T&T Football Association’s (TTFA) fight with football’s world governing body-FIFA, is far from over.
Following on the heels of a FIFA suspension on Thursday evening, William Wallace, the leader of the TTFA instructed his Attorneys to file an emergency appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) to contest the suspension. And they have also withdrawn the withdrawal documents that ordered the stoppage of the TTFA vs FIFA case, which now means the TTFA will go ahead with the court matter against the FIFA in the High Court on October 9.
Wallace and his team, which has been reduced from six to five with the resignation of Susan Joseph-Warrick yesterday as second vice president at the TTFA, as the president of the Women’s League Football (WoLF) and from the TTFA Board, have been disappointed with FIFA which slapped a suspension on the TTFA, although the TTFA on Wednesday, had already filed documentation in the High Court to drop the court action with FIFA, which was a condition to prevent them from being banned. But the TTFA missed the stipulated 3 pm time and no notice was given to FIFA on the status of the matter.
TTFA has been in a tussle with the FIFA since March 17, when its elected executive was removed and ten days later replaced by a FIFA-appointment Normalisation Committee as the administrators of local football.
FIFA had on August 26 in a letter, warned the TTFA of sanctions if it did not drop the case against them by September 16. This was followed by another letter on September 18, giving the TTFA a revised deadline of September 23 to drop the case or face suspension.
Wallace said his lawyers were expected to serve the FIFA lawyers yesterday with a letter that the documents had been filed to drop the case, since Thursday was a holiday.
However, FIFA in a letter on Republic Day (September 24) told the TTFA it had been suspended with immediate effect and until further notice.
According to the FIFA, the suspension will only to be lifted if the TTFA recognise and accept the Normalisation Committee and if the TTFA statutes are in line with FIFA statutes.
Wallace responded yesterday with a letter that said: “It is also now clear that the decision to suspend the TTFA amidst the upcoming draw for the Gold Cup 2021 is meant to, amongst other things, provoke public furore against the properly and democratically elected executive of the TTFA. It is, for this reason, that last night (Thursday) I gave instructions to the TTFA Attorneys to file an emergency appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), challenging the sole issue of the suspension of TTFA in the face of illegal threats and coercive acts by FIFA.
“The attorneys were also asked to make an application for Injunctive Relief so that if successful this would allow T&T to participate in the Gold Cup draw carded for Monday 28th September 2020.”
However, a Concacaf released stated that T&T is included in Monday’s draw, but will be given until December 18, to comply with FIFA request or the country will be withdrawn from the tournament.
Meanwhile, Wallace said: “This morning (yesterday) and on my further instructions, the TTFA attorneys also filed the relevant documents to continue with the claim before the High Court of Justice since this is the only way that we can legitimise our application to CAS. The obvious question would be, why CAS?
“The answer is that the action taken against the TTFA is a disciplinary one and CAS is charged with dealing with such matters. It must also be noted that our only financial obligation in this matter is the filing fees.”
Wallace said the action FIFA was an indication that they were going to ban the TTFA whether the matter had been withdrawn or not, an action which against the principles of fair play which has been pushed by the FIFA.