barking (it was more sentiently audible than a mere dog whistle), I am less than impressed with the CoA's pronouncement on this matter despite the compelling support that is represented to undergird its authority.

There was an opportunity here to dress the hearing of this matter  in different attire and the absence of a third Justice - accompanied by multiple perceptions of fealty, if not indebtedness to the PM - nimbly assisted in the avoidance of a complete cloak of transparency and independence.

That harm indicated, what would have been the harm in taking the alternative approach in terms of number or recusal (even if tenuous)?

As Farrell above suggested elsewhere (Express, February 25) on the matter of constitutional reform in the context of Section 137(3):

It is wrong to suggest that the issues raised by the Law Association reflect some partisan, politically-inspired agenda to remove the Chief Justice, though doubtless, there are individual lawyers who do embrace such an agenda. The Law Association’s committee on Judicial Appointments ... made comprehensive recommendations for the reform of the JLSC. The Law Association long ago also made comprehensive and sensible recommendations for the reform of the award of silk. Both reports have been studiously ignored by our politicians who seem to ‘like it so’!

One could be forgiven for concluding that this matter neatly has collapsed into the favoured column of 'like it so' convenience.
« Last Edit: October 28, 2020, 08:43:21 PM by asylumseeker »

Offline Tallman

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As expected, FIFA has its way
« Reply #217 on: October 29, 2020, 07:01:08 AM »
As expected, FIFA has its way
By Colin Murray (T&T Guardian)


After a painstaking seven months of battling FIFA, the United T&T Football Association's (TTFA) wheels have finally fallen off.

Indeed, it seemed much longer than that as the saga just went on and on like those soap operas where you just felt you knew the outcome, yet still kept on watching with the faint hope there was a twist in the tail and the show would end up with the good guys eventually coming out on top. Unfortunately, in this soap opera, the good guys did not emerge as victors.

One by one, they started to retreat. First, it was the president of Women's League Football (WOLF) Susan Joseph-Warrick who threw in the towel last month. But when the mighty “pitbull” Keith Look Loy retreated into the stands, you knew the fight was over. If you know Look Loy, he does not back down from a good fight so when he quits on your team, your defence is left open and vulnerable.

At that point, two were down with four to go, and somewhere in between, Tony Harford decided he was not going to run for Northern Football Association (NFA) president and Joseph Sam Phillip was quiet as a mouse who seemed quite content hoping someone would leave some cheese exposed.

On the other hand, Clynt Taylor started to be more proactive in the last couple of months but all-in-all, the barrage of criticism was firmly aimed at the TTFA's president - William Wallace - who stood up manfully for what he believed in.

But let us try to understand exactly how we have found ourselves here by going down memory lane to the period of say 2017-2019 when members of T&T's football-loving fraternity decided enough was enough with the maladministration of our football. The debt was completely out of control with no firm plan to alleviate this financial burden; our men and women national teams were being withdrawn from international competitions due to no funding from the body responsible for their welfare; results on the field were an embarrassment; staff were not being paid for months; vociferous demands were made without success for accountability and transparency within the TTFA especially for multi-million dollar projects like the 'Home of Football' (Couva) which is now shrouded in deep controversy.

It also appeared that coaches and technical directors were being fired for non-football reasons and sponsors started to turn their backs on football. Perhaps the deepest of them all - spectators began to stay away from games as the TTFA, during that period, held its worst image in the court of public opinion. All -in-all, it appeared that a category five hurricane, which you my readers can give a name to it, had crippled our football.

So up strode the United TTFA led byWallace, the then president of the Secondary Schools Football League, who, I must admit had a good track record as he was a past president of the Secondary Schools Cricket League and was an executive member of the T&T Cricket Board during the most successful period in local cricket history from 2006 to 2009.

Wallace campaigned well and had a powerful team behind him in Taylor of the Central Football Association, Joseph-Warric,, president of WOLF, Phillip yformer chairman of the Pro League, Harford president of the NFA and Look Loy, president of the T&T Super League. The football fraternity in large numbers except for those who were blinded by the former regime for one reason or another felt this was the opportunity to finally get our administration right and elevate people with honesty, integrity, character, morality, decency, probity, and much more.

It was felt that gone were the days when someone can buy an election with promises of funding for clubs, leagues and associations; promises of senior and high-paying positions; promises of trips and managerial appointments which we have witnessed over several years in our major sports.

On November 24, 2019, when the former administration was told thank you and goodbye by a 26-20 vote, it seemed a new chapter was on the horizon for the TTFA. People were just praying for good governance with no promises of anything other than a refined and transparent approach to our football. The United TTFA was democratically trusted with the responsibility to lead our football over the next four years.

But little did they realise then that they were not the preferred one by FIFA in the race. If you're not in FIFA's good books, as they say, “crapaud smoke your pipe”. A well-placed source in the football fraternity revealed to me last week that FIFA was trying to install a normalisation committee since December 2019 mere days after the United TTFA came into office. This is indeed startling if true but totally unsurprising.

Eventually, FIFA made their move in March 2020 by appointing its committee, and then the fight began. Wallace and his United TTFA fought for justice for football in our country and although deep down he must have felt he was always battling against the odds, he manfully never gave up until the end. So the dye is cast; we don't want to get suspended from international football and we have gone on bent knees to FIFA to say we are back.

All obstacles have been removed and all court matters existing between the TTFA and FIFA shall be immediately brought to a halt. Every single Trinbagonian knew that FIFA would come out on top. Let's face it, they have all the trumps and poor Wallace only had one high card to win a lift.

However, I absolutely detest when I hear people suggest that this fight had to do with emotions, aggression, arrogance, etc. is that for real? This fight, once again, had to do with respect for our democratic process and if we honestly put ourselves in Wallace's shoes and objectively consider the situation, we may have done the same. The man may have lost the war, but he deserves far more respect than he is getting from T&T.

Now, it's back to the normalisation committee. I'm not quite certain just how much football they know but I suppose we have no choice but to give them a chance. I just hope and pray they will do the right thing but only time will tell.
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Offline Tallman

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TTFA v FIFA: The end of the saga
« Reply #218 on: October 29, 2020, 07:02:24 AM »
TTFA v FIFA: The end of the saga
By Carissa Rodulfo (T&T Guardian)


Erin Hunter once said, “Power is neither good nor evil, but its user makes it so.”

One can say that much about the T&T Football Association (TTFA) versus FIFA debacle echoed this very notion of power – which organisation had the power to govern the football affairs of T&T, which legal institution had jurisdiction over the matter, whether FIFA was exercising its global prominence, whether the new TTFA executive board was simply too eager for power, etc.

With the decision the Court of Appeal rendered on Friday, in favour of FIFA and invalidating the jurisdiction of the domestic court, as well as the apparent concession of ousted TTFA president, William Wallace, it seems that closure of the wounds of this battle is imminent.

A battle of David and Goliath

Who’s the boss? That was the real question.

Several rumours have swirled pertaining to the legitimacy of FIFA’s normalisation committee which was meant to replace the newly elected TTFA executive board. Some say that it was preordained and contingent on the election results. Others say it was a means by which FIFA sought to cover up TTFA’s financial improprieties and discrepancies of which FIFA had been aware for years. Having felt like his executive was given the short end of the stick, Wallace decided to contest FIFA’s action.

It is general rule of international sports law, that the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) is widely accepted as the requisite body for settlement of sporting disputes. This is also recognised in FIFA’s regulations.

In the application stages at CAS, there was clear bias towards the global powerhouse of FIFA. The organisation maintained that it would not be paying its share of fees as respondent in the matter—a norm usually acquiesced to by the institution and against the Court’s procedure. Additionally, FIFA applied to CAS to have the matter heard by three arbitration instead of one, thereby tripling the cost of proceedings. The degree to which this was a calculated, exploitative attempt by FIFA to constrain TTFA was evident. Having assessed TTFA and possessing the knowledge of their financial struggles for years, FIFA was unequivocally aware that these fees would have been too burdensome for TTFA to bear.

Home turf advantage

Between financial constraints and the alleged bias of CAS, the cards were stacked against TTFA. Therefore, it filed an application for the matter to be heard in the T&T High Court. Upon preliminary inquiry, Madame Justice Carol Gobin ruled that the matter could be tried in the local jurisdiction. From a legal standpoint, however, some of the merits of such a decision were questionable.

On the point of judicial review, it seemed that her principal occupation was the fact that the body had been incorporated by an Act of Parliament. While this may be somewhat conclusive, other factors relevant to the assessment of whether TTFA was a public body were not entirely examined. For example, the contractual relationship with FIFA and its members, the TTFA constitution which arguably is the source of power, and the nature of some of the constitution’s clauses e.g. arbitration clause, which suggest that the body was a private body. The ultimate question ought to have been: if TTFA didn’t exist, and was not performing the roles that it did, would the government have intervened in the area of the management of football? The answer is likely ‘no’.

Regarding the TTFA as a public body enhances the potential of political influence than if it were regarded as a private entity. This may even result in the government being able to disregard for its constitution if there is presumably a countervailing consideration e.g. dissatisfaction with who is appointed into certain positions. This is worrisome, as political interference can threaten the neutrality of sport, and may result in TTFA being indefinitely suspended by FIFA.

However, on the arbitration point, it seems like the denial of the request for a stay of proceedings was justified; by virtue of its unwillingness to pay the advance costs to CAS, it seems like FIFA has stalled the arbitration process. Additionally, the fact that the ratification of the decision by FIFA’s Council came quite late, and therefore FIFA cannot invoke the dispute resolution process which excludes the court, was well-back reasoning.

In spite of the decision’s inadequacies, the matter proceeded to the substantive claim relating to the legality of FIFA instituting the normalisation committee where Madame Justice Gobin declared that the removal of the duly elected executive was illegal null and void and of no effect.

