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The Board of Director of the T&T Pro League has said it unanimously accepted the decision on Tuesday by world governing body for the sport of football Fifa to establish a Normalization Committee to steer the financial and statutory affairs of the T&T Football Association.

In a release on Thursday following a conference meeting of the board it stated: "The Board of the T&T Pro League has unanimously accepted the decision by Fifa to establish a Normalization Committee to steer the financial and statutory affairs of the Trinidad & Tobago Football Association.

As a football company who have invested over two hundred million dollars into the national economy over the last 18 years, the T&T Pro League stand ready to work alongside the Ministry of Sports and the FIFA appointed Normalization Committee for the continued development of the game.

We have instructed our representative on the former TTFA Board, Mr Brent Sancho, that the T&T Pro League will not support any move by the former administration to engage in any legal battle against FIFA over their removal from office."

In a letter dated March 17 to the TTFA general secretary Ramdhan FIFA wrote: Under these serious circumstances, and in accordance with article 8 paragraph 2 of the Fifa statutes (which foresees that executive bodies of member associations may, under exceptional circumstances, be removed from office by the Fifa Council in consultation with the relevant confederation and replaced by a normalisation committee for a specific period of time), the Bureau of the Council decided, on 17 March 2020, to appoint a normalisation committee for the TTFA.

Following the news from FIFA, the embattled president William Wallace told the media that he was disappointed by FIFA's action which they considered to be an unjust, unfair and a disrespectful act by the world governing body for football (FIFA) and will turn to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) to overturn a decision by FIFA, which on Tuesday appointed a Normalisation Committee to run the affairs of T&T football.

William Wallace said, "We took a while to get over the shock, it was total disbelief. Since then we have pooled our resources together and have decided that this is injustice, it is disrespect, it shows some political play going on here to protect, I don't know who, but clearly, this is unprecedented when you look at what those committees are set up to do. It is in cases of political interference, political turmoil, democratic processes such as elections. Our elections were supervised by the FIFA and CONCACAF, so there were no issues with the elections, but now they are saying because of the same financial deficiency that we pointed out to them when they were here, they are now using that as a reason, but we have gone beyond that, we have put things in place."

The Pro League release continued: At a time when the dreaded coronavirus is taking its toll on the health and economic welfare of the country, on the request of the Minister of Sports we are sending a proposal by March 31st for rebranding the professional league, use of community fields and developing a proposal for a partnership with FIFA, the Ministry of Sport and Corporate Trinidad and Tobago. A plan aimed at addressing the economic, social and sporting needs of the national and regional community.

While we cannot pre-empt any selection by FIFA we would like to see the Normalization Committee comprise of credible non-partisan persons from the local legal, sporting and business sector. We at the Pro League feel the time for mudslinging, character assassinations and egotism in our football must be replaced with a greater resolve to collectively address the challenges ahead."

VIDEOSancho’s thoughts on FIFA Committee


ABOVE SOURCE: T&T Guardian

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Sancho supports Fifa normalisation committee, urges ‘former TTFA board’ not to fight back.
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“[…] We have instructed our representative on the former TTFA Board, Mr Brent Sancho, that the TT Pro League will not support any move by the former administration to engage in any legal battle against FIFA over their removal from office…”

The TT Pro League, via a press statement, has distanced itself from Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) president William Wallace and his team and support Fifa’s decision to send in a normalisation committee to run the affairs of the local football body.

In a separate radio interview this evening on i95.5FM, Pro League chairman Brent Sancho declared that he was fully behind Fifa’s controversial decision, which his former 2006 World Cup teammate Shaka Hislop described as a betrayal of the local game.

The following is the TT Pro League statement, which was not sent to Wired868:

The Board of the TT Pro League has unanimously accepted the decision by Fifa to establish a normalisation committee to steer the financial and statutory affairs of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association.

As a football company who have invested over two hundred million dollars into the national economy over the last 18 years, the TT Pro League stand ready to work alongside the Ministry of Sports and the FIFA appointed normalisation committee for the continued development of the game.

We have instructed our representative on the former TTFA Board, Mr Brent Sancho, that the TT Pro League will not support any move by the former administration to engage in any legal battle against FIFA over their removal from office.

At a time when the dreaded coronavirus is taking its toll on the health and economic welfare of the country, on the request of the Minister of Sports, we are sending a proposal by 31st March for rebranding the professional league, use of community fields and developing a proposal for a partnership with FIFA, the Ministry of Sport and corporate Trinidad and Tobago. A plan aimed at addressing the economic, social and sporting needs of the national and regional community.

While we cannot pre-empt any selection by FIFA, we would like to see the normalisation committee comprise of credible non-partisan persons from the local legal, sporting and business sector.

We at the Pro League feel the time for mudslinging, character assassinations and egotism in our football must be replaced with a greater resolve to collectively address the challenges ahead.