Four days af­ter the em­bat­tled T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTFA) pres­i­dent William Wal­lace and his Unit­ed TTFA ex­ec­u­tive team won their con­tro­ver­sial law­suit against FI­FA in the T&T High Court when Judge Car­ol Gob­in ruled that FI­FA's move to ap­point a Nor­mal­i­sa­tion Com­mit­tee led by busi­ness­man Robert Hadad to re­place Wal­lace and his team was il­le­gal, null and void and of no ef­fect, Kei­th Look Loy, a for­mer na­tion­al youth play­er, who was in­stru­men­tal in the Unit­ed TTFA team bat­tle in every as­pect and at every stage, has re­signed.

His res­ig­na­tion al­so comes less than 24-hours af­ter Wal­lace and third vice-pres­i­dent Joseph Sam Phillip met Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, Stu­art Young, the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and Sham­fa Cud­joe, the Min­is­ter of Sport and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment at the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre in St Ann’s to find a way for­ward for the sport.

Look Loy, who has been at the cen­tre of all the Unit­ed TTFA de­ci­sions lead­ing up the TTFA elec­tions on No­vem­ber 24, 2019, and then chal­leng­ing

The for­mer FI­FA em­ploy­ee, who raised ad­min­is­tra­tive con­cerns of the David John-Williams-led ad­min­is­tra­tion, that led to the for­ma­tion of the Unit­ed TTFA, re­signed his po­si­tions of T&T Su­per League pres­i­dent and mem­ber of the Board of Di­rec­tors of the TTFA yes­ter­day amid crit­i­cisms of his team's suc­cess at the court from many, in­clud­ing Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley. Look Loy in an eight-page res­ig­na­tion let­ter yes­ter­day said he has run his race, in not on­ly the bat­tle for right­ful lead­er­ship of lo­cal foot­ball against the FI­FA but in foot­ball as a whole.

In his let­ter, he said: "In the af­ter­math of the sev­en-month bat­tle be­tween the Unit­ed TTFA and FI­FA, with con­flict­ing emo­tions, I re­sign the po­si­tions of TTSL Pres­i­dent, TTFA Board mem­ber and TTFA Tech­ni­cal Com­mit­tee chair­man. These res­ig­na­tions are ef­fec­tive im­me­di­ate­ly."

Look Loy who al­most sin­gle­hand­ed­ly cham­pi­oned the cause for the coun­try's sov­er­eign rule to be up­held, in their fight to over­turn the ap­point­ment of a Nor­mal­i­sa­tion Com­mit­tee which re­placed them in March this year, made it clear in his let­ter: "I am old enough to re­mem­ber the rais­ing of the red, white and black at mag­i­cal mid­night on 31 Au­gust 1962, un­der the watch­ful eye of Dr Er­ic Williams. To­day we are the sov­er­eign Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go, re­spon­si­ble for and to our­selves. I have ex­pe­ri­enced the tran­si­tion from the sub­ject of a for­eign pow­er to a cit­i­zen of a sov­er­eign state, and I have lived the joys and sor­rows, the highs and lows of in­de­pen­dence from for­eign rule."

Dis­ap­point­ed by the lat­est de­vel­op­ments, Look Loy said foot­ball has been his life­long love and labour, say­ing he par­tic­i­pat­ed in and rep­re­sent­ed T&T foot­ball, on and off the field for more than 50 years. How­ev­er, he not­ed: "Nev­er did I think the day would come when a for­eign en­ti­ty would at­tempt to seize con­trol of our foot­ball. To see many fel­low cit­i­zens ra­tio­nal­ize, aid and abet this is un­bear­able."

Look Loy's ap­par­ent win-and-loss bat­tle hinged on a premise that the coun­try's re­turn to the fold of the FI­FA mem­ber­ship, de­pends on whether the Act that led to the in­cor­po­ra­tion of the TTFA will be amend­ed.

Ear­li­er this week, TTFA at­tor­ney Matthew Gayle said, though he was un­cer­tain of ex­act­ly what the FI­FA was re­quest­ing by ask­ing the TTFA to align its Statutes with theirs, said he didn't think the FI­FA was be­ing so au­da­cious. Look Loy made it clear he will stand by the sov­er­eign­ty of the coun­try, its laws and its in­sti­tu­tion, not­ing that he was proud to be a mem­ber of the Unit­ed TTFA, ex­plain­ing that the vic­to­ry in the court was not lim­it­ed to our shores, but it bears glob­al sig­nif­i­cance.

"T&T has now set the stage for oth­er coun­tries to chal­lenge FI­FA's ar­ro­gant and bru­tal ap­proach to glob­al foot­ball gov­er­nance. The spot­light is now on FI­FA, which must end its ar­bi­trary and weaponized de­ploy­ment of the Nor­mal­i­sa­tion Com­mit­tee against ad­min­is­tra­tions it does not favour, and which must now in­sti­tute ob­jec­tive cri­te­ria and prop­er pro­to­cols for the use of said com­mit­tee to re­solve le­git­i­mate and in­tractable gov­er­nance prob­lems in mem­ber As­so­ci­a­tions."