FIFA had made no submissions as it maintained the preliminary point that the domestic court did not have jurisdiction to hear the matter.

Outrage and overturned

Prior to the case’s preliminary inquiry ruling, FIFA issued a warning to TTFA that if it did not withdraw the claim from the Court, TTFA would be suspended. Having failed to meet these demands, FIFA followed through with this threat and suspended FIFA indefinitely due to “grave violations of the FIFA Statues”. This meant that T&T would not able to participate in international competitions and would not receive any resources from FIFA as it relates to training and other aids.

Notably, it would seem that much of the criticism was directed towards TTFA’s actions which can be taken to correlate to the Court’s decisions. While the Minister of Sports, Shamfa Cudjoe, spoke out against TTFA before any judicial rulings were made, this was not the case for the Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley. There must be credence given to the rule of law which allows for the separation of powers, especially in active judicial cases. In light of the fact that the Court had yet to hear the appeal, the statements of the Prime Minister had the potential to compromise the sanctity of the Court’s proceedings.

Nevertheless, on Friday, the Court of Appeal decided in favour of FIFA and invalidated the jurisdiction of the domestic court. The Court agreed with FIFA that any appeal against a final and binding decision passed by FIFA shall be heard by CAS.

The decision of Justice Gobin is now merely academic.

Could there have been alternative action?

Was TTFA standing up against FIFA as a small organisation in a small island developing State or was TTFA being selfish in not accepting the action of its overarching superseding body?

In light of CAS’ alleged improprieties, TTFA’s main contention was that there was no other means of reasonable recourse beyond the domestic courts. However, this may not be entirely true. CAS is a Swiss institution governed by the Swiss Private International Law Act (PILA), subject to the more general framework of international arbitration. However, as Despina Mavromati writes, arbitral awards are final upon their notification and can only be challenged before the Swiss Federal Tribunal (SFT) on very few grounds as prescribed by article 190(2) of the PILA. In fact, the SFT has set aside several CAS awards in multiple rulings. It plays a significant role in controlling the both the legality of CAS as an arbitral institution and the legality of CAS awards. Additionally, the SFT may confirm, reject or more generally interpret some of the procedural provisions of the CAS Rules and the law applicable to the merits.

Taking this into consideration, it may have been very possible for TTFA to appeal to the SFT in order to compel FIFA to pay its share of the CAS fees. Proceeding in such a manner, one that would have been compliant with FIFA’s procedures, would have given FIFA no credible justification to suspend TTFA. Further pursuant to this, even if the underlying alleged bias of CAS prevailed in the proceedings of the matter, TTFA would still have been afforded a substantive appeal to the SFT.

So, what now?

The invalidation of jurisdiction reverts us now to the original position. Its consequence would indicate the normalisation committee could now possibly be instituted once accepted by TTFA. However, it may be that FIFA’s position is that TTFA’s suspension means that there is no longer a normalisation committee to be operationalised, leaving the direction of local football at a standstill. On Sunday, TTFA held an Extraordinary General Meeting of TTFA which saw the notable absence of Wallace. The decisions which came from said meeting were that TTFA would not pursue a further appeal to the Privy Council by a vote of 33-2. Additionally, TTFA will fully comply with its obligations as a member of FIFA, recognise the legitimacy of the FIFA-appointed normalisation committee and bring its own statutes in line with the FIFA statutes. It remains to be decided how the payment of FIFA’s legal fees as ordered by the Court of Appeal will be addressed.

Until then, time ticks away to the CONCACAF Gold Cup Tournament which has been delayed until August 1, 2021 with many persons wondering whether the suspension would be lifted to facilitate our participation. If not, this may greatly impact on T&T’s chances at qualification for World Cup 2022 in Qatar. Already experiencing disdain from COVID-19 restrictions, local footballers are left in the wind and search for a new purpose since international competitive aspirations have been stifled. Notwithstanding this, the sour taste left in FIFA’s mouth for TTFA may leave their relationship in a position beyond complete repair.

How permanent are the scars of TTFA v FIFA? Only time will tell.
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 #219 on: October 29, 2020, 05:26:41 PM »
The majority of the questions that will posed to WW has one commonality\, funding.  FIFA already says it's going to withhold funding so where is the money going to come from to address all these concerns?  Who will sponsor a football team that has been ostracized by the governing board of football?  I applaud anybody who stands for principle, but when the outcome is detrimental to the current and future of our football, it is time to rethink, and live to fight another day.  2006 feels like a lifetime ago, sadly.
The majority of the questions that will posed to WW has one commonality\, funding.  FIFA already says it's going to withhold funding so where is the money going to come from to address all these concerns?  Who will sponsor a football team that has been ostracized by the governing board of football?  I applaud anybody who stands for principle, but when the outcome is detrimental to the current and future of our football, it is time to rethink, and live to fight another day.  2006 feels like a lifetime ago, sadly.
What funding ? And for what ? Certainly not for players, they weren't paid, not for coaches or tech directors, whose contracts were not honoured, not for staff who regular work months with payment. Not For international competitions, presently suspended. So how much funding the administrators require for their personal projects to still end up in debt ? Anyway, back to to the Circle of ever Dependence that we may drink from the fountain of stagnation and regression as those around us forge ahead. It's what we have grown used to. I guess there is some measure of comfort in the devils that we know.
What funding? FIFA FUNDING, which allows TTFA administrative staff and national coaches to be paid.  Isn't that the crux of the issue?  The mismanagement of money for football operations.

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #220 on: October 30, 2020, 09:36:45 AM »
What funding? FIFA FUNDING, which allows TTFA administrative staff and national coaches to be paid.  Isn't that the crux of the issue?  The mismanagement of money for football operations.
What is the purpose of TTFA ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinidad_and_Tobago_Football_Association

So since from way back, with FIFA funding, players, coaches and admin staff were not regularly paid, to this day, where many judgements against that body and ours, whereby our organization is presently over 50 M $ in debt, the FIFA funding has not managed to in any way change or benefit our stations, in either results, development nor organization of any of the staff - players, coaches or staff. We are in more disarray than ever before, we have less players in top leagues than ever before, our on field record is abysmal.
 In addition, we are at present suspended from FIFA organized (competitive international tournaments). An elected body which ran and won the elections based on transparency and proper business practices won the elections and was removed by FIFA. The reason given, poor financial and organizational practices, even doh, the debt was built before them and in the few months in office they exposed and brought to the forefront the state of the Organization. Fine.  Finally in an attempt to right that wrong, they decided to fight that case, which they won, to which FIFA appealed and they lost, due to FIFA rules have to be absolutely followed as a staturory member.
   FIFA didn't suspend UNITED TTFA and it's members, no, they suspend the TTFA. Reason being United TTFA took them to court. (makes me wonder how Sanch and company went to court and didn't get suspended). What if socawarriors fans, take them to court, they would suspend TTFA ? I digress.
So my issue is all the funding we have had and here we are. Staff , Players, coaches, administrators not paid), Thus Funding is NOT the only answer. Then maybe then it's admin, however, when an attempt was made to change the admin, reason being and given as to be better and more transparent administrators, that was obviously rejected by FIFA due to their support of the older, preferred regime. So FIFA prefer to have kept things how they were. TTFA in obvious debt- multiple reasons, teams in obvious disarray and unsuccessful, no development - players not attaining highest international leagues. 
Yet, ppl still saying we have to stick with FIFA at present, so we can get Funding for football. So we can pay National players and coaches and staff. To do what ? Make more debt ? Why repeat the same operation, when over and over it has proven to cause us to wither.  They already have us by our balls, must we dig our graves too.

 I believe we have to at present, re-organize ourselves, and actually work for whatever we want to achieve, before we get back to FIFA.
Not because someone likes football, watches, studies, eats , sleep and plays football everyday, mean he's going to be a professional. One has to put in the work and balance it with real life, assisted by guardians(could be the state)/parents, teacher, coaches, community and environment, all volunteer, and even then very few can attain those ranks. We want to go World cup, because we could put some uniforms on the field ? It has never happened like that. As a ex-Jnr National athlete, I didn't know sporting bodies were so beholden to us.  What if you try putting in the work, have all the support, and encouragement, but certain individuals say nah you not good enough, we have better, look some money to start,by a ticket, come sit in the stands and watch our boys, then when yuh get another work, yuh could buy yuh own ticket and maybe a kit and support us... is that who you will hang with, or you would continue working, training and stick with your supporters and encouragers. If I must stop, I would find someone in my own community to support and contribute too.
 We need a temporary break from FIFA, we need to work, organize ourselves. This suspension could be the best thing that happen to us. We don't at present need highly paid TTFA staff, coaches nor players. We need volunteers, we need Government program. We need to work, support each other and promote the best of us. All our young footballers won't make it, but we need to encourage and assist those than are capable, without bias, without envy.
We need coaches who have a regular job and is willing to develop players out of love for country. There are quite a few that always did and there are ssome even now. They not in the papers, looking for funding or fame, they in it to make woung men and women, who will contribute to the society, yet they are to few, these are the guys and gals that need help and some measure of funding, they don't need a salary, they have been operating without most of their lives. Usually the ones who make the most noise are the ones who made a little change and have grown used to that.

We need the ppl who is elected to take charge and lead the ppl of TT to actually lead, develop and prepare, and when they think we are ready for the world, then introduce the world to us. We once was ready for the world, we have to relearn and adopt the mentality that got us there. We need time and space.

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Offline Flex

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #221 on: October 30, 2020, 11:45:01 AM »
Sancho optimistic FIFA will lift ban.
By Jada Loutoo & Jonathan Ramnanansingh (T&T Newsday).


