As no-confidence vote awaits presidents
Years after avoiding the implementation of a FIFA Normalisation Committee to run the affairs of football in T&T, the country now faces a similar fate, if TTFA's Board members have their way.
Wednesday's adjourned Emergency General Meeting (EGM) has led to plans by the TTFA membership to plan a vote of no confidence motion in chairman and football association president David John-Williams, who is on medical leave after an injury two weeks ago.
The motion is to also include second vice president Ewing Davis and Joanne Salazar, the third vice president when the reconvened EGM takes place. It is tentatively set for June 13.
This is due to the reluctance by John-Williams and his executive to provide answers on the financial affairs of the Home of Football which is being constructed in Balmain, Couva.
Guardian Media Sports understands that several members who attended Wednesday's meeting questioned Davis' decision to call off the meeting at 9:30 am although they claim that a quorum was formed when a member walked in three minutes after the start. They felt that the chairman should have exercised the "Chairman's Watch" which was instituted to give a few extra minutes to members who were en route to the meeting.
Yesterday, Raymond Tim Kee, a former president of the TTFA, said if a vote of no-confidence is successfully moved against the three remaining presidents, then FIFA, the world governing body for the sport, will intervene to run the affairs of the sport.
However, he admitted that he felt heartbroken by this reality after he had to plead with FIFA when he took office back in 2012, to stop the implementation of the normalisation committee, as the sport had been in shambles.
Tim Kee told Guardian Media Sports he was able to convince FIFA he could have changed things by forming a special committee to make key changes in the association's constitution and that was achieved.
However, yesterday Keith Look Loy, the T&T Super League's representative on the Board, said he was unsure if a no-confidence vote would lead to the introduction of a normalisation committee, but said he will welcome it as the membership is fed up of trying to get answers from the president and his officers. "What this will do is expose the ills of the John-Williams' administration. John-Williams is in a no-win position and has to come clean on everything that's happening in the association," Look Loy said.
The TTSL president also took offence to rumours that John-Williams, along with Davis and general secretary Justin Latapy-George are set to leave T&T on June 9 for the official FIFA World Cup opening in Russia, which could see him miss reconvened EGM.
"Let him go and he will see. I think the no-confidence vote will be a political statement that will carry the belief of the Board," Look Loy said.
Tim Kee said he does not support the no-confidence vote but believes John-Williams should be left to clean up the mess he has made. He also disagreed with plans to construct a hotel in Couva, saying, "I don't know where all these plans to construct a hotel at the home of football came from. It was merely supposed to be an accommodation centre where rooms could have been provided for football executives when they visit T&T, but not to have a hotel as TTFA is not into the hotel business."
The former-football boss also called for answers on why the TTFA is still in red when it received twice as many monies from the FIFA than when he was in power.
He said, "The TTFA used to receive US$58,000 every quarter for development and I have heard that the new president now receives much more than that, so where is the money going?"