Look Loy's last as­sign­ment in lo­cal foot­ball was his role, as a Board mem­ber, in ap­prov­ing an Ex­tra­or­di­nary Gen­er­al Meet­ing (EGM) on Oc­to­ber 25, among the sport's gen­er­al mem­ber­ship. At that meet­ing, the mem­ber­ship will have the pow­er to de­cide how foot­ball will move for­ward from here on­wards. Look Loy who is al­so the own­er and man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of Su­per League out­fit FC San­ta Rosa said: "On Sun­day, Oc­to­ber 25th, the mem­ber­ship will be faced with choic­es: to sup­port the Wal­lace ad­min­is­tra­tion in its oth­er le­gal bat­tles (in the Ap­peal Court and CAS): to call on Wal­lace to end the le­gal cam­paign: to call on him and the of­fi­cers to re­sign or seek to re­move them: to call on the gov­ern­ment to amend Act 10 of 1982 to al­low for FI­FA in­ter­ven­tion in TTFA gov­er­nance: and to call on FI­FA to en­ter T&T to ex­ert con­trol over TTFA. Such is democ­ra­cy and I will re­spect it."

Fol­low­ing on rul­ing by Jus­tice Car­ol Gob­in in the High Court on Tues­day, the Court of Ap­peal will sit on Mon­day to ad­ju­di­cate on whether Gob­in's rul­ing on T&T be­ing the ju­ris­dic­tion for the TTFA/FI­FA dis­pute to be set­tled, as well as if the TTFA should be the le­git­i­mate body to man­age lo­cal foot­ball.

The Unit­ed TTFA group com­prised William Wal­lace, the TTFA pres­i­dent and three vice pres­i­dents — Clynt Tay­lor, Joseph Sam Phillips, and Su­san Joseph-War­rick to­geth­er with An­tho­ny Har­ford, the pres­i­dent of the North­ern Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (NFA) and Look Loy. Af­ter FI­FA sus­pend­ed the TTFA on Sep­tem­ber 24, Joseph War­rick, Har­ford and now Look Loy have re­signed.

Kei­th Look Loy's res­ig­na­tion state­ment:

"On Wednes­day 14 Oc­to­ber Jus­tice Car­ol Gob­in de­liv­ered her judg­ment in the mat­ter of TTFA v FI­FA, de­clar­ing the William Wal­lace ad­min­is­tra­tion to be the law­ful lead­er­ship of the As­so­ci­a­tion. As promised by Unit­ed TTFA, an Ex­tra­or­di­nary Gen­er­al Meet­ing of TTFA's mem­ber­ship has been called for 25 Oc­to­ber. As a mem­ber of the TTFA Board I ap­proved the call­ing of that meet­ing. Now that the cen­tral is­sue of the le­gal­i­ty of FI­FA's ac­tions has been ad­ju­di­cat­ed, it is time for TTFA's mem­ber­ship to de­cide the im­me­di­ate po­lit­i­cal di­rec­tion of the As­so­ci­a­tion.

For my part, I have run my race - not on­ly in this mat­ter but in foot­ball as a whole. In the af­ter­math of the sev­en month bat­tle be­tween Unit­ed TTFA and FI­FA, with con­flict­ing emo­tions I re­sign the po­si­tions of TTSL Pres­i­dent, TTFA Board mem­ber, and TTFA Tech­ni­cal Com­mit­tee chair­man. These res­ig­na­tions are ef­fec­tive im­me­di­ate­ly.

I was born in 1953 un­der British colo­nial rule, which our peo­ple his­tor­i­cal­ly re­sist­ed. I am old enough to re­mem­ber the rais­ing of "the red, white and black" at mag­i­cal mid­night on 31 Au­gust 1962, un­der the watch­ful eye of Dr. Er­ic Williams. To­day we are the sov­er­eign Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go, re­spon­si­ble for and to our­selves. I have ex­pe­ri­enced the tran­si­tion from sub­ject of a for­eign pow­er to cit­i­zen of a sov­er­eign state, and I have lived the joys and sor­rows, the highs and lows of in­de­pen­dence from for­eign rule.

Foot­ball has been my life­long love and labour. I par­tic­i­pat­ed in and rep­re­sent­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go foot­ball, on and off the field, for more than fifty years. Nev­er did I think the day would come when a for­eign en­ti­ty would at­tempt to seize con­trol of our foot­ball. To see many fel­low cit­i­zens hys­ter­i­cal­ly ra­tio­nal­ize, aid and abet this is un­bear­able.