THE TT Football Association (TTFA) executive has withdrawn its appeal of FIFA’s suspension of T&T from international football before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland.

On Wednesday, deputy president of the CAS appeals arbitration division Dr Elisabeth Steiner ruled that the appeal between the TTFA and FIFA was terminated and removed from the court’s roll.

Wednesday’s order was given without costs, except for the court office fee already paid by the TTFA. On Monday, the TTFA withdrew its appeal, which was filed on September 25. This withdrawal follows Sunday’s extraordinary general meeting, at which the majority of the TTFA membership voted to accept the normalisation committee appointed by FIFA in March.

Since then, TTFA’s president William Wallace and his executive have been in a battle against FIFA, first over the appointment of the committee and then the world governing body’s suspension of T&T from international football. On Friday, the Court of Appeal overturned Justice Carol Gobin’s decision that FIFA acted illegally in removing Wallace’s executive.

In response to TTFA’s withdrawal, TTFA board member Brent Sancho believes this may be a positive step in the right direction towards having T&T’s suspension lifted before December 18.

On September 25 – one day after T&T was indefinitely banned by the sport’s global governing body – the Concacaf council met and decided that if TT can meet the criteria laid down by FIFA, and if FIFA does in fact life the ban by December 18, the Soca Warriors will be permitted to compete at the 2021 Gold Cup.

Sancho, however, knocked Wallace and his United TTFA slate for sinking T&T football to its lowest point. Although still suspended, the former 2006 World Cup defender remains quietly optimistic.

“They were heading down this path from since March and they’ve taken everyone and everything with them. Thankfully, all the documents have been sent off to the relevant correspondents. I suspect FIFA would have their say which may probably indicate a lift in suspension.

“The work really begins now to try and put things in place to move T&T football forward. The past eight months was a complete waste of time. From the get go, it was just men trying to feed their egos. I think the dead end that was always there, they’ve finally arrived at it. It was inevitable,” he said. All attempts to contact normalization committee chairman Robert Hadad for a response on TTFA’s CAS withdrawal proved futile.

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

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Justice Gobin slams 'gratuitous observations' in FIFA appeal ruling
« Reply #222 on: October 30, 2020, 12:14:02 PM »
Justice Gobin slams 'gratuitous observations' in FIFA appeal ruling
By Jada Loutoo (T&T Newsday)


OUTSPOKEN judge Carol Gobin has defended her rulings in the T&T Football Association’s legal challenge to Chief Justice Ivor Archie, writing to him expressing her concern over “gratuitous observations” he and another Appeal Court judge made in their ruling on the FIFA appeal.

On Wednesday, Gobin reminded Archie of what he said of her in the decision delivered on Friday. In it, Archie and Justice of Appeal Nolan Bereaux quashed two of her previous decisions, which had given victory to the T&T Football Association.

The judges gave a unified decision, but each had something to say. Archie dedicated one and a half pages to Gobin's managing of the case, and in the remaining 20 pages, Bereaux focused on arguments advanced in FIFA's appeal.

In her letter, Gobin addressed some of the comments. “I believe it was Justice Linda Dobbs who said that ‘fairness is in the DNA of judges,’ and I am sure that we would all like to think so.

“You would therefore understand, Chief Justice, why I must raise my concerns about the ‘observations’ and guidance you gave in the very short judgment you delivered.” Archie had criticised Gobin’s “less than prudent case management and uneconomical deployment of judicial time and resources.”

By doing so, Gobin said, the CJ formulated “new guidance” and that “zeal is to be commended but it should not obscure the need for caution. “The import of the statement was not lost. In ordering TTFA to pay the costs of it, Bereaux JA, described it as 'a wasted trial,'” Gobin pointed out.

She said the "gratuitous observations" raised by the CJ and Justice Bereaux were not ever raised by the parties involved during the appeal.

“FIFA filed no application for a stay of my default trial directions, and TTFA had agreed that the trial should proceed. I believe that these unwarranted statements (by the CJ) reflect negatively on my competence as a judge, though I am sure that was not what you intended,” Gobin told Archie.

She also noted that “quite remarkably,” the comments were made without reference to her reasons for proceeding with the case in the way she did.

“The Court of Appeal, on the basis only of the calendar it would seem, concluded that it would have been wiser to have waited for just a few days for the outcome of FIFA’s appeal, to save precious judicial time. This is against the background of FIFA’s declaration to the world, that the appeal was filed ‘as a formal step’ and that even then it did not recognise the jurisdiction of our local courts,” she pointed out.

Gobin told Archie she did not need to remind him there was more to the management of cases than fixing timetables.

“First instance judges often have to remind litigants and lawyers of the significance of what we do. A judge who refuses to defer to a defendant whose conduct is unlawful, intimidatory, deliberately contemptuous, is not being overzealous.

“Such a judge is only doing what the oath of office requires .The authority of our courts is the foundation of our justice system. How we respond in the face of a patent attempt to undermine and deride it, ultimately defines our judiciary,” she said.

She noted it was clear that “for some reason and somewhere along the line,” after the trial, FIFA changed its position on recognising the jurisdiction of the local courts.

“Because of that, your judicial time was well deployed but no one could reasonably suggest that I should have allowed a possibility of FIFA’s vacillation to dictate the pace at which I discharged my duty in the High Court,” she said.

On the criticisms by the appellate court about the “waste of time on the trial,” Gobin said she did not consider her judicial time wasted on an undefended trial for default judgment on affidavits.

"There is nothing unusual about default trials where declaratory relief is sought. In the end the TTFA had the hearing it was entitled to for all of an hour and a half. FIFA chose not to participate. My docket remained well under control. No other matter suffered for want of my attention.

“The outcome of the appeal has caused me no regret.

"I respect the ruling of the Court of Appeal,” she added, as she urged Archie to look back at a 2012 JEI distinguished lecture by Justice Adrian Saunders, now president of the Caribbean Court of Justice, and his advice "as to the need to reverse respectfully for the maintenance of public confidence in the system.

“I end by seeking clarification on the guidance that first instance judges are now mandated to follow, because quite frankly I do not see myself doing anything differently if this were to arise at any time in the future,” she said adamantly.

Her three-page letter was also sent by e-mail to Bereaux and other judges.

In the days following the Appeal Court ruling, TTFA president William Wallace withdrew its appeal of FIFA’s suspension of T&T from international football before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland.

The withdrawal followed Sunday’s extraordinary general meeting, at which the majority of the TTFA membership voted to accept the normalisation committee appointed by FIFA in March because of “massive debt” and financial woes plaguing the local football body. It also gave the TTFA an ultimatum in September: comply with its obligations as a FIFA member, by recognising the legitimacy of the committee.

FIFA has been informed of TTFA’s recognition of the committee. TT’s suspension must be lifted by December 18, for T&T to compete in upcoming international competitions.
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Offline maxg

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #223 on: October 30, 2020, 01:26:03 PM »
 :applause: :applause: :applause:

MiLady is tenacious with her integrity - besides having balls - , more than what I could see from the CJ.
The ruling was based on an unfair procedure, not if FIFA have the right to do it or not.
Once upon a time the slave trade was legal, that don't mean it was ok for the enslaved.
If i sign a contract to work with a company, as long as they pay me, they can do with me as they will without any recourse on my part if there is unfair treatment, discriminations or disagreements, without any mutual discussions or warnings ?  We supposed to go to a bargaining table (CAS), we have to meet a mutual obligation (Sharing of Cost), but the company say nah, I must pay for everything, we ain't paying none. And the arbitrator say ok. No sah, that is moving the goalpost, I know I lost my case already, if them dictating to the arbitrator their own new set of rules. So where do I go. Look meh hand, shackle meh and do with meh as you wish ? I rather jump overboard even if I can't swim, but best to jump before we leave dock and go any further, I might make it back to shore, or die trying. Many brave souls stayed and made it, and to this day, still fighting to be free and many equally brave souls didn't.  JMO.


“Such a judge is only doing what the oath of office requires .The authority of our courts is the foundation of our justice system. How we respond in the face of a patent attempt to undermine and deride it, ultimately defines our judiciary,” she said.

She noted it was clear that “for some reason and somewhere along the line,” after the trial, FIFA changed its position on recognising the jurisdiction of the local courts.

“Because of that, your judicial time was well deployed but no one could reasonably suggest that I should have allowed a possibility of FIFA’s vacillation to dictate the pace at which I discharged my duty in the High Court,” she said.

On the criticisms by the appellate court about the “waste of time on the trial,” Gobin said she did not consider her judicial time wasted on an undefended trial for default judgment on affidavits.

"There is nothing unusual about default trials where declaratory relief is sought. In the end the TTFA had the hearing it was entitled to for all of an hour and a half. FIFA chose not to participate. My docket remained well under control. No other matter suffered for want of my attention.

“The outcome of the appeal has caused me no regret.

"I respect the ruling of the Court of Appeal,” she added, as she urged Archie to look back at a 2012 JEI distinguished lecture by Justice Adrian Saunders, now president of the Caribbean Court of Justice, and his advice "as to the need to reverse respectfully for the maintenance of public confidence in the system.

“I end by seeking clarification on the guidance that first instance judges are now mandated to follow, because quite frankly I do not see myself doing anything differently if this were to arise at any time in the future,” she said adamantly.
« Last Edit: November 02, 2020, 11:49:05 AM by maxg »

Offline asylumseeker

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #224 on: October 30, 2020, 02:43:18 PM »
Based on previous jurisprudence, the CJ arguably had reason to know what Bereaux's inclination would be. Seat Bereaux and the CJ and talk done.

