Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley does not want to give any false hopes when he suggested on Saturday that his government is willing to step in and assist in the ongoing impasse between the former executive of T&T Football Association (TTFA) and FIFA, the governing body of football but is unwilling to chance T&T becoming an outcast in football.
"One thing we cannot risk or cannot have as the outcome is T&T football becoming a pariah in FIFA," said Dr Rowley in an interview yesterday on i95 fm Isports Radio Show with Andre Baptiste. He was following up on comments he made during Saturday's opening of the Point Fortin Hospital where he stated that he was ready to assist.
"You see we already have an era where we at the management level, at the highest level in FIFA, we have generated pariahs in football and that has damaged us so now we are in a situation what needs to be corrected very quickly.
"So I as government spokesperson along with the Minister (of Sport) would do nothing to worsen the situation for persons to accuse us of having governmental involvement and therefore certain outcomes should follow. We really want things to happen positively but we have to be very careful that any kind of request doesn't worsen the situation and all I'm hoping is that the people from the Normalisation Committee and the TTFA see the big objective and stay true to that."
The normalisation committee to which the PM is referring to was appointed on March 27, is headed by chairman Robert Hadad, a director at the HADCO Group of Companies and includes Attorney Judy Daniel and former banker Nigel Romano.
On March 17, FIFA removed William Wallace, who was elected president to replace David John-Williams at the TTFA annual general meeting (AGM) on November 24, 2019, citing a number of administrative concerns. Wallace's three vice presidents Clynt Taylor, Susan Joseph-Warrick and Joseph Sam Phillip were also removed.
"Whatever role the government could play, the government would be willing to play but that role is not clear at this point," said Dr Rowley.
"One, we are in a cooperative arrangement with FIFA in trying to help T&T's football, there is evidence of that. However, the management of our football seems to have fallen apart at our level from FIFA down to the TTFA. There's an impasse which I was about to talk about with FIFA when the matter turned quickly to a legal dispute."
He admitted that there is little that his government can do in intervening and fixing things but is open to having talks without prejudice.
"What I'm suggesting is that some type of contact, an all-party contact, where good sense will prevail by renewing their positions and allowing the main objective to take place which is football to progress and the young people get to play the sport," he said.
The Prime Minister explained that, "However, there is a limitation to what the government of the Minister can do here because one of the problems with this situation is that all of us know who played football, international football through FIFA has no rule for government involvement in disputes so we as a government can't put ourselves as part of the dispute because we might even worsen the situation."
He went on to say that he is relying on the people at both ends at FIFA and at TTFA to see what is going to happen to football here in T&T.
He said, "The main thing is that if we don't get this impasse clarified very quickly, it will destroy the aspirations of young people for whom football is such a great magnet - a positive magnet. We need to get people playing the game and aspiring to move up in the age-group competitions."
However, once it remains legal, it means that the government will remain a bystander.
"What the government can do is encourage," said Dr Rowley.
He concluded, "Tens of thousands of young men and young women are almost traumatised by what is happening with football. The government has a duty to speak for them or on their behalf."
The TTFA had appealed FIFA's decision to remove them at the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Switzerland in April but withdrew its matter claiming that CAS was biased since it appeared to favour FIFA by asking the TTFA to pay the total fees stated to commence the matter.
The matter is now in the T&T High Court and is expected to be heard on July 29.
The TTFA is seeking among other issues to have the court declare that the Normalisation Committee has no jurisdiction in managing T&T football and that FIFA cannot violate T&T sovereign rights by removing a democratically elected executive.