William Wallace has resigned as president of the Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) on Monday, as this year's season seems to be uncertain.
The embattled schools' football boss who is also leading a challenge for the United T&T Football Association against football's world governing body- the FIFA to have them reinstated as the legitimate administrators of local football, handed in his resignation letter at a meeting of the executive at the Carapichaima East Secondary schools yesterday morning, four months after he was expected to do so. Phillip Fraser, the first vice president of the SSFL was appointed interim president until the League holds its Annual General Meeting at a date and time to be announced.
Fraser told Guardian Media Sports that, "Based on our last meeting in March sometime before COVID-19, we were to have a meeting where Mr Wallace was going to tender his resignation then but we did not have any meeting and at this meeting, he tendered his resignation with immediate effect."
Meanwhile, action in the Secondary Schools Football League may not take place until the Ministry of Health and its Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Roshan Parasram, in conjunction with the Ministry of Education can decide on a way forward Fraser explained further. Yesterday's meeting which was also scheduled to decide on the structure and format of the SSFL season this year could only deliver an act of precaution for the thousands of young student-footballers and their colleagues at the various schools.
Fraser in his first real foray as school football leader said: "Presently, we cannot make no decisions as regard competition until we get guidelines from the Ministry of Education. They have given an interim decision where teams can start training, but they are waiting on guidelines from the CMO and the Ministry of Health as regards children. Remember they are still preparing guidelines, even with the T&T Pro League, there are no definite guidelines from the ministry of health or the CMO for football as yet."
He added: "What is going to happen presently is that we have to wait on all the stakeholders and the stakeholders at the ministry of education, the principals and the schools involved. So what we have done in the interim is we have asked the schools to go back to their zones and their executives and have discussions on what can happen. What are the contingencies that can be put in place if football can play. It has a lot to do with if we are having a crowd or no crowd, and how we can avoid crowds"
On June 10, Wallace hinted at a shortened season, saying they were facing several setbacks such as lack of funding for schools and the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic. But Fraser said the zones were charged with the responsibility to return with ideas in two weeks, noting they are supposed to have some initiatives to offer when the education ministry contacts them.
The ministry of education is expected to make a pronouncement in August and the principals, based on the funding available to them, will have to look at it and decide if they can have football.
Fraser said he was ruling out scrapping the league for now, as he prefers to wait. "Children are anxious to play football, remember they were inside all the time, there are lots of stored-up energy, but the safety of the children must be paramount. So there is no real rush to play until the guidelines are as strict as possible."