A controversy is brewing over how the newly-appointed William Wallace Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) executive is going about its affairs.
Former T&T Football Association president Osmond Downer has already argued that Wallace and his team cannot function until a full board has been constituted, as there is currently no quorum of nine members. This, he said, occurred because only two member bodies offered up their board members during Sunday's AGM, bringing the total of duly constituted board members to just five.
And in the wake of this comes word that current T&T coach Dennis Lawrence was interviewed by Wallace and a panel that included people who supported the United TTFA slate elected during Sunday's AGM and individuals who were not board members.
"It's very clear to me that the United TTFA is running the TTFA," a source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Guardian Media on Thursday.
The source said apart from Wallace and his new three-member team, Keith Look Loy, Anthony Harford and Azaad Khan were also part of the meeting where Lawrence was grilled on his performance in recent months.
The source said apart from Lawrence, the group also met with senior team manager Richard Piper, head of the TTFA Elite Programme Gary St Rose and several other people on Wednesday.
In a press release on Wednesday evening, the TTFA confirmed that "Wallace and his team of officers, Vice Presidents Clynt Taylor, Susan Joseph-Warrick and Joseph Sam Phillip, maintained a high tempo approach to their first days in office with another eight-hour meeting today at the FA’s head office in Couva." However, the release did not mention the involvement of Look Loy, Harford and Khan in the exercise.
Guardian Media understands, however, that Look Loy, Harford and Khan attended the meeting as the TTFA technical advisor, marketing advisor and recording secretary respectively.
When contacted on Thursday, Look Loy confirmed the appointments of both Harford and himself but noted they were presidents of the NFA and Super League respectively.
Efforts to contact both Wallace and Harford were unsuccessful.
However, the source took issue with the involvement of individuals who did not face the TTFA election process on Sunday.
The source pointed out that Khan had served in the capacity of interim TTFA general secretary after David John-Williams was elected president in November 2015 and served for about a year.
The source added, "I am very surprised and disappointed with this action by the new president and elected officers, who told the public and the football community that the former president (John-Williams) was acting ultra virus to the constitution, but less than a week after being elected they are doing the same thing that they were very vocal about and frowned upon. They are making decisions without a board being constituted and those decisions involved and are influenced by Look Loy and Harford, who are members of the United TTFA team that was campaigning to remove the last president. This could never be good for the sport going forward."
In an exclusive interview in Wednesday's T&T Guardian, Downer, one of the architects of the TTFA constitution, says there is currently no TTFA board and only this body can make truly binding decisions according to article 36 and 37 of the constitution. This is because only members undertook the process to appoint their representatives to the board during Sunday’s AGM, according to item 12 and 16 of the constituted agenda.
Downer made the comment as he sought to clarify what decision-making powers the newly-elected officers of the TTFA under Wallace now possess.
Downer, a former FIFA and TTFA referee instructor, was responding to claims by Wallace that the TTFA met on Monday and his executive had taken several decisions and again on Wednesday with an expanded group that included non-board members and made further decisions.