The future of William Wallace, president of the United TTFA (T&T Football Association) and his administration, could be in jeopardy with a general meeting of the TTFA membership set for Saturday via Zoom to discuss the blunders made in the contracts for national football coach Terry Fenwick, general secretary Ramesh Ramdhan and with UK sportswear suppliers, Avec Sports, earlier this year. All were not approved by the board of directors of the TTFA.
On Tuesday, United TTFA member Keith Look Loy, who was instrumental in the formation of the group to challenge David John-Williams for the right to govern T&T football at last November's TTFA AGM elections, said in a release they, the United TTFA members of Anthony Harford and vice presidents Clynt Taylor, Susan Joseph-Warrick, Joseph Sam Phillip and himself, were unaware of the contents of those contracts.
Tuesday's release added, neither did the board of directors of the TTFA approve the contracts, which varied significantly from what had been approved. Though the board had seen and approved a two-year US$17,500 with perks-deal for Fenwick, it was revealed that the Englishman had officially signed for US$20,000 with the option to increase the duration of contract dependant on his successes at the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Wallace was also one of two signatories to a $25 million sports apparel contract without board approval, which required the embattle football association to purchase £125,000 in uniforms and other replicas if the country's national teams were to be outfitted after the first year.
Guardian Media Sports has seen a copy of the Avec contract which is also signed by Ramdhan.
The UK company agreed to outfit all national football teams, from youth to senior levels, at the start with free uniforms at a cost of $1.4 million.
And in the other contract faux pas saw Ramdhan was given a two-year contract, although it was agreed by the board, via a six-to-one vote, with four abstentions, that he only could have gotten a one-year term.
However, Guardian Media Sports has seen the December 14, 2019 at a Board of Directors Meeting Minutes, and according to item 7.14 Mr Phillip moved a motion to appoint Mr Ramesh Ramdhan as the General Secretary of the TTFA for 1 year. Mr Edwards seconded the motion. A vote was taken, and the results were 6 yes, 1 No and 4 Abstentions.
In addition, Guardian Media Sports has also seen emails from two Board members who pointed out what the Board had agreed to. One of the email messages on December 19, 2019, read: "However, we agreed at our 1st meeting not to give any contracts at this time for more than 12 months /1 year initially with options to review (based on performance base indicators) either to retain or replace. Do hope this can be revisited."
Wallace called the move by Look Loy and vice presidents premature, saying, "I spoke to Keith because I realised I had a missed call from him, and he said they had a meeting and they decided to put out a statement and he said he would send the statement to me. I did not read the statement until I saw it. Guardian Media Sports has a copy of the statement.
"I was disappointed because I felt that, even if there was an issue, that we should have met to discuss the issue. I figured that if you're doing anything like that, I supposed to be part of that discussion."
Though the statement was said to be a consensus of the United TTFA members, Wallace explained his members have all expressed concern with the contents of the statements, hinting it was not what they had expressed.
Responding to the contracts Wallace said that the Ramesh contract was above board.
"I explained to him (Look Loy) the Ramesh contract and as far as I am concerned, I dealt with it based on the constitution. He wasn't too impressed with the constitution because the public outcry was more important than the constitution," said Wallace.
"My understanding is that the secretary is a creature of the president. The president takes the name to the board and the board can say 'yay or nay' but as far as my understanding goes, that is as far the board goes with that.
"In terms of the contract itself, the terms of the contract is negotiated by the president and the officers. The constitution clearly states that the board is responsible for all appointments and it named the appointments, all technical appointments etc. The only one it did not state and given the board the right too was the secretary. The only right the board has with the secretary is to say 'yes we're going with this person or no we're going with that person'.
"In my wisdom, based on what we have to roll out for the next couple of years, my secretary is very crucial in that rolling out, I gave my secretary two years."
Wallace also cleared up concerns about the about Avec and Fenwick's deals saying, the Avec contract was more based on people's opinions of what they feel was good or bad. However, upon reflection he believed they had made the right decision, saying: "We are ranked 105th in the world and we got a deal that may not have been the best in the world but based on where we are ranked, I took it to my executive and we felt it was a good deal.
"We set up a deal with (Omar) Hadeed at Sports & Games who felt it was doable. We were going to sell the shirts and get x-amount of money from the sale and we felt that at this point in time it was a good deal. When we got into office there were no uniforms available. It is a matter of opinion by some people that we could have gotten a better deal."
He admitted that the Avec contract was presented to the board but only after it was signed, noting they were in a haste to get it signed, a decision that he said he apologised to the board for at a meeting.
Wallace later admitted that there were some mistakes with the Fenwick contract, saying there were figures that got mixed up, such as the additional US$2,500 which was added on to the US$17, 500 which the TTFA agreed to, making it a lump sum. The US$2,500 was negotiated by Fenwick himself, based on his ability to reach out to sponsors.
Wallace told Guardian Media Sports that the board only saw the initial contract of US$17, 500 before the US$2,500 was added to make it US$20,000.