FIFA has extended the control of the T&T Football Federation by the Robert Hadad-led Normalisation Committee until March 31, 2023.
On March 17, 2020, Fifa announced that T&T was Normalised and on March 27 Fifa appointed Hadad, the co-Chief Executive Officer of HadCo Limited as chairman of the Normalisation Committee to manage the affairs of the T&TFA along with attorney Judy Daniels, the vice-chairman and Boardroom executive Nigel Romano as an ordinary member. In March this year Fifa appointed Trevor Nicholas Gomez of Massy Finance and Republic Bank director to the committee.
In a letter from FIFA's general secretary Fatma Samoura sent to Hadad on December 21, 2021, under the headline: Situation of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association FIFA said: We are writing to inform you that the situation of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (hereinafter: TTFA) has been brought to the attention of the Bureau of the FIFA Council (hereinafter: the Bureau).
The Bureau was reminded that in accordance with article 8 paragraph 2 of the FIFA Statutes, a normalisation committee was appointed for the TTFA, whose tasks are to run the TTFA’s daily affairs, to establish a debt repayment plan that is implementable by the TTFA administration, to review and amend the TTFA Statutes (and other regulations where necessary), and ensure their compliance with the FIFA Statutes and requirements before duly submitting them for approval to the TTFA Congress, and to organise and conduct elections of a new TTFA Executive Committee for a four-year mandate.
In addition, the Bureau was reminded that, in September 2020, in accordance with article 16 paragraph 1 of the FIFA Statutes, the TTFA was suspended with immediate effect due to the fact that members of the former Board of Directors of the T&TFA had appealed the above-mentioned decision of the Bureau before the High Court of Trinidad and Tobago.
Following the actions of FIFA, the then TTFA led by president William Wallace, together with vice-presidents Clynt Taylor, Joseph Sam Phillip and Susan Joseph-Warrick, who were elected in November 2019, launched a challenge at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in March and then to the High Courts in T&T.
That decision led FIFA to suspend the TTFA on T&T's Republic Day (September 24). However, on November 19, after 57 days, according to Article 13 of the FIFA Statutes, which meant that T&T had its membership status reinstated.
FIFA stated in November 2020, FIFA that it was informed that all claims against it before the ordinary courts of Trinidad and Tobago had been closed. Consequently, the suspension of the T&TFA was lifted with immediate effect.
The Bureau took note that the actions taken by members of the former Board of Directors of the TTFA greatly hindered and significantly impacted the work and mandate of the normalisation committee, as it had to devote considerable effort to counter such actions.
In addition, that the tasks assigned to the normalisation committee were subsequently delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and sanitary restrictions imposed by the government of Trinidad and Tobago.
The Bureau also took note that there were certain issues that led to the backlog in the normal operations of the TTFA, including finance.
This contributed to the inability to appoint an independent auditor, which in turn meant that no audited financial statements could be prepared (and thus presented); the inability to make payments directly to the TTFA’s bank account due to a high risk of garnishment, thereby restricting the TTFA from making immediate payments when necessary and having more freedom with regard to the use of the funds, and the budget cuts imposed due to the multiple claims and payment demands from creditors.
Finally, the Bureau acknowledged that in November 2021, due to the current total debts of the TTFA, the normalisation committee notified the Office of the Supervisory of Insolvency of its intention to make a proposal under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act of Trinidad and Tobago (hereinafter: the Act).
The normalisation committee together with a Licensed Trustee under the Act will therefore manage the debt proposal process.
Under the above-described circumstances and considering all the urgent and complex challenges the TTFA is still facing, the Bureau decided on 17 December 2021 to extend the mandate of the normalisation committee until 31 March 2023 at the latest. We thank you for taking note of the above and remain at your disposal in case of queries.