Most of this country's footballers, in the latter part of their careers, such as captain Khaleem Hyland, Kevin Molino, Daneil Cyrus, Marvin Phillip and Mekeil Williams, among many others could be facing a dismal end to their careers due to the ongoing feud between the T&T Football Association and the sport's governing body FIFA.
On Friday, Brent Sancho called on the members of the United TTFA, president William, Clynt Taylor, Susan Joseph-Warrick and Joseph Sam Phillip to cease the fight against the FIFA immediately until they can prove that they have the majority support of the Board of Directors of the TTFA, as well as the support of many players who are in the latter part of their careers.
The country faces certain sanctions from the FIFA for the TTFA's attempt to overturn a decision by the FIFA on March 17, to appoint a Normalisation Committee to govern T&T football. The appointment came after an auditing team from the FIFA/CONCACAF in February, found the status of the sport to be on the verge of insolvency, without any programme by the Wallace-led football association to clear a debt that has crippled it for many years.
Wallace and his team, who assumed office on November 24, some three months before the decision to appoint the normalisation committee, have since challenged the decision to remove them. And after they claimed to have not received the support from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in their initial appeal process, the legitimate jurisdiction for Member Associations to settle all grievances by the FIFA, they appeared to have won round one of the battles after seeking justice in the High Court of T&T, where Justice Carol Gobin ruled in their (United TTFA) favour on August 13, to have the matter heard in the High Court.
However, FIFA said in its appeal on Thursday that the country faces being banned, if the CAS is not used to settle the dispute, according to their statutes and regulations.
Sancho, the acting chairman of the T&T Pro League, told Guardian Media Sports on Friday that he deliberately stayed silent recently, but could not see the country and so many players, those in the latter part of their careers, as well as those budding players suffer because of people who do not care about the sport.
He said Wallace and his team have been making decisions that will make the country get sanctioned. “Wallace has not even consulted with the membership, as he did with the contracts of coach Terry Fenwick, TTFA Marketing representative Peter Miller and TTFA General Secretary Ramesh Ramdhan, all of whom appeared to have received contracts that were not approved by the Board of the TTFA.”
Sancho said in the interest of being fair, he wanted Wallace and his team to prove that they have the majority support of the Board to do what they are doing now. “Furthermore, let them say if they have an agreement from the older players on the team, to take the actions they are taking now. Do these players know that they will be collateral damage, that they will pay the ultimate price of the decision to challenge the FIFA.?”
According to Sancho: ”I also want Wallace to state if he knew about the Statutes of the FIFA and the TTFA when he was a candidate for the TTFA elections in November last year.
Sancho concluded by saying if Wallace can prove he has majority support of the football membership in T&T, he will be the first one in front of the court doors to support him in his fight.