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Fri, Mar

FIFA President Gianni Infantino and Prime Minister Keith Rowley at the opening of the Home of Football
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Following the T&T Football Association (TTFA) annual general meeting (AGM) on Sunday, which was conducted by the FIFA appointed Normalisation Committee (NC), there are more questions than answers.

The most alarming statement is an apparent reduction in asset value of the Home of Football (HOF) due to doubt over the ownership of the land used to build the project.

What has Robert Hadad, the chairman of the NC and his committee members Ms Judy Daniel (Deputy Chairperson) and Mr Nigel Romano and Trevor Nicholas Gomez (members) have been doing for the last 18 months to only now declare that a “material uncertainty exists which may cast significant doubt on the TTFA’s ability to continue as a going concern.”

If this situation is confirmed at the Emergency General Meeting (EGM) which is set for 14 days from Sunday, then the association cannot continue to operate and liquidation is inevitable.

Surely, the land must be part of the TTFA asset otherwise FIFA would not have funded the project as their own rules dictate.

If it is purely a case of tying up loose ends on the appropriate documentation which I would have thought was something Mr Hadad and his team should have addressed immediately upon their appointment.

It is also ironic to note that the 2022 budget is up for approval on the EGM agenda not to mention the recent two-year contracts given to National Coaching staff.

The important and urgent question for the NC to answer is whether the association is now officially insolvent or not as they have had 18 months to address the issue.

Only recently Mr Hadad and Mr Gomez was on i95.5FM telling the host Andre Baptiste that they were working on three solutions to raise funding using the HOF which would eliminate the debt issue but has now reduced its value substantially to the verge of insolvency.

Hopefully, the NC will clarify the true position at the EGM on October 10 and reverse their gloomy outlook accordingly.

The reduction in asset value of the HOF by the NC is alarming and surely disrespectful to the T&T Government who supported and inaugurated the project opening with a fanfare of euphoria and pride which was endorsed by the Prime Minister and the FIFA president himself in glowing terms.

Like all other football stakeholders I will wait on the EGM for further clarification.

Mike Berry
Football Intermediary (The FA)


SOURCE: T&T Guardian