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Lesson learnt
« Reply #225 on: October 31, 2020, 08:20:52 AM »
Lesson learnt
By Morissa Lindsay (Barbados Today)


The recent impasse between FIFA and the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) which has predictably ended in favour of the world governing body for football, is a lesson for other regional associations. And now says Barbados senior sports administrator Adrian Donovan, the fate of the TTFA president William Wallace is in the hands of FIFA.

After seven months of back and forth between the embattled TTFA president Wallace and his group, a few days ago the membership of TTFA unanimously agreed that all court matters involving FIFA be stopped.

According to Donovan who has been following the impasse closely, it has taken a long time for the membership to realise that they had the power in their hands. In fact, in a previous interview, Donovan stated upfront that this was the way for the TTFA to go by telling Wallace to throw in the towel.

Donovan explained that it was expected that FIFA would  lift the suspension on the TTFA and allow all football to resume as normal. However, he insisted that an issue might arise depending on the state of mind of the FIFA hierarchy whereby Wallace could find himself facing disciplinary action.

“It is a known fact and well documented that member clubs, associations or individuals are not allowed to take FIFA to court. It is not expected that FIFA will impose any action on the TTFA as the normalisation committee is now back in power and any expense imposed will have to be paid by FIFA which makes no sense.

“The outstanding matter is what will they do with William Wallace. Will they let him walk away free or will he be made an example? William Wallace has not only brought the Trinidad football fraternity to disgrace but the nation of Trinidad and Tobago on a whole was subjected to the international embarrassment of the highest order. And the question will be asked, will he be able to get away scot-free,” Donovan said.

He added: “History would tell us several regional football administrators have been either suspended or banned entirely from all football activities. So, Mr Wallace would just join a long list. The decision by the membership is a very mature one in that they saw that the situation that presented itself only meant more trouble for football in Trinidad and Tobago.”

The former Barbados Football Association general secretary also referenced Wallace’s lieutenant Keith Look Loy who saw what was coming at the end of the tunnel and jumped ship early. Loy resigned a few days before the special general meeting was called.

Although Wallace will go down in history as successfully gaining a verdict against FIFA in Court, Donovan has suggested that Wallace do the honourable thing like Look Loy who has resigned from all football.

Also, the veteran advised Wallace to take guidance from the membership, as in their letter to FIFA, they humbly expressed an apology for causing shame on the governing body of football.

“Look Loy has resigned from all football and has said he has run his course. It is sad, very sad when a group of people have combined their effort to fight a cause and when they see things are not turning in their favour they abandon the ship one by one. This is exactly what has happened with William Wallace. He was the only man left on a burning deck.

“Up to press time Mr Wallace has not officially resigned and although he said that his resignation will come after the special general meeting, one wonders what could be the hold-up. With all legal matters having been terminated, several other important issues will now have to be settled. But of course the payment of the staff and the alleged contracts that were not seen or approved by the TTFA executive committee [are still to be dealt with].

“Mr. Wallace may be facing some sleepless nights not knowing what FIFA‘s next move is. For sure it is expected that the world’s governing body will go after anyone who has allegedly misspent or misappropriated their funds. It will be advisable for the deposed former leader to cooperate with the impending investigations and avoid being brought to his knees,” Donovan explained.
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Re: Lesson learnt
« Reply #226 on: October 31, 2020, 09:05:09 AM »
Lesson learnt
By Morissa Lindsay (Barbados Today)


The recent impasse between FIFA and the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) which has predictably ended in favour of the world governing body for football, is a lesson for other regional associations. And now says Barbados senior sports administrator Adrian Donovan, the fate of the TTFA president William Wallace is in the hands of FIFA.

After seven months of back and forth between the embattled TTFA president Wallace and his group, a few days ago the membership of TTFA unanimously agreed that all court matters involving FIFA be stopped.

According to Donovan who has been following the impasse closely, it has taken a long time for the membership to realise that they had the power in their hands. In fact, in a previous interview, Donovan stated upfront that this was the way for the TTFA to go by telling Wallace to throw in the towel.

Donovan explained that it was expected that FIFA would  lift the suspension on the TTFA and allow all football to resume as normal. However, he insisted that an issue might arise depending on the state of mind of the FIFA hierarchy whereby Wallace could find himself facing disciplinary action.

“It is a known fact and well documented that member clubs, associations or individuals are not allowed to take FIFA to court. It is not expected that FIFA will impose any action on the TTFA as the normalisation committee is now back in power and any expense imposed will have to be paid by FIFA which makes no sense.

“The outstanding matter is what will they do with William Wallace. Will they let him walk away free or will he be made an example? William Wallace has not only brought the Trinidad football fraternity to disgrace but the nation of Trinidad and Tobago on a whole was subjected to the international embarrassment of the highest order. And the question will be asked, will he be able to get away scot-free,” Donovan said.

He added: “History would tell us several regional football administrators have been either suspended or banned entirely from all football activities. So, Mr Wallace would just join a long list. The decision by the membership is a very mature one in that they saw that the situation that presented itself only meant more trouble for football in Trinidad and Tobago.”

The former Barbados Football Association general secretary also referenced Wallace’s lieutenant Keith Look Loy who saw what was coming at the end of the tunnel and jumped ship early. Loy resigned a few days before the special general meeting was called.

Although Wallace will go down in history as successfully gaining a verdict against FIFA in Court, Donovan has suggested that Wallace do the honourable thing like Look Loy who has resigned from all football.

Also, the veteran advised Wallace to take guidance from the membership, as in their letter to FIFA, they humbly expressed an apology for causing shame on the governing body of football.

“Look Loy has resigned from all football and has said he has run his course. It is sad, very sad when a group of people have combined their effort to fight a cause and when they see things are not turning in their favour they abandon the ship one by one. This is exactly what has happened with William Wallace. He was the only man left on a burning deck.

“Up to press time Mr Wallace has not officially resigned and although he said that his resignation will come after the special general meeting, one wonders what could be the hold-up. With all legal matters having been terminated, several other important issues will now have to be settled. But of course the payment of the staff and the alleged contracts that were not seen or approved by the TTFA executive committee [are still to be dealt with].

“Mr. Wallace may be facing some sleepless nights not knowing what FIFA‘s next move is. For sure it is expected that the world’s governing body will go after anyone who has allegedly misspent or misappropriated their funds. It will be advisable for the deposed former leader to cooperate with the impending investigations and avoid being brought to his knees,” Donovan explained.

On the first comment in bold: One could disagree with United TTFA, but to characterise the choices of action as disgraceful and embarrassing is a considerable stretch.

Donovan's comments could be construed as bordering on being mischievous and meddlesome but for the mitigation that they are responsive to Barbadian media.

Regarding the second comment in bold: Sleepless nights being experienced by Wallace? Clearly not. Coach, that should have been the easiest assessment to determine correctly, but you have not categorised it correctly.

« Last Edit: October 31, 2020, 09:17:20 AM by asylumseeker »

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #227 on: October 31, 2020, 09:21:16 AM »
Sancho optimistic FIFA will lift ban.
By Jada Loutoo & Jonathan Ramnanansingh (T&T Newsday).


THE TT Football Association (TTFA) executive has withdrawn its appeal of FIFA’s suspension of T&T from international football before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland.

On Wednesday, deputy president of the CAS appeals arbitration division Dr Elisabeth Steiner ruled that the appeal between the TTFA and FIFA was terminated and removed from the court’s roll.

Wednesday’s order was given without costs, except for the court office fee already paid by the TTFA. On Monday, the TTFA withdrew its appeal, which was filed on September 25. This withdrawal follows Sunday’s extraordinary general meeting, at which the majority of the TTFA membership voted to accept the normalisation committee appointed by FIFA in March.

Since then, TTFA’s president William Wallace and his executive have been in a battle against FIFA, first over the appointment of the committee and then the world governing body’s suspension of T&T from international football. On Friday, the Court of Appeal overturned Justice Carol Gobin’s decision that FIFA acted illegally in removing Wallace’s executive.

In response to TTFA’s withdrawal, TTFA board member Brent Sancho believes this may be a positive step in the right direction towards having T&T’s suspension lifted before December 18.

On September 25 – one day after T&T was indefinitely banned by the sport’s global governing body – the Concacaf council met and decided that if TT can meet the criteria laid down by FIFA, and if FIFA does in fact life the ban by December 18, the Soca Warriors will be permitted to compete at the 2021 Gold Cup.

Sancho, however, knocked Wallace and his United TTFA slate for sinking T&T football to its lowest point. Although still suspended, the former 2006 World Cup defender remains quietly optimistic.

“They were heading down this path from since March and they’ve taken everyone and everything with them. Thankfully, all the documents have been sent off to the relevant correspondents. I suspect FIFA would have their say which may probably indicate a lift in suspension.

“The work really begins now to try and put things in place to move T&T football forward. The past eight months was a complete waste of time. From the get go, it was just men trying to feed their egos. I think the dead end that was always there, they’ve finally arrived at it. It was inevitable,” he said. All attempts to contact normalization committee chairman Robert Hadad for a response on TTFA’s CAS withdrawal proved futile.

Really? By your assessment, egocentric conduct commenced in March? Let's be serious.

Offline Tallman

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #228 on: October 31, 2020, 10:48:15 AM »
On the first comment in bold: One could disagree with United TTFA, but to characterise the choices of action as disgraceful and embarrassing is a considerable stretch.

Donovan's comments could be construed as bordering on being mischievous and meddlesome but for the mitigation that they are responsive to Barbadian media.

Regarding the second comment in bold: Sleepless nights being experienced by Wallace? Clearly not. Coach, that should have been the easiest assessment to determine correctly, but you have not categorised it correctly.

The embarrassing things have been the comments from Randy Harris and Adrian Donovan throughout this saga.
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Offline maxg

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #229 on: October 31, 2020, 08:17:54 PM »
Dr Gloudon: TTFA-Fifa: an inconvenient truth that won’t be deciphered with one-dimensional thinking.
Wired868.com.


