Soca Warriors Online
The home of Trinidad and Tobago football
“[…] Some opposed to our resistance to Fifa talk about our supposed endangerment of ‘the youth’. But, in effect, their moaning merely teaches youth, by example, the abandonment of democracy, principle, justice, and fair play, for the prevalent values of our national intellectual and spiritual life: hypocrisy, cowardice, self interest, and convenience. It sickens me to my stomach.
FIFA, the world governing body for football, is set to be defended at all cost for its position to appoint a Normalisation Committee to take charge of local football and thereby ousting the legitimately elected team of president William Wallace, Clynt Taylor, Joseph Sam Phillip and Susan Joseph-Warrick when the case comes up on June 16. FIFA was given 28 days to file its defence which was served on it on May 19.
ATTORNEY Matthew Gayle wants to know FIFA’s “real motive” behind appointing a normalisation committee to the TT Football Association (TTFA). This was his response to news that the world governing body for football agreed to help the Zimbabwean Football Association (ZIFA) clear its debt.
Since my last article a few weeks ago relating to this TTFA/FIFA saga, I genuinely thought things would have gotten better. How silly was I? Every day, a different headline appears in the media and I have been following the battle intensely.
“[…] United TTFA states for the public record that the real reason for Fifa’s unwarranted and illegal interference in TTFA’s internal business is its desire to cover up the financial mismanagement and illegal actions of the last administration:
WORLD football’s governing body, FIFA, will defend itself against claims made by the ousted former executives of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA).
New information suggests that FIFA decided to “normalise” the newly elected board at the Trinidad & Tobago Football Association after just two months. If this indeed turns out to be the case, Gianni Infantino could face real trouble.
Trinidad and Tobago Football Referees Association (TTFRA) vice-president Osmond Downer, one of the framers of the TTFA’s constitution, has defended president William Wallace’s decision to legally challenge Fifa’s attempt to remove him, based on his perception of natural justice and the governing body’s own statutes.
FIFA has not responded.