… seeks meeting Saturday

MEMBERS of the United T&T Football Association group are seeking to hold a virtual general meeting of the T&T Football Association (TTFA) this weekend to discuss what it calls the overstepping of authority and unacceptable behaviour by ousted TTFA president William Wallace.

In a release yesterday, the group, which includes former TTFA first vice-president Clynt Taylor, second vice-president Susan Joseph-Warrick, third vice-president Joseph Sam Phillip, Anthony Harford and Keith Look Loy, said the situation arose after regional sports broadcaster Sportsmax revealed information concerning three crucial contracts which Williams allegedly signed off on without the apparent final approval of the TTFA board.

The contracts were listed as those for sports brand company Avec, national senior men’s coach Terry Fenwick and TTFA secretary Ramesh Ramdhan.

The group said according to the information disclosed, all three contracts were allegedly modified before being signed by Wallace and the parties involved without following the process of informing and getting final approval from the board. In fact, the group claims most of the information, in particular, some of the details of Fenwick’s contract only came to light via the Sportsmax broadcasts.

The group said this behaviour was totally unacceptable and it was this type of activity by the previous regime which led the TTFA members to vote out David John-Williams and replace him with Wallace before FIFA stepped in to appoint a Normalisation Committee to revamp local football.

The group said it was still in favour of going ahead with the lawsuit against FIFA’s decision to bring in the Normalisation Committee but no longer held confidence in Williams.

As such, the group said it was calling a meeting on Saturday (June 20) to discuss the issue and how they would go forward.

FULL STATEMENT:

In recent days regional broadcaster Sportsmax raised the issue of Terry Fenwick’s contract as TTFA’s senior men’s national team coach – specifically, the content, duration and TTFA Board approval of said contract.

“We have stated for the public record that we were not aware of the content of, nor did the TTFA Board approve, said contract, which varied significantly from what it had in fact approved. Last night, (Monday June 15), Sportsmax raised the issue of Ramesh Ramdhan’s contract as TTFA General Secretary – specifically the fact that it was two years in duration, while the TTFA Board had approved a one-year appointment.

“We were unaware of this and immediately contacted Ramesh Ramdhan via Whatsapp text to enquire about the veracity of Sportsmax’s claim.

Ramdhan confirmed that he does, indeed, hold a two-year agreement signed by president William Wallace. We are confronted by the fact of TTFA president Wallace’s signature of three contracts which the TTFA Board did not approve: 1) Avec uniforms, for which the Board criticised him but accepted his apology and assurance that such action would not be repeated. The contract was presented to the Board after the fact; 2) Terry Fenwick’s; 3) Ramesh Ramdhan’s.

This pattern of behaviour is unacceptable. It is unilateral. It exceeds the constitutional limits to the president’s authority. It is deceptive and deeply disappointing. And it replicates the performance of former president David John-Williams. As members of United TTFA, we brought John-Williams’ reign to an end in the last TTFA election on the promise of democracy, transparency and accountability.

“We stand by the principles of national sovereignty and the right of TTFA’s membership to elect and remove officers, which is the premise of United TTFA’s High Court action. But we also believe Wallace no longer holds the moral high ground. We are determined to continue the case because we reject FIFA’s belief that it could remove a democratically elected administration.

That said, we have determined to immediately call a virtual General Meeting of TTFA’s membership (via zoom), on Saturday June 20 at 14.00hrs. The purpose of this meeting will be to allow the members the opportunity to speak on all of the above, as well as the overall tenure of the Wallace administration.

Clynt Taylor, 1st vice-president; Susan Joseph-Warrick, 2nd vice-president; Joseph Sam Phillip, 3rd vice-president; Anthony Harford and Keith Look Loy. (Extracted from Trinidad Guardian)