The attorneys for former president of the T&T Football Association (TTFA) William Wallace and his team have filed an injunction on Friday to stop Tuesday's Emergency General Meeting (EGM) by the sports' general membership from taking place.
The injunction filed with the Registrar of the High Court of Justice, comes two days after questions were raised about the legitimacy of the meeting by Osmond Downer, the T&T Football Referees Association (T&TFRA) vice president, who also worked on the TTFA amended constitution in 2015, and a day after Robert Hadad, the chairman of the FIFA-appointed Normalisation committee (NC) which also comprise attorney Judy Daniel (deputy chairman) and former banker Nigel Romano (member), wrote to the membership informing them that the meeting is on and all concerns that were raised have been resolved.
Justice Carol Gobin, who ruled in the TTFA favour on August 13, that the T&T High Court can hear the former TTFA executive officers' appeal against the implementation of a NC, will hear the application during a Case Management conference on Monday.
In its application to the T&T High Court of Justice naming the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association as the claimant and FIFA as the defendant, has asked the court for the following:
1) taking any further steps to convene and/or conduct any meeting, on the 15th September 2020 or any other date, which purports to be an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Claimant;
2) instructing and/or directing any person or persons to seek to withdraw the instant claim and/or in any way, manner of fashion from interfering with or seeking to undermine, the instant proceedings, except by way of lawful representations made by the Defendant’s duly appointed Attorneys-at-Law or other lawful intervention
3) making use of and/or publication of the Claimant’s Official Logo, Letterhead, and Stamp/Seal; and 2. That the Defendant do pay the costs of this Application.
The application has listed 20 grounds for the TTFA requests, while Williams has produced an affidavit with 20 documents which comprised among others, the membership signed petition letter dated August 28, the response from Hadad dated September 4, agreeing to convene the EGM on September 15 and the August 26 letter from general secretary of FIFA Fatma Samoura, addressed to Hadad, warning that TTFA would face sanctions if it did not withdraw the matter out of the T&T High Court by September 16.
Wallace is claiming that at item 12 of his affidavit that the stakeholders meeting which the Shamfa Cudjoe, the Ministry of Sports and Community Development called on August 28, he believed was attended by Hadad, and the previous TTFA President, David John-Williams as well as other persons, was to request and convene an Extraordinary General Meeting of the TTFA.
The affidavit gives a general account from the first day of FIFA's take over of T&TFA on March 17 with all relevant documents and email correspondences between parties.
Wallace and his three vice presidents Joseph Sam Phillip, Clynt Taylor and Susan Joseph-Warrick and associates Keith Look Loy, the president of the T&T Super League and Anthony Harford, the president of the Northern Football Association, have always resisted FIFA's decision to implement a Normalisation committee to manage the TTFA after it enforced Article 8.2 of the FIFA Statutes which states: ‘Executive bodies of member associations may under exceptional circumstances be removed from office by the Council in consultation with the relevant confederation and replaced by a normalisation committee for a specific period.
The TTFA is represented by attorney Dr Emir Crowne, Matthew Gayle, Crystal Paul and Jason Jones, while FIFA's legal team is Cherie Gopie and M. Hamel-Smith & Co.