NEWLY-elected president of the TT Football Association (TTFA) William Wallace is pleased with the association’s election results, but says it is no reason to gloat, and his team is ready to put in work.
His slate secured a clean sweep on Sunday, as he dethroned David John-Williams as president, with Clynt Taylor, Susan Joseph-Warrick and Sam Phillip being voted first, second and third vice-presidents, respectively.
Speaking with Newsday on Tuesday morning, Wallace said, “It (winning) feels good.
“It’s not about us going in there and gloating. There’s nothing to gloat about. It is about us deciding we wanted to be given the opportunity to try to turn around the fortunes of football in T&T.
“We have signed up for a task. We are up to it and we will be okay.”
The new administration began work on Monday, spending almost eight hours in meetings. Topics discussed include: Projected income and expenditure, current debt, an audit of personnel employed by TTFA (including technical staff and contracts), ongoing legal matters, Elite football – a new league and TTFA League of Champions, the Concacaf NextPlay programme, and standing committees.
Asked what he felt the previous administration achieved during its tenure, other than the Home of Football, which was opened last week in Couva, he said, “As far as I’m concerned, the Home of Football was the biggest achievement. Nothing else major in terms of the football. We are all aware where the football has gotten to.
“That’s the only thing that’s tangible that we can see and we have to give credit to Mr David John-Williams for that.”
On Friday, multinational billion-dollar urban apparel and sports company Nike, said it has “no intention to pursue” any arrangement to sponsor or supply team product to the TT Football Association, undermining claims made by Wallace’s slate before the elections.
Nike confirmed there were discussions with a sales arm in the UK but it never went beyond that.
Asked about this, Wallace told Newsday while talks have resumed, he is unsure how it would unfold because of the interference made by Concacaf - who wrote to Nike questioning the sponsorship.
“Well, we said we would resume our conversations with our international partners once we get into office. That was always the promise. And I must say that even up to this morning, I spoke with some of our people out there and they are resuming.”
He said his team have backup plans should this proposal become void.
It will be a busy week for the TTFA boss, as he has meetings with SPoRTT (the Sports Company of TT), TTFA vice-presidents, and the Secondary Schools Football (SSFL) executives, among others.
He is also SSFL president and said a decision will be made by Thursday on whether he will continue in that role.