“[…] The TTFA has undoubtedly been in a mess for a long time; and so has Fifa. Indeed, we may have learned how to be corrupt in football from Fifa. No one in a local or regional body can carry on sustained defrauding of Fifa without the assistance of someone inside of Fifa.

“[…] Nevertheless, in the case of Fifa, they are the international umbrella for the sport and do have a right, as given to them by their membership, to execute according to their rules and regulations. The point, however, is that this should be done equitably…”

The following Letter to the Editor on the legal battle between Fifa and the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) was submitted to Wired868 by Reverend Dr Iva Gloudon—a former Trinidad and Tobago international athlete, sport administrator, university director of sport and former ambassador to Jamaica:

It is my opinion that the matter of the TTFA-Fifa controversy has been mostly dissected through the lens of one-dimensional thinking, which has seen this important instance in the terms of a single linear factor and scale. It seems that most are of the opinion that we cannot walk and chew gum at the same time.

As far as I am concerned, this is not merely an issue of right and wrong. The TTFA, like most other sporting organisations in the world who want to participate in the ‘big leagues’, often sign on the bottom line without the full knowledge of the significance of the terms, or in the belief that the clauses which produce a niggling feeling in their stomachs will never happen to them.

And before you even think that this only happens with sportsmen and sportswomen who are really not too smart; let me remind you of the insurance policy that you signed when you were 21 years old, only to find that, when you turned 60, the outcome was a far cry from what you expected. Or the numerous applications that you downloaded on your smart phone, without knowing the serious consequences of doing so.

The TTFA has undoubtedly been in a mess for a long time; and so has Fifa. Indeed, we may have learned how to be corrupt in football from Fifa. No one in a local or regional body can carry on sustained defrauding of Fifa, without the assistance of someone inside of Fifa.'

Just as no one can defraud our Ministry of Sport without someone on the inside knowing or not executing their oversight. Nevertheless, in the case of Fifa, they are the international umbrella body for the sport and do have a right, as given to them by their membership, to execute according to their rules and regulations.

The point, however, is that this should be done equitably. No one can convince me that Fifa would have moved on any one of the first world countries in Europe or North America—who, by the way, have also had their challenges with corruption—in the same manner that they did with Trinidad and Tobago.

There are so many other respectful ways in which this could have been executed.

What has been fascinating and unprecedented is the manner in which we as a country have capitulated to them. From the highest level, during the ongoing court matter, the president of the TTFA was publicly ridiculed after he won the first case.

The person with responsibility for our Ministry of Sport found it prudent to shout across the land and all the way to Zürich that the TTFA President had won the battle, but lost the war. The head of the Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago, which is responsible for funding sport, made it openly clear that there would be a sharp reduction in funding to the TTFA if the association got suspended.

Most of the TTFA membership unceremoniously tossed out their president and then moved, cap and apology in hand with almost complete acquiescence, to implore Fifa and the normalising committee to return with no strings attached; completely defeated.

It is understandable why the membership of the TTFA would have done what they did. Sporting organisations have been at the mercy of all of our governments and mostly riddled with incompetent leadership.

There are many coaches and other technical persons who have worked assiduously and have not received their remuneration for months and, in some cases, for years.

But in the face of it all, why did they not have any demand for respect from Fifa or some input in the process? They just simply opened the door to our sovereign space.

It all speaks to the way that we have been indoctrinated for generations. Our court of appeal looked at the Fifa regulations and decided that we were a legitimate party to it, and therefore we now have to play by the rules.  Nowhere did the court of appeal say that Madame Justice Carol Gobin’s statements on the case were untrue. And that is because she singlehandedly got to the heart of the matter.

The court of appeal, however, ruled that in law, Justice Gobin did not have jurisdiction over the case. I do not agree with this linear thinking, but then I know my limitations, as I am no lawyer.

Nelson Mandela spent twenty-seven (27) years in prison because the apartheid laws were legitimately on the South African books. Those in charge make the laws to suit themselves and those disadvantaged by the laws often have an uphill battle for justice.

Slavery for hundreds of years was legitimately on the law books. We black people were once considered mere chattel; but downtrodden men and women with the help of powerful allies fought for it to be taken off the law books.

The Windrush Exposé, a 2018 British political scandal which included Caribbean people of colour who were wrongly detained, denied legal rights, threatened with deportation and in many cases illegally deported by the British Home Office, is a recent example.

These included the first group of Caribbean persons who went to the UK in 1948 on the invitation of the British government, who needed their services at that time. Now, after all of these years, the British government wants to deport them.

These are all such devastating and overwhelming instances that today our minds are still mired by slavery, colonialism and elitism. We have not, in the words of Robert Nesta Marley, been able to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery.

It is time for us to be liberated. It is time for us to pivot. It is time for our successive governments to stop merely using sport as political patronage. It is time for us to not only assess where we are with the administration of sport, but to also delve into how it is executed and what it takes for us to improve on what we are doing.

It is time for our corporate community to come on board with sport—not just at the back end but at the front end. It is time that our universities educate persons who can administrate sport, coach sport, and research sport, and not merely produce persons who are certified in sport.

It is also time that persons in sport, at every level, take hold of their skill and their craft with the determination to shape it into what it ought to be.

To the former TTFA president, Mr Wallace, I say that not many understand or can withstand that integrity comes before creature comforts, but you obviously do. That politicians are not always those who stand on principle, but you do. That the judiciary works under the constraints of the narrow law, but you do not, as you also understand the inconvenient truth.

You too, like all of us, have made mistakes, but I support you in what you were trying to achieve and thank you for your 30 years of service to sport.

Some of us know that sport is everything, as it teaches everything. It may yet be the way out of our national quagmire in determining who we really are as a people and as a nation.

RELATED NEWS

Dear editor: There was nothing ‘pyrrhic’ about Wallace and the UTTFA’s fight, history will smile on them.
Wired868.com


“[…] The UTTFA and supporters of its stand against the mighty Fifa might also be encouraged by the words of a martyr for the cause of Poland’s Solidarity Workers in the 1980s.

“Before he was brutally murdered on 19 October 1984, Father ‘Pop’ (Jerzy Popiełuszko) reportedly urged embattled workers with words that still ring true today:

“Truth never changes. It cannot be destroyed by decisions or legal acts. Telling the truth with courage is a way leading directly to freedom. A man who tells the truth is a free man despite external slavery, imprisonment or custody…”

The following Letter to the Editor on the stance of former Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) president William Wallace and the United TTFA slate against their removal by Fifa, was submitted to Wired868 by Anthony Rock of the St Joseph Training Club:

I read and re-read Wired868’s reporting on last Monday’s appeal court proceedings that preceded the judgement released on Friday 23 October 2020.

Although I was disappointed in the appeal court’s determinations on Friday 23 October, I was not completely surprised—having noted the line of the CJ’s probings and the questions and responses traded between attorneys representing the respective adversarial parties.

So yes, I got a very uneasy feeling before release of the court of appeal judgement that things may not turn out well this time for the party I champion in this still unfolding impasse.

But really those who would resist injustice, even at great sacrifice, should continue to take courage from Madame Justice Carol Gobin’s judgements on 13 August and, particularly, on 13 October. To my mind, she properly dealt with the United TTFA’s concerns of injustice, regarding who committed the wrongs and who was the victim.

The remit of the appeal court was only about whether the matters should have been adjudicated within the jurisdiction of the Trinidad and Tobago courts or somewhere else. Therefore the appeal court hearing was not about declaring on who was right and who was wrong in the substantial matters.

That was the business of the trial judge, Madame Justice Gobin; and she did attend to that business—except of course, as we now learn, her 13 October determinations are no longer of any legal avail, since the appeal court found (regardless of the merits of that high court judgement) that the matters should not have been heard here in the first case.

Thus the appeal court’s ruling of Friday 23rd October 2020 will abide henceforth (unless a privy council ruling later overturns its findings).

But for me, I remain on course with Justice Gobin’s findings. The lady judge confirmed my own layman’s findings prior that Fifa acted improperly, unfairly and in a high-handed manner with one of its vulnerable members. Fifa also behaved less than respectfully towards T&T’s sovereignty.

I think it is important for neutrals—indeed all—to revisit the 13 October 2020 judgement of Madame Justice Carol Gobin (both the determinations and its justifications) as well as the comments of UTTFA’s Wallace, published before the appeal court determinations were released.

No doubt battle-worn, Mr Wallace might take comfort that there are still a few persons, like-minded as himself, who in empathy shared his team’s efforts in boldly standing up for principle against the odds—in the face of impending deprivation and castigation.

The UTTFA and supporters of its stand against the mighty Fifa might also be encouraged by the words of a martyr for the cause of Poland’s Solidarity Workers in the 1980s. Before he was brutally murdered on 19 October 1984, ‘Father Pop’ (Jerzy Popiełuszko) reportedly urged embattled workers with words that still ring true today:

“Truth never changes. It cannot be destroyed by decisions or legal acts. Telling the truth with courage is a way leading directly to freedom. A man who tells the truth is a free man despite external slavery, imprisonment or custody…”

I thought that in Justice Gobin’s court, much of the truth in this unwholesome Fifa drama came out.

Incidentally, Trinidad and Tobago’s appeal court met to hear the matter between the TTFA and Fifa on the anniversary of Father Pop’s death on 19 October.

I regretfully note that, from the loud voices in opposition to the UTTFA’s stand, it seems in Trinidad and Tobago that admirable civic virtues such as: conviction in cause, faithfulness to statutory duty, patriotism, willingness to make sacrifice for a greater good, testicular fortitude, etc, are no longer relevant.

