Hours before, FIFA announced a normalisation committee to run T&T football, Mathew GW Gayle, one of the legal team for the disbanded T&T Football Association (TTFA) administration led by William Wallace told Andre Errol Baptiste on Isports programme on Thursday night on I95.5fm, made a bold declaration on behalf of their client on the ongoing matter.
“Our position as the TTFA attorneys, as a matter of law, the TTFA belongs to the people of T&T, it was created by the T&T parliament for the people of T&T. It is only as a function and in discharging that duty, they are affiliated with FIFA, so we say that FIFA does not have the power to interfere in the operation of what is a sovereign body which belongs to T&T, and it seems as if Mr (Tyril) Patrick seems to have agreed with us when we wrote to him and he wrote back and stated, he is not taking part or he is not going to interfere with the running of the TTFA, so in our view, we are back where we started,” said Gayle.
“The board which is run by William Wallace is still in control and will be there until the next democratic election. But it is an act of parliament that creates the football association, which says that it can be run by its own rules and regulations, and it has its own constitution and its constitution says that it is to affiliate to FIFA, it does not say it is to subordinate itself to FIFA and to allow itself to have its day-to-to-day operations taken over in the way FIFA proposed to have done. That being said (statute 2 (8.5), if you look carefully at it, it does not allow them to do what they have done. I don’t really want to say much more,” said Gayle, who confirmed that no matter of the complaint has gone to FIFA as yet.
However, article 1 (3) reads: "TTFA is a Member of FIFA, CONCACAF and CFU and article 2 (e) states: "to respect and prevent any infringement of the Statutes, regulations, directives and decisions of FIFA, CONCACAF, CFU and TTFA as well as the Laws of the Game, and to ensure that these are also respected by its Members;"
Gayle, who is regarded as one of the top sports' lawyers in T&T was part of the successful legal team that helped Jamaican young sprinting star Brianna Williams win her doping charge last year.
"My position and my client's position is that we have set a marker in the sand and we (the board) under duly elected president William Wallace and his team are in charge of the TTFA and will remain charge of the TTFA until there is a democratic election.”
Meanwhile, Article 7 of the TTFA constitution states: "The bodies and Officials of TTFA must observe the Statutes, regulations, directives, decisions and the Code of Ethics of FIFA, CONCACAF, CFU and TTFA in their activities."
Gayle confirmed that as of Thursday, no complaint was sent to the Court of Arbitration.
“FIFA has subsequently chosen not to respond and we have told them, if they don’t respond you must agree with us and you have seen the merit of what we said, so you will allow Mr Wallace and his team to head and conduct the business of football on behalf of the people of T&T. The letter that was sent no longer stands because Mr Patrick has said he is not interested, as for whether or not, the board will still say as a matter of caution or out of an abundance of caution, they want to get a declaration from the court of arbitration for sport, if they want to do that that is a matter entirely for them but the fact of the matter the board as elected in November 2019, is the board in charge of the TTFA, that is the position in law and in fact.”
“ Clearly March 17 is when the letter was sent, a complainant has 21 days where they can file a complaint. We still have time, if that is the route the board choose to go down.”
Now that the normalisation committee has been announced only time will tell of the disbanded TTFA's next move.
A three-member FIFA normalization committee (NC), headed by chairman Robert Hadad, was appointed on Friday to take over the governance of T&T football with immediate effect. The other members are retired international banker Nigel Ramano and lawyer Judy Daniel.
FIFA, the world governing body for the sport of football, in collaboration with the Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) will appoint two more members over the coming days, a release from the FIFA stated.