Delivering a judgement during a virtual hearing, a short while ago, Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Appellate Judge Nolan Bereaux ruled that the lawsuit, brought by embattled TTFA president William Wallace and his United TTFA executive team, contravened the TTFA’s Constitution, which prescribes that all disputes between the TTFA and FIFA should be dealt with by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Archie, who summarised the decision, said that the Constitution was unambiguous and had to be adhered to. He also ruled that Justice Carol Gobin, who heard the case despite FIFA’s jurisdictional protest and found in Wallace and his team’s favour, should have stayed the case and referred it to arbitration.
Archie also noted that the litigation contravened the Judiciary’s Civil Proceedings Rules as it was served on FIFA via email, when Swiss law does not permit such a method for service of a lawsuit.
In addition to declaring Gobin’s judgement null and void, the Appeal Court also ordered Wallace and his team to pay FIFA’s legal costs for defending the lawsuit.
The decisions means that FIFA is free to reintroduce the normalisation committee which they replaced Wallace and his team with in March.
With such a move, FIFA may also choose to lift the TTFA’s indefinite suspension, which it applied after Wallace and his team failed to withdraw the lawsuit by its extended ultimatum.
Wallace and his team may still have a lifeline if they desire to pursue the case to its fullest as they can still appeal the Court of Appeal’s ruling to the Privy Council.
They are also free to pursue a case before the CAS.
Reporter: Derek Achong