These are the virtues demonstrated in the actions of Messrs Wallace, Clynt Taylor, Sam Phillip, Keith Look Loy and the rest of the UTTFA team—and perhaps were never even countenanced by those who balk at the prospect of a Fifa ban.

But if our citizenry were imbued with the aforementioned civic qualities, particularly our leaders, we would throw off the shackles of self-contempt (picked up again by Bajan Prime Minister Mia Motley in her ‘Time to Pivot’) and defend the state from its enemies: internal and external.

Whatever losses are sustained to preserve the honour and dignity of our people can be regarded as ‘acceptable losses’. And therefore any victory—be it moral or temporarily legal—in pursuit of those priorities, cannot be ‘pyrrhic’ at all.

But as they say, it is what it is. And that continued in today’s TTFA EGM. So accordingly Mr Wallace, as you have seemed to have hinted this last week, take a bow and ride out, erect and tall. Whoa!

Perhaps eons later after reflecting, some whom you fought for—and maybe some who opposed you—might endorse the following inscription on your epitaph:

“True, true, true… The odds were against you; your own people too. Yes, eventually pummelled. Yet posterity TnT is grateful. You bravely reminded Fifa: ‘Football? Yes, but not at all costs’. It is important to stand up to a bully, get in a few well directed blows and expose him for what he is.”

So look out Fifa; and others peeking in. If iz heat yuh feeling, know iz Fire coming in!

« Last Edit: November 01, 2020, 01:49:44 AM by Flex »


Offline Deeks

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #231 on: October 31, 2020, 10:47:53 PM »
William Wallace has not only brought the Trinidad football fraternity to disgrace but the nation of Trinidad and Tobago on a whole was subjected to the international embarrassment of the highest order. And the question will be asked, will he be able to get away scot-free,” Donovan said.

You, Donovan, is an f---king embarrassment.

Offline Tallman

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Happy grovelling
« Reply #232 on: November 01, 2020, 07:56:21 PM »
Happy grovelling
By Fazeer Mohammed (T&T Express)


Tony Greig is the man who first made me aware of what the word “grovel” meant.

Of course it is now the stuff of cricketing lore that the comment by the England captain ahead of the 1976 home campaign against the West Indies so fired up the Caribbean team, especially the fast bowlers, that they made it their business to go after him with additional venom whenever he came to the crease during that five-match rubber in which Clive Lloyd’s team prevailed by a 3-0 margin.

“People are building these West Indians up. I’m not really quite sure that they are as good as everyone thinks they are. If they are down, they grovel, and I intend, with the help of Closey (Brian Close, recalled for the series at the age of 45) and a few others to make them grovel.”

For a white South African, at a time of heightened awareness of the dehumanising treatment of the majority black population under white minority apartheid rule in that country, to insinuate that a team comprised predominantly of the descendants of African slaves would be crawling on their hands and knees at his feet was not only outrageous, but revealed the absence of any real empathy – notwithstanding the efforts of anti-apartheid campaigners – in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe for the injustices in a part of the world where they were happy to visit and continue to do business.

All of that immediately came to mind last week when a letter was sent, presumably representing the majority who prevailed at last weekend’s emergency meeting of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association, to Robert Hadad, chairman of FIFA’s normalisation committee, which included a humble apology to the almighty gods of the game in Zurich.

Not surprisingly, there has been an attempt to backpedal from that grovelling reference. Yet even if the actual phrase was not approved by the membership and inserted by the writer of the letter, it doesn’t change the fact that this was precisely the perspective perpetuated by those stridently opposed to the legal action initiated by William Wallace and the other members of his deposed TTFA executive. To put it simply, they were prepared to do whatever needed to be done to get back in the good books of HRH Gianni Infantino.

Let me just re-state for the record that I was in support of the legal challenge by the group known as “United TTFA” to their surreptitious removal by the game’s global governors. That FIFA’s rules permit this type of unjust intervention doesn’t validate the injustice. It merely reinforces that so very often the gap between what is lawful and what is just is dispiritingly wide.

For most of the rest of this column I will defer to Brian Lewis because the president of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee said it much better than I can in an interview on Lasana Liburd’s “Wired868.com” website as far as putting this entire disgraceful episode into context.

Here’s what he had to say in response to the widely-held view that Wallace and his colleagues were selfish, irresponsible and reckless in initiating this action which has resulted in the TTFA being suspended by FIFA:

“I don’t think there is anyone within any organisation who had been democratically elected, and then four months later was removed; I can’t see anyone honestly and legitimately not having empathy for Mr Wallace…They would have wanted for themselves exactly what he was asking for. But there are people whose only priority seems to be to participate in the FIFA system.”

And now for a perspective on the administration of football post-normalisation committee:

“Whenever the next election falls, I think it will be important that we not see the same faces circulating – many of whom are part of the problem. There is a thinking that the people who create a problem are not the people to solve them. I believe that people who have the best interest and the genuine interest of football should step up; otherwise the people with ulterior motives who want to control football for the wrong reasons will take charge – and then the problems will continue.”

And finally, here’s Lewis’ opinion on the behaviour of FIFA and other world bodies:

“These global sport organisations, particularly the ones based in Europe, are very difficult to hold to account. They operate under this veneer of autonomy and authority, which they use to push back against efforts to hold them accountable...Nobody is going to (resist), especially if you are economically vulnerable...That is why organisations like FIFA move in a particular way in places like Africa, Asia and the Caribbean but they do not treat the bigger countries in the same way.”

Well said Brian. In case you don’t know though: we like it so.
The Conquering Lion of Judah shall break every chain.

Offline asylumseeker

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #233 on: November 02, 2020, 09:42:24 AM »
Statutory ambiguity
By Dr. Terrence Farrell (T&T Express)


THE decision of the Court of Appeal has drawn a line under the litigation between the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) and FIFA, a conflict which recalls the Creole aphorism: “Tief from tief does make God laugh!” Justice Gobin took the parties and the country on an excursion which brought to mind former Chief Justice Michael de la Bastide’s query, posed in the context of another matter adjudicated by Gobin J, as to whether judicial review legislation had opened the door to “judicial adventurism’’.

Justice Gobin’s frolic did, however, surface a significant issue, the legal status of certain entities created by statute and the justiciability of their actions.

To be sure, the issue is not really new. Justice Judith Jones (as she then was) had to interpret the Integrity in Public Life Act of 2000 and the related amendments to the Constitution.

Those pieces of legislation widened the ambit of the Integrity Commission to include boards of “statutory bodies and state enterprises, including those bodies in which the State has a controlling interest”. But the legislation did not define either.

After interrogating the Interpretation Act and the Constitution itself, Jones J opined that: “In their natural and ordinary meaning the term [statutory bodies] must be taken to mean: ‘those bodies or organisations established by statute’... there is no other possible meaning that can be ascribed to these words.”

And there lay the problem. There are a host of organisations—sporting, charitable, religious—that are established by statute. Attorney Tyrone Marcus (Guardian October 18) gave a list of sporting organisations created by statute. The Catholic Religious Education Development Institute, of which I am a director, was set up by statute. Ricardo Williams (Sunday Express October 25) has given an excellent summary of how such organisations come into being and from where their powers arise, which is not from the statute incorporating them.

These organisations are incorporated by statute for reasons of prestige or some other arcane reason. But as Bereaux JA pointed out, that does not mean that they have any defined public purpose or respond to any public policy.

They do not report to Parliament or to any government minister. They do not fall within the principle established in Datafin because they discharge no public duty. And even if, as with the TTFA, there is some public interest in what they do, that is not sufficient to bring them within the ambit of judicial review.

Despite the Jones decision, which has not been appealed, the Integrity Commission has wisely ignored these particular “statutory bodies’’ and has not required their boards to be subjected to its onerous strictures.

Incorporation by statute wrong-footed Boodoosingh J (as he then was) in the Look Loy v Gabriel matter, on which Gobin J relied, and which Bereaux JA suggests was also wrongly decided on that point. Bereaux JA, clear-headed and careful, and the antithesis of judicial activism, did not seek to legislate when a body created by statute should be treated as a private body and hence not subject to judicial review. However, his dicta on that point leaves open the question whether a body established by statute could, outside of resort to arbitration, oust the jurisdiction of the local courts if its legislation explicitly so provided, and whether or not our courts would accept such ouster.

The difficulties of statutory incorporation do not end there. There remains considerable ambiguity about the governance of State-owned enterprises. Yes, they do fall within the purview of the Integrity Commission, and, in accordance with section 119(9) of the Constitution, they do “report’’ to Parliament, usually long after horses have bolted. But because State enterprises are incorporated under the Companies Act, the only legitimate nexus to governance by the State is through the Minister of Finance (Corporation Sole) Act, which is wholly inadequate for effecting good governance. This lacuna has allowed corporate travesties such as UDeCOTT, Education Facilities, Petrotrin’s GTL project, EMBD, LifeSport, and a host of others to occur.

The applicability of judicial review to State enterprises was discussed in NH International v UDeCOTT with instructive judgments by Kangaloo and Warner JJA, and a powerful and persuasive dissent by Sharma CJ.

It is why the 2016 State Enterprise Review Committee recommended that all State-owned enterprises be governed under a two-tiered legal system of incorporation of the Companies Act, together with a New Zealand-style State Enterprise act which clearly legislates the powers of both the “line minister’’ and the finance minister, and would leave directors of state enterprises, who are now very exposed, much less exposed.

The TTFA-FIFA imbroglio will unfold and one hopes that there will eventually be an outcome that is positive for the game in Trinidad and Tobago.

The question of the status of private bodies incorporated by statute which probably should not be, and State enterprises which are not, but should be, ought to garner the attention of a Law Reform Commission, if we still have one.

