Federation

Trinidad and Tobago Football Association president William Wallace is accusing normalisation committee head Robert Hadad of reneging on a deal to pay local coaches the salaries owed them by the TTFA, and of trying to blame his deposed executive for the coaches’ situation.

NOTHING TO REGRET

Even with Trinidad and Tobago currently suspended by the world governing body because of High Court action undertaken by his United TTFA group, William Wallace has no regrets over the action they have taken since FIFA appointed a normalisation committee to look after local football in March.

Ego trippers

“I have never seen such ego take over a situation and even at the expense of the future development of football. We have hundreds of young men and women. They are losing the opportunities for contract, for scouts, for scholarships.”

WAYNE Sheppard, assistant coach of the T&T men’s Under-15 football team, wants good sense to prevail as technical staff members of the various men’s and women’s squads are yet to be paid by the FIFA-appointed normalisation committee.

PRESIDENT of the Barbados Football Association and president of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Randy Harris described the situation facing T&T football as “sad,” but said that FIFA “does not want to see the back of T&T.”

It seemed that the long-running feud between the Trinidad & Tobago Football Association (TTFA) and Fifa had come to a conclusion when, on 24 September, Fifa announced that the rebellious Caribbean FA had been suspended. The seven men of the Bureau of the Fifa Council – Gianni Infantino plus the presidents of Fifa’s six constituent confederations – explained their decision in those terms: “The suspension was prompted by the former leadership of the TTFA lodging a claim before a local court in Trinidad and Tobago in order to contest the decision of the FIFA Council to appoint a normalisation committee for the TTFA. This course of action was in direct breach of article 59 of the FIFA Statutes, which expressly prohibits recourse to ordinary courts unless specifically provided for in the FIFA regulations“.

THERE seems to be a level of indecision concerning who is entrusted with the role of running the affairs of local football.

The determination of an application for a stay of FIFA's decision to suspend the T&T Football Association (TTFA) has been deferred.