Businessman and former club owner Arthur Suite is urging ousted Football Association (TTFA) president William Wallace to call off legal action against FIFA for sidelining him and his executive.
“Sorry, Mr William Wallace. I have tried very hard but have failed to come up with a reason that I can support your actions to oppose FIFA’s appointment of a “normalisation committee”, Suite wrote in an open letter yesterday.
In his letter, Suite was clear in his view that FIFA was not the enemy.
“Sorry, Mr Wallace, but your fight is not against FIFA but the state of the bankrupt TTFA that you inherited,” he wrote.
In the late 1970s and early ‘80s Suite, the owner of Aviation Services Limited, was the driving force behind the establishment of the Trinidad and Tobago Premier Soccer League, an attempt at professional football that was shortlived.
In his letter, Suite suggested that Wallace’s team would lose their case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Noting that the Act of Parliament granted the TTFA the right to regulate and control football in the country under FIFA, he argued that in so doing, it surrendered all the TTFA’s rights to the world body.
Suite also described the local FA as bankrupt, with a debt of approximately US$5.5 million that it is unable to liquidate. He added, “...and as such, this debt affects TTFA’s ability to operate on a daily/monthly basis without one of its creditors seeking and obtaining judgment against the TTFA and the threat of one of its creditors foreclosing on the TTFA. This could be a major embarrassment, not only to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago but to FIFA as well.”
The TTFA’s current debt actually lies in the vicinity of US$7 million.
Suite stated it was well known that the TTFA’s financial state was not created by Wallace and his executive but he added that no one knew how Wallace intended to liquidate the organisation’s massive debt.
The former football promoter then raised the question of whether it was more than that debt that prompted FIFA to move against Wallace and his executive.
“Was there such an insurmountable problem after the official opening of this joint venture, ‘Home of Football Hotel’ between FIFA and the Government of Trinidad and Tobago that caused the closure of this Football Hotel immediately after Mr Wallace was elected into office?” he asked.
“Could Mr Wallace not have fixed this problem quietly, quickly and peacefully in order to save any embarrassment to (the) FIFA president, the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, the Minister of Sport and the former president of TTFA who attended the official opening of the Hotel?” Suite continued, adding: “It’s the last straw that breaks the camel’s back.”
Suite added:”TTFA is totally dependent on finances from FIFA and the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, and as such the TTFA cannot be disrespectful at any time to FIFA or the Government of Trinidad and Tobago.”
He urged the Wallace-led executive to withdraw its action, accept change and “do what is best” for the country’s football.
SOURCE: T&T Express