Boss content.

That aside, somewhere between  the decision to seat solely two Justices to include the CJ, and the PM's untimely amplified barking (it was more sentiently audible than a mere dog whistle), I am less than impressed with the CoA's pronouncement on this matter despite the compelling support that is represented to undergird its authority.

There was an opportunity here to dress the hearing of this matter  in different attire and the absence of a third Justice - accompanied by multiple perceptions of fealty, if not indebtedness to the PM - nimbly assisted in the avoidance of a complete cloak of transparency and independence.

That harm indicated, what would have been the harm in taking the alternative approach in terms of number or recusal (even if tenuous)?

As Farrell above suggested elsewhere (Express, February 25) on the matter of constitutional reform in the context of Section 137(3):

It is wrong to suggest that the issues raised by the Law Association reflect some partisan, politically-inspired agenda to remove the Chief Justice, though doubtless, there are individual lawyers who do embrace such an agenda. The Law Association’s committee on Judicial Appointments ... made comprehensive recommendations for the reform of the JLSC. The Law Association long ago also made comprehensive and sensible recommendations for the reform of the award of silk. Both reports have been studiously ignored by our politicians who seem to ‘like it so’!

One could be forgiven for concluding that this matter neatly has collapsed into the favoured column of 'like it so' convenience.

I was of the view that I had exhausted comment on this thought and related thoughts, but, I have not.

On the path of looking for something else, I revisited an article I read in early August during the peak of fertility of the dispute between the U/TTFA and FIFA. That article, written by Dr. Emir Crowne attracted my attention as to the wisdom of its insertion into the public discourse at that time. Despite its eminent lucidity, it struck me as potentially provocative in the context of prickly egos and what could happen next.

Excerpt of relevant comments.
Quote
... In recent days we have also seen the publicising of internal emails between Justice Gobin and the Chief Justice. The emails set out Justice Gobin’s disagreement with her assignment to the Family Court in Tobago and the Chief Justice’s response to same.

With the greatest of respect, the very public airing of these matters cannot strengthen the public’s confidence in the administration of justice. The judiciary must distance itself from the familiar bacchanal that we simultaneously love and detest in this country.

In fact, the integrity of the judiciary must be protected at all costs. Not merely from agenda-laden attacks and personal animus, but on principle. It is on this basis that I believe the Honourable Chief Justice should resign.

In my view, the merits of the allegations against the Chief Justice are irrelevant. Nor should my suggestion that he resign be taken as my personal belief in any of those allegations. His resignation should come as a matter of principle. Akin to a judge who recuses themselves from hearing a matter due to the mere perception of bias (as opposed to any actual bias per se); so too the Chief Justice might consider voluntarily resigning to protect the integrity of the Office of the Chief Justice, and judiciary as a whole, despite any wrongdoing.

...

https://wired868.com/2019/08/02/crowne-archies-kobayashi-maru-why-chief-justice-should-resign/

Perspective is a weighty beast.

Offline Tallman

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FIFA conducts TTFA status assessment after EGM letter
« Reply #234 on: November 04, 2020, 06:36:08 PM »
FIFA conducts TTFA status assessment after EGM letter
By Walter Alibey (T&T Guardian)


Football's world governing body — FIFA is currently assessing the actions of the T&T Football Association (TTFA) general membership, as well as the ruling by the Court of Appeal of T&T, with a possible intent to remove the suspension handed down on September 24 and accept the TTFA back into the fold of the FIFA family.

FIFA general secretary Fatma Samoura delivered this information in a letter on Wednesday, pointed out that on October 23, the Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Appellate Judge Nolan Bereaux overturned a ruling by High Court Judge Carol Gobin made on October 13 to recognise the United T&TFA's team of William Wallace (president) and vice presidents Clynt Taylor, Joseph Sam Phillip and Susan Joseph-Warrick, as the legitimate managers of football in T&T.

The TTFA had challenged a decision by the FIFA in March to appoint a Normalisation Committee to replace the Wallace-led T&TFA for putting the country's football on the brink of insolvency. The T&TFA first went to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Switzerland, before deciding to challenge the matter in the local High Court, which was a violation of the FIFA Statutes, citing constitutional bias at the CAS.

However, Justice Bereaux concluded that the TTFA constitution prescribes that all disputes between itself and FIFA should be dealt with by CAS.

He said: “The fact that such a provision is enshrined in the TTFA’s constitution means that the TTFA and its executive are bound to comply. The result is that the filing of these proceedings was a breach of the TTFA’s constitution.”

Archie, on the other hand, said “It was neither prudent case management nor an economical deployment of judicial time and resources to attempt to finally determine the substantive issues and to deliver a judgement less than a week before the scheduled hearing of the interlocutory appeal...Zeal is commendable but it must not obscure the need for caution,” Archie said.

In the judgement, it was determined that the litigation contravened the Judiciary’s Civil Proceedings Rules, as it was served on FIFA via email when Swiss law does not permit such a method for service of a lawsuit.

The ruling was followed by an Extraordinary General Meeting on October 25, at which the TTFA members agreed to drop all the court matters with the FIFA if the TTFA were to be accepted as a member again, and thereby be allowed to play in all FIFA-sanctioned events.

The TTFA was also required to accept the normalisation committee as the organisation to run the affairs of the sport in T&T, as well as bring its statutes in line with that of the FIFA.

Samoura in a letter to Robert Hadad, chairman of the normalisation committee dated November 4, acknowledged the attempts made the sport's membership and the court of appeal, saying: " FIFA acknowledged receipt of the decision of the T&T Court of Appeal in the case to which FIFA was a respondent party. In this context, the decision of the Court of Appeal ruled that the former leadership of the TTFA had acted unlawfully by appealing to a local court to contest the appointment by FIFA of the Normalisation Committee for the TTFA."

She added: "In addition, the Court of Appeal stressed that in accordance with art. 57 par. 1 of the FIFA Statutes and art. 67 of the TTFA statutes, the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) is the only recognised path to resolve such dispute. Furthermore, the FIFA administration acknowledges the receipt of written proof that on 25 October 2020 a meeting was held among the TTFA members. In this context, we duly take note that the members of the TTFA expressed themselves and decided that “(…) the way forward for the TTFA is: for the TTFA to fully comply with its obligations as a member of FIFA, recognising the legitimacy of the FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee, and; bringing its own statutes in line with the FIFA Statutes, and; to fully cooperate with the Normalisation Committee in the fulfilment of its mandate as stated in FIFA´s letter of March 17th, 2020; be it further resolved that all court matters existing between the TTFA and FIFA shall be immediately brought to a stop”.

According to Samoura, FIFA welcomes both decisions and is assessing the matter internally, promising that an update will be provided in due course.

The Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) which made it known it wanted T&T in its main draw for the CONCACAF Gold Cup on September 28, later gave the T&TFA until December 18 to sort out its matters with the FIFA or miss the tournament in 2021.

FIFA later also gave the FIFA T&TFA the same deadline to drop all the court matters against it and bring its constitution in line with FIFA's, if T&T was to have a chance to contest the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The Conquering Lion of Judah shall break every chain.

Offline Rastaman

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #235 on: November 05, 2020, 07:52:25 AM »
To all the fools who thought FIFA would just welcome us back with open arms.....see what's happening. They will draw this out as long as they feel.....this had nothing to do with football in the first place. It was all about controlling the "minnows"

Somebody send that message to Sancho

Offline Tallman

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FIFA lifts suspension of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #236 on: November 19, 2020, 01:40:02 PM »
FIFA lifts suspension of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
FIFA.com


After taking note of the recent decision of the Trinidad and Tobago Court of Appeal and the express wish of the members of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) for all associated legal claims brought by parties purporting to act in the name of the organisation to be terminated, the Bureau of the FIFA Council has decided to lift the suspension of the TTFA with immediate effect.

This means that all of the TTFA membership rights have been reinstated and TTFA representative and club teams are again entitled to take part in international competitions. The TTFA may also benefit from development programmes, courses and training provided by FIFA and/or Concacaf. Moreover, FIFA member associations may again enter into sporting contact with the TTFA and/or its teams.

The members of the TTFA normalisation committee, which was installed by decision of the Bureau of the FIFA Council on 17 March 2020, will proceed with their duties. FIFA regrets the stances and actions taken by the members of the removed Executive Committee, which negatively impacted all aspects of Trinidad and Tobago Football. Such actions greatly misdirected the attention of the normalization committee and hindered its work and execution of its mandate. FIFA is, however, confident that the normalisation committee will now be able to focus on the execution of its assigned tasks.

RELATED NEWS

FIFA lifts TTFA suspension.
By Gyasi Merrique (T&T Guardian).


Following what has been described at a "fruitful discussion" between FIFA and the Normalisation Committee representing the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association, FIFA has agreed to lift the TTFA's international suspension.

A statement by FIFA explained its decision:

"After taking note of the recent decision of the Trinidad and Tobago Court of Appeal and the express wish of the members of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) for all associated legal claims brought by parties purporting to act in the name of the organisation to be terminated, the Bureau of the FIFA Council has decided to lift the suspension of the TTFA with immediate effect.

This means that all of the TTFA membership rights have been reinstated and TTFA representative and club teams are again entitled to take part in international competitions. The TTFA may also benefit from development programmes, courses and training provided by FIFA and/or Concacaf. Moreover, FIFA member associations may again enter into sporting contact with the TTFA and/or its teams.

The members of the TTFA normalisation committee, which was installed by decision of the Bureau of the FIFA Council on 17 March 2020, will proceed with their duties. FIFA regrets the stances and actions taken by the members of the removed Executive Committee, which negatively impacted all aspects of Trinidad and Tobago Football. Such actions greatly misdirected the attention of the normalization committee and hindered its work and execution of its mandate. FIFA is, however, confident that the normalisation committee will now be able to focus on the execution of its assigned tasks."

