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Michael Awai, the AC Port-of-Spain Business Development Officer yesterday began a campaign to oust William Wallace, president of the United T&T Football Association and his vice presidents Clynt Taylor, Joseph Sam Phillip and Susan Joseph-Warrick, in a bid to save T&T football.

Speaking to Guardian Media Sports on Thursday, Awai believes the group is detrimental to the future of football in T&T, particularly based on actions taken to challenge FIFA. He pointed to concerns about taking the FIFA to the High Court in T&T as well as major blunders being made with key contracts.

Awai's action comes on the heels of Tuesday's release by Keith Look Loy, Anthony Harford, Taylor, Joseph-Warrick and Phillip to speak out on concerns that Wallace signed contracts for national coach Terry Fenwick, general secretary Ramesh Ramdhan, marketing representative Peter Miller and a $25 million sportswear deal with UK firm Avec Sports, all without their knowledge and also without the approval of the Board of Directors of the T&TFA.

The group (United TTFA) is set to meet tomorrow (Saturday) to discuss Wallace's leadership future as well as the future of the group.

However, Awai said he would persuade the 49 members (T&T Pro League, T&T Super League, Regional Associations, Primary and Secondary Schools, Referees Association, Futsal and Beach Soccer and the T&T American Youth Soccer Organisation) to write to the general secretary Ramdhan to call an extraordinary general meeting to stop the group from taking legal action against the FIFA.

He said he will also seek to vote a new team in to manage the affairs of local football. This meeting would require at least 50 per cent of the membership to support the cause and another three-quarter majority of the votes for the group to be ousted.

According to Awai: "It is the membership that will have to call the meeting, so if they don't have a president and a vice president, whoever is there can appoint a chairman for the meeting. In other words, FIFA removed the elected executive on March 17 and replaced it with a Normalisation Committee.

Awai explained that he has indicated that the president and vice president are not there, but the membership, the 49 members or half of the 49 members, can write the general secretary, calling for a meeting and then appoint someone to chair the meeting. Now is a good time for the body membership to have a special general meeting. Once you can get more than 50 per cent, you can do that. That is in the constitution."

He noted further: "If the TTFA wants to drown themselves by taking its case to the High Court, knowing fully well they can't win, then it appears that they are only trying to prove a point and they don't really have the interest of the country or the football at heart, and that is something very distressing to me."

According to the Article 29 of the TTFA constitution: Extraordinary General Meeting 1 The Board of Directors may convene an Extraordinary General Meeting at any time. 2 The Board of Directors shall convene an Extraordinary General Meeting if a majority (more than 50%) of the Members make such a request in writing. The request shall specify the items for the agenda. An Extraordinary General Meeting shall be held within 30 days of receipt of the request unless the agenda includes the election of members of the Board of Directors or the members of the Electoral Committee, in which case the Extraordinary General Meeting shall be held within 60 days of receipt of the request. If an Extraordinary General Meeting is not convened within the indicated time, the Members who requested it may convene the Extraordinary General Meeting themselves. As a last resort, the Members may request assistance from FIFA and CONCACAF.

It is believed that the membership can move a vote of no-confidence against the United TTFA leader for the series of admitted missteps, especially after his members described him as operating similar to David John-Williams, the former TTFA president.

Meanwhile, TTFA constitutional expert Osmond Downer clarified the power of the membership to pursue change among the governors of the sport, saying in normal circumstances only the board can call a general meeting. However, he also explained: "There is also a provision in the constitution for the membership. More than 50 per cent of the membership can ask the board through the secretary to call an extraordinary general meeting to discuss specific items, and only those items can be discussed at the meeting and nothing else."

"However, the 50 per cent can request a meeting from the secretary but the meeting will still have to be called by the board. According to the constitution, if 50 per cent request a meeting, it takes 30 days and if the board does not call the meeting, then the 50 per cent of the members can call the general meeting. Even at that meeting, the president can turn up and once he turns up, he has the right to chair the meeting. With the situation with the normalisation committee, at the moment the board has been replaced. So if the normalisation committee now wants to call an extraordinary general meeting they certainly can, but the chairman of the normalisation committee has to chair the meeting."

Downer, a former referee also made it clear that FIFA has only replaced the board and not the various committees, saying there is a belief that nothing can go on because of the appointment of the normalisation committee.


SOURCE: T&T Guardian