Derek Achong

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

The T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTFA) has been cau­tioned by a High Court Judge over its re­peat­ed re­fusal to re­lease in­for­ma­tion on the con­struc­tion of its US$2.5 mil­lion "Home for Foot­ball" in Bal­main, Cou­va to one of its di­rec­tors.

De­liv­er­ing an oral judge­ment at the Hall of Jus­tice in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day af­ter­noon, High Court Judge Ron­nie Boodoos­ingh ruled that TTFA pres­i­dent David John-Williams and for­mer gen­er­al sec­re­tary Justin Lat­apy-George act­ed ir­ra­tional­ly and un­rea­son­ably when they re­peat­ed­ly de­clined re­quests made by TTFA di­rec­tor and T&T Su­per League pres­i­dent Kei­th Look Loy, since De­cem­ber 2017.

"Or­gan­i­sa­tions like the TTFA, hav­ing been in­cor­po­rat­ed by statute, can not be the per­son­al fief­dom of in­di­vid­u­als. Even if it were so in the past, it can not be so in mod­ern times," Boodoos­ingh said, as he or­dered John-Williams to dis­close the in­for­ma­tion to Look Loy with­in sev­en days.

Nei­ther John-Williams nor Lat­apy-George were present in court for the judge­ment and were rep­re­sent­ed by the TTFA's lawyer Anand Mis­sir.

In his judge­ment, Boodoos­ingh ruled that Look Loy was en­ti­tled to seek the in­for­ma­tion which in­cludes the fi­nanc­ing arrange­ment for the fa­cil­i­ty, the ten­der­ing process used for se­lect­ing the con­trac­tor and sub-con­trac­tors and time-frames for com­ple­tion.

"He (Look Loy) has oblig­a­tions as well as po­ten­tial li­a­bil­i­ties and must, there­fore, have the true po­si­tion of the as­so­ci­a­tion so he can prop­er­ly per­form his func­tions," Boodoos­ingh said.

Stat­ing that trans­paren­cy is the an­ti­dote for cor­rup­tion, Boodoos­ingh ques­tioned the ra­tio­nale of the TTFA of­fi­cials in the case.

"Giv­en in­ter­na­tion­al knowl­edge of the tur­moil in Fi­fa, one would have thought that the de­fen­dant would not have found it­self in the po­si­tion it has," he said, al­so crit­i­cis­ing the TTFA for re­quest­ing that Look Loy sign a non-dis­clo­sure agree­ment if he was to be giv­en the in­for­ma­tion. The TTFA claimed that the re­quest was made af­ter it re­ceived ad­vice on the is­sue from Fi­fa, which main­ly fi­nanced the project.

"It is not about pro­tect­ing an or­gan­i­sa­tion but what is in the best in­ter­est of the world game...Those who have noth­ing to hide, should not fear light be­ing shone on them," Boodoos­ingh said.

As a sec­ondary is­sue in the case, the TTFA was al­leg­ing that Look Loy should not have been al­lowed to bring the ju­di­cial re­view law­suit as it is not a pub­lic body, whose de­ci­sions are ca­pa­ble of be­ing re­viewed by a court.

Boodoos­ingh strong­ly dis­agreed as he point­ed out that it was es­tab­lished by an Act of Par­lia­ment to man­age and pro­mote foot­ball in the coun­try and that it re­ceives oc­ca­sion­al State fund­ing.

He al­so re­ject­ed the TTFA claim that the is­sue should have been re­solved us­ing ar­bi­tra­tion as he stat­ed that such have would re­quire "will­ing­ness" from both par­ties.

In ad­di­tion to or­der­ing the dis­clo­sure of the in­for­ma­tion, Boodoos­ingh al­so or­dered the as­so­ci­a­tion to foot Look Loy's le­gal bill for pur­su­ing the law­suit.

Look Loy was rep­re­sent­ed by Dr Emir Crowne, Matthew Gayle and Crys­tal Paul.

Ac­coun­tants agree to analyse doc­u­ments

A team of foren­sic ac­coun­tants are ex­pect­ed to look in­to the fi­nan­cial records on the con­struc­tion of the "Home for Foot­ball".

In a brief in­ter­view out­side the Hall of Jus­tice in Port-of-Spain, af­ter Look Loy won his law­suit against the TTFA, he said the ac­coun­tants ap­proached by him had al­ready agreed to analyse the doc­u­ments once they are re­leased by the TTFA over the next week.

Look Loy said: "I don't know what we would find. I nev­er ac­cused any­one of any­thing but in the ab­sence of fac­tu­al in­for­ma­tion there would be spec­u­la­tion and there is a moun­tain of spec­u­la­tion over what is hap­pen­ing in Cou­va.

"I am go­ing in there now to see what ex­act­ly has been hap­pen­ing, not on be­half of Kei­th Look Loy but be­half foot­ball com­mu­ni­ty and the peo­ple of T&T."

Asked how he felt with the out­come of the case, Look Loy said he was al­ways con­fi­dent.

"It feels good to know that there was re­course for me and oth­er peo­ple who are fight­ing for trans­paren­cy in the con­duct of busi­ness, hu­man af­fairs and the con­duct of TTFA af­fairs," he said.

He al­so sug­gest­ed that Jus­tice Ron­nie Boodoos­ingh's judge­ment in the case may help im­prove the sport in T&T.

"The judge was right. Foot­ball is not pri­vate busi­ness or a pri­vate fief­dom, it be­longs to all of us," he said.

About the Project (Put in box)

The "Home for Foot­ball" project is ex­pect­ed to in­clude a 72-room ho­tel, train­ing pitch­es, an en­ter­tain­ment cen­tre and ad­min­is­tra­tive of­fices for the as­so­ci­a­tion.

The sod was turned in Sep­tem­ber 2017, with con­struc­tion start­ing in Feb­ru­ary, last year. The project was spon­sored by Fi­fa and is be­ing con­struct­ed on a lit­tle over sev­en hectares of land do­nat­ed by the Gov­ern­ment.

The project was al­ready at an ad­vanced stage when Fi­fa rep­re­sen­ta­tive Veron Mosen­go-Om­ba and Sports Min­is­ter Sham­fa Cud­joe con­duct­ed a tour in Au­gust, last year.

The project is still in­com­plete but the fa­cil­i­ty is sched­uled to be opened, lat­er this year.