Meanwhile, press release put out by the Normalisation Committee this afternoon noted that the TTFA's "membership rights in FIFA will be reinstated in time for Trinidad and Tobago to compete in the 2021 (CONCACAF) Gold Cup and the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers."

The Bureau of the FIFA Council took the decision to suspend the TTFA on September 24 after the previous administration of the TTFA, led by former president William Wallace persisted with legal action in T&T's high Court challenging FIFA's appointment of a normalisation committee in March of this year. Such action was contrary to and a breach of article 59 of the FIFA Statutes.

The TTFA was granted victory in the matter on October 13 by Judge Carol Gobin, who deemed that FIFA's decision to activate the normalisation was improper and made in bad faith.

However, 11 days later Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Justice Nolan Bereaux overturned Gobin's ruling when they determined that the lawsuit brought by Wallace and his United TTFA team had contravened the TTFA’s constitution.

Facing a TTFA Extraordinary General Meeting to decide whether the TTFA should recognise FIFA's normalisation committee, Wallace stepped down as TTFA president, clearing the way for the committee chairman businessman Robert Hadad to initiate discussions with FIFA.

Below is the Normalisation Committee's statement in full:

The Normalization Committee recently held fruitful discussions with FIFA and we are pleased to deliver the good news that the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association's suspension will be lifted and its membership rights in FIFA will be reinstated in time for Trinidad and Tobago to compete in the 2021 Gold Cup and the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. This could not happen without the decisive contributions by numerous T&T stakeholders in signaling their desire for a new chapter for football in our country. However we have a long way to go and there is a lot of work to be done to ensure that this return to competitive action, in all age categories, is sustainable. The Normalization Committee is committed to that undertaking.

The Committee was appointed to:

• run the TTFA’s daily affairs;

• establish a debt repayment plan that is implementable by the TTFA administration;

• review and amend the TTFA Statutes (and other regulations where necessary) and ensure their compliance with the FIFA Statutes and requirements before duly submitting them for approval to the TTFA Congress; and

• organize and conduct elections of a new TTFA Executive Committee for a four-year mandate.

We have already made some positive headway over the last few months through dialogue with the players and coaches and are committed to strengthening these relationships. This is one of our first priorities. The financial and governance issues of the TTFA are looming large, but we believe that together, we can put Trinidad and Tobago football where it needs to be on and off the field. We look forward to meeting with the various constituencies to work towards a structure that ensures that we begin winning again. It is even more imperative now that we work together. Football is a family, a community. We must heal together. Trinidad and Tobago football needs the help of all of its stakeholders working together shoulder to shoulder - the players, coaches, administrators, corporate supporters and our loyal fans. We look forward to your continuous support in exchange for our commitment to deliver growth and success in Trinbago football.

« Last Edit: November 19, 2020, 02:52:27 PM by Flex »
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Offline Flex

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #237 on: November 19, 2020, 02:55:59 PM »
The going rate for normalisation committee members appears to be US$6,500 (TT$44,000) per month for the chairman and US$4,000 (TT$27,000) for other members. Neither Fifa nor the normalisation committee confirmed the figures paid to the Trinidad and Tobago-based officials.
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Re: FIFA lifts suspension of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #238 on: November 19, 2020, 07:01:08 PM »
FIFA lifts suspension of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
FIFA.com


After taking note of the recent decision of the Trinidad and Tobago Court of Appeal and the express wish of the members of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) for all associated legal claims brought by parties purporting to act in the name of the organisation to be terminated, the Bureau of the FIFA Council has decided to lift the suspension of the TTFA with immediate effect.

This means that all of the TTFA membership rights have been reinstated and TTFA representative and club teams are again entitled to take part in international competitions. The TTFA may also benefit from development programmes, courses and training provided by FIFA and/or Concacaf. Moreover, FIFA member associations may again enter into sporting contact with the TTFA and/or its teams.

The members of the TTFA normalisation committee, which was installed by decision of the Bureau of the FIFA Council on 17 March 2020, will proceed with their duties. FIFA regrets the stances and actions taken by the members of the removed Executive Committee, which negatively impacted all aspects of Trinidad and Tobago Football. Such actions greatly misdirected the attention of the normalization committee and hindered its work and execution of its mandate. FIFA is, however, confident that the normalisation committee will now be able to focus on the execution of its assigned tasks.

RELATED NEWS

FIFA lifts TTFA suspension.
By Gyasi Merrique (T&T Guardian).


Following what has been described at a "fruitful discussion" between FIFA and the Normalisation Committee representing the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association, FIFA has agreed to lift the TTFA's international suspension.

A statement by FIFA explained its decision:

"After taking note of the recent decision of the Trinidad and Tobago Court of Appeal and the express wish of the members of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) for all associated legal claims brought by parties purporting to act in the name of the organisation to be terminated, the Bureau of the FIFA Council has decided to lift the suspension of the TTFA with immediate effect.

This means that all of the TTFA membership rights have been reinstated and TTFA representative and club teams are again entitled to take part in international competitions. The TTFA may also benefit from development programmes, courses and training provided by FIFA and/or Concacaf. Moreover, FIFA member associations may again enter into sporting contact with the TTFA and/or its teams.

The members of the TTFA normalisation committee, which was installed by decision of the Bureau of the FIFA Council on 17 March 2020, will proceed with their duties. FIFA regrets the stances and actions taken by the members of the removed Executive Committee, which negatively impacted all aspects of Trinidad and Tobago Football. Such actions greatly misdirected the attention of the normalization committee and hindered its work and execution of its mandate. FIFA is, however, confident that the normalisation committee will now be able to focus on the execution of its assigned tasks."

Meanwhile, press release put out by the Normalisation Committee this afternoon noted that the TTFA's "membership rights in FIFA will be reinstated in time for Trinidad and Tobago to compete in the 2021 (CONCACAF) Gold Cup and the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers."

The Bureau of the FIFA Council took the decision to suspend the TTFA on September 24 after the previous administration of the TTFA, led by former president William Wallace persisted with legal action in T&T's high Court challenging FIFA's appointment of a normalisation committee in March of this year. Such action was contrary to and a breach of article 59 of the FIFA Statutes.

The TTFA was granted victory in the matter on October 13 by Judge Carol Gobin, who deemed that FIFA's decision to activate the normalisation was improper and made in bad faith.

However, 11 days later Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Justice Nolan Bereaux overturned Gobin's ruling when they determined that the lawsuit brought by Wallace and his United TTFA team had contravened the TTFA’s constitution.

Facing a TTFA Extraordinary General Meeting to decide whether the TTFA should recognise FIFA's normalisation committee, Wallace stepped down as TTFA president, clearing the way for the committee chairman businessman Robert Hadad to initiate discussions with FIFA.

Below is the Normalisation Committee's statement in full:

The Normalization Committee recently held fruitful discussions with FIFA and we are pleased to deliver the good news that the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association's suspension will be lifted and its membership rights in FIFA will be reinstated in time for Trinidad and Tobago to compete in the 2021 Gold Cup and the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. This could not happen without the decisive contributions by numerous T&T stakeholders in signaling their desire for a new chapter for football in our country. However we have a long way to go and there is a lot of work to be done to ensure that this return to competitive action, in all age categories, is sustainable. The Normalization Committee is committed to that undertaking.

The Committee was appointed to:

• run the TTFA’s daily affairs;

• establish a debt repayment plan that is implementable by the TTFA administration;

• review and amend the TTFA Statutes (and other regulations where necessary) and ensure their compliance with the FIFA Statutes and requirements before duly submitting them for approval to the TTFA Congress; and

• organize and conduct elections of a new TTFA Executive Committee for a four-year mandate.

We have already made some positive headway over the last few months through dialogue with the players and coaches and are committed to strengthening these relationships. This is one of our first priorities. The financial and governance issues of the TTFA are looming large, but we believe that together, we can put Trinidad and Tobago football where it needs to be on and off the field. We look forward to meeting with the various constituencies to work towards a structure that ensures that we begin winning again. It is even more imperative now that we work together. Football is a family, a community. We must heal together. Trinidad and Tobago football needs the help of all of its stakeholders working together shoulder to shoulder - the players, coaches, administrators, corporate supporters and our loyal fans. We look forward to your continuous support in exchange for our commitment to deliver growth and success in Trinbago football.


Hold on hold on before we begin yuh celebrate pound chest and start the parade, could some  we get a statement from FIFA as to what was the justifiable cause for them to appoint a normalization committee in the first place?  What could have been so drastic in the  four months of the new administration to warrant FIFA' Draconian measures? Consider all the misadventures and mis guided decisions  by the previous administration?
And in FIFA' statement " regretfully........blah blah". Laying blame on the TTFA administration. Does anyone hold FIFA accountable  for their actions? What becomes of alleged deals around the HOF?
So their is a collective sigh of relief- ban lifted  we get  to participate and our brethens in the Caribbean can now talk to us wow!!!!
Lessons to be learnt - don't Fck with those in power especially if you are a minnow - moral of this whole stinking saga. So while some may be jumping with glee consider the ultimate price we are subjected too- pawns on display for FIFA to display - explicit tyranny and  autocratic rule  by any means necessary -

Offline Rastaman

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Re: FIFA suspends the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association
« Reply #239 on: November 20, 2020, 06:53:29 AM »
To all the fools who thought FIFA would just welcome us back with open arms.....see what's happening. They will draw this out as long as they feel.....this had nothing to do with football in the first place. It was all about controlling the "minnows"

Somebody send that message to Sancho
Well Well....they only took 3 weeks. I guess I was wrong......good luck going forward guys.

 

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