Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has reacted to the High Court decision in favour of embattled T&T Football Association (TTFA) president William Wallace and his United TTFA executive team in their controversial lawsuit against wold governing body FIFA.
Delivering her judgement in the case late Tuesday night, High Court Judge Carol Gobin ruled that FIFA's move to appoint a Normalisation Committee led by businessman Robert Hadad to replace Wallace and his team was illegal, null and void and of no effect.
Gobin said: "The Court declares that the decision of the defendant dated 17/3/20 to appoint a Normalisation Committee was made in bad faith and for an improper and illegal motive."
In response, the Prime Minister seemed more than displeased as he wrote on his Facebook page: "Another such victory and we shall be utterly ruined,” Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, 2,000 years ago.
Thank God I was taught some Greek History and Latin at Bishop High School. Otherwise, I would have never been able to understand that adventure. I think we all now need to study the 2000-year events of the Pyrrhic wars to figure out how it all might end.
Pyrrhos was indeed the king of the Molossians and also of Epirus. However, Rome still stands so what does the future hold?
Success that comes at such a high price and at other people’s expense sometimes results in the price of the “victory” proving too costly to have been worth it. In that case what happens when the powerful King wins the battle but the thousands of subjects lose.
So now United TTFA has “won” and FIFA has lost. The matter is settled in local court. We are now free of the “colonial” FIFA.
We, boys and girls, men and women, are free to play by ourselves and against ourselves because nobody will be allowed to play with or against us.
Oh. That’s it! I finally understand it. That means we can never lose and will always win because we will only be playing by ourselves.
Brilliant!"
On Monday, the Court of Appeal is expected to hear an appeal from FIFA over judge Gobin's jurisdiction to hear the case.
In the event FIFA is successful in its appeal and Wallace's team does not successfully challenge that decision in the Privy Council, Gobin's decision would be rendered academic.