I will al­ways stand by the sov­er­eign­ty of our coun­try, its laws and its in­sti­tu­tions. I am proud to be a mem­ber of Unit­ed TTFA, which won the his­toric le­gal cam­paign to re­ject FI­FA's grotesque and il­le­gal at­tempt at ex­ter­nal in­ter­ven­tion. The rule of Law in Trinidad and To­ba­go has been up­held by our in­de­pen­dent court. But the im­port of this vic­to­ry is not lim­it­ed to our shores. It bears glob­al sig­nif­i­cance. Trinidad and To­ba­go has now set the stage for oth­er coun­tries to chal­lenge FI­FA's ar­ro­gant and bru­tal ap­proach to glob­al foot­ball gov­er­nance. And the spot­light is now on FI­FA, which must end its ar­bi­trary and weaponized de­ploy­ment of the Nor­mal­iza­tion Com­mit­tee against ad­min­is­tra­tions it does not favour, and which must now in­sti­tute ob­jec­tive cri­te­ria and prop­er pro­to­cols for the use of said Com­mit­tee to re­solve le­git­i­mate and in­tractable gov­er­nance prob­lems in mem­ber As­so­ci­a­tions.

On Sun­day 25 Oc­to­ber the mem­ber­sip will be faced with choic­es: to sup­port the Wal­lace ad­min­is­tra­tion in its oth­er le­gal bat­tles (in the Ap­peal Court and in CAS); to call on Wal­lace to end the le­gal cam­paign; to call on him and the of­fi­cers to re­sign or to seek to re­move them; to call on the gov­ern­ment to amend Act 10 of 1982 to al­low for FI­FA in­ter­ven­tion in TTFA gov­er­nance; and to call on FI­FA to en­ter Trinidad and To­ba­go to ex­ert con­trol over TTFA. Such is Democ­ra­cy and I will re­spect it. But I re­move my­self from the equa­tion. I will not be in­volved in that de­bate be­cause I be­lieve the le­gal cam­paign has run its course, and no mat­ter the de­ci­sion in ei­ther le­gal fo­rum, it is the mem­ber­ship that will have to de­cide on TTFA's im­me­di­ate di­rec­tion. Sun­day 25 Oc­to­ber is Ground Ze­ro.

In the grand scheme of things, how­ev­er, it is clear to me that the mem­ber­ship wish­es to par­tic­i­pate in glob­al foot­ball even if it means bow­ing to FI­FA, and vol­un­tar­i­ly ced­ing our right to gov­ern our­selves and to re­solve the prob­lems and crises of our in­de­pen­dence and sov­er­eign­ty. I ac­cept that po­lit­i­cal re­al­i­ty.

When the found­ing mem­bers of our league in­vit­ed me, on its es­tab­lish­ment on13 De­cem­ber 2016, to be­come in­ter­im Pres­i­dent, I made it clear I would serve one, and on­ly ONE, term of of­fice. Of­fice holds no ir­re­sistible charm for me. Af­ter the League suc­cess­ful­ly fought David John-Williams for TTFA mem­ber­ship, my of­fi­cial term of of­fice be­gan up­on my elec­tion in Au­gust 2017 (to end in Au­gust 2021). So I de­part ear­ly.

It has been an ho­n­our and and a priv­i­lege to serve Trinidad and To­ba­go foot­ball these many decades, and as Su­per League Pres­i­dent for just over three years. I sin­cere­ly thank the TTSL Board, all the com­rades in arms and mem­ber clubs who sup­port­ed me in pur­su­ing the league's agen­da, even in the most dif­fi­cult times, and in de­fend­ing its au­ton­o­my from ex­ter­nal and in­ter­nal at­tack. I thank my Unit­ed TTFA com­rades - William Wal­lace, Clynt Tay­lor, Su­san Joseph-War­rick, Joseph Sam Phillip and An­tho­ny Har­ford - and our in­tre­pid le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tives - Matthew Gayle, Dr. Emir Crowne, Ja­son Jones and Crys­tal Paul of New City Cham­bers - for fear­less­ly stand­ing against Go­liath in de­fence of prin­ci­ple and the dig­ni­ty of our peo­ple.

Now my work is done, and I leave the league fi­nan­cial­ly sol­vent and po­lit­i­cal­ly strong. But I cau­tion the mem­ber­ship to be vig­i­lant, to guard their in­de­pen­dence jeal­ous­ly. I make way for those who wish to as­sume the lead­er­ship of the Su­per League, and who be­lieve they could do bet­ter. I leave Trinidad and To­ba­go foot­ball, head high and sat­is­fied that I made my con­tri­bu­tion with the best of in­ten­tions and to the best of my abil­i­ty. Ul­ti­mate­ly, the last­ing judg­ment of our ac­tions will be pro­vid­ed by His­to­ry."

Good luck to all.

"What we do now echoes in eter­ni­ty." Med­i­ta­tions (Mar­cus Au­re­lius, Ro­man Em­per­or and philoso­pher, 121 to 180 AD).

Kei­th Look Loy

16 Oc­to­ber 2020