Proposed amendments to the T&T Football Association Constitution were all given a vote of approval by the members the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) at the Technical Centre of the Home of Football in Balmain, Couva on Sunday.
The next step now is for the FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee which was installed in March 2020, to issue a notice for an Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the members to complete its mandate of ensuring fresh elections.
Concerns that members were going to object to some of the proposals never took place. In fact, the entire process lasted just an hour, from its start at 10:30 am to 11:30 am.
The meeting was chaired by Nigel Romano, a member of the normalisation committee with his chairman Robert Hadad and Nicholas Gomes Rodriguez also present. Thirty out of the 47 members present voted in favour of the amendments, with no abstentions, no objections.
Selby Browne, president of the Veteran Football Foundation of T&T (VFFTT) later requested that an AGM Notice be issued by January 31, which is in keeping with the 60-day requirement of the constitution.
Browne described the move as a victory for T&T football as it would now enable T&T to be in charge of its own football affairs. He told Guardian Media Sports that it would now spell the end of the normalisation committee by March of this year.
FIFA in a letter last week had urged the members to vote in favour of the proposed amendments as it said all the members were allowed to make adjustments. The sport’s world governing body also had two observers at the meeting.
The TTFA in a release said in October 2023, Nodar Akhalkatsi, Director of Strategic Projects and MA Governance at the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), and Sofia Malizia, then MA Governance Manager at FIFA, visited T&T to hold consultation meetings with stakeholders regarding the TTFA Statutes (Constitution) Reform.
A draft Statutes was then circulated to the TTFA Membership on 8 December 2023 and feedback was invited by 31 December 2023. The Members provided their comments and on 24 January 2024, a revised draft was circulated to the Membership.
Akhalkatsi and Malizia, who are now the Concacaf Senior Manager – Member Association Affairs, visited T&T and met with the TTFA Membership on 26 January 2024 to answer any queries on the revised draft. Further recommendations were discussed and a further amended draft TTFA Statutes was presented to the TTFA Membership on Sunday 28 January 2024 for consideration.