DR Emir Crowne and Matthew Gayle, the lawyers representing the ousted executive of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA), have proposed that Mark Hovell, a solicitor from Manchester, England, be the sole arbitrator in their case against football’s world governing body FIFA.

Hovell is a highly experienced sports lawyer and insolvency practitioner who specialises in regulatory, governance, commercial and financial matters, across all sports, both in the UK and across the world.

Additionally, he sits regularly as an arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and The FA’s regulatory commissions.

FIFA has until April 14 to submit their comments regarding the request – whether they agree to a sole arbitrator deciding matters and Hovell’s appointment.

On March 17, FIFA wrote to the TTFA advising them that they were appointing a normalisation committee to take over the running of the heavily indebted association. However, despite protests from the executive because such a move would be in breach of the TTFA constitution, FIFA proceeded to name members of the committee on March 26.

The action prompted the attorneys to file an appeal to set aside FIFA’s decision before the CAS on Monday, April 6.

On Wednesday, April 8, CAS acknowledged receipt of the appeal.

The lawyers now have until April 17, 10 days from when the appeal was due to be filed, which was Tuesday, April 7. Should they fail to do so. CAS will deem the appeal withdrawn.

FIFA then has 20 days to respond to the filed brief. They would be expected to do so by early May.

CAS has also invited the TTFA lawyers to consider the possibility of mediation.

“I take this opportunity to draw the Parties’ attention to the possibility of submitting this dispute to CAS mediation, which would not prejudice the Parties’ rights to subsequently re-submit the dispute to arbitration, should the dispute remain unresolved at the conclusion of the mediation procedure,” wrote Antonio De Quesada, Head of Arbitration.

“A successful mediation procedure would result in a binding settlement, the terms of which have been agreed upon by both Parties.” (Sportsmax)