WALTER ALIBEY
The T&T Football Association was today, given a revised deadline of September 23 to drop all matters in the court against the sport's world governing body-FIFA, or face suspension.
FIFA General Secretary Fatma Samoura in a letter addressed to the chairman of the Normalisation Committee Robert Hadad on Friday, stated: "Given the seriousness of the matter addressed therein, the FIFA Council has decided to give a final deadline to the relevant parties to withdraw all types of claims against FIFA before the T&T courts and comply with all their obligations under the FIFA Statutes, in particular art 57 et seqq of the FIFA Statutes, by September 23 at 15:00 AST (21:00 CET). Failure to comply with this directive within this revised deadline will result in the matter being brought to the attention of the relevant FIFA bodies to decide on the suspension of the TTFA."
Her letter comes in the heels after the T&T public was expecting the TTFA was going to be sanctioned at the FIFA Congress which is taking place at the FIFA headquarters in Switzerland.
However, the agenda for the Congress showed no suspensions or expulsions, which meant the TTFA, led by former president William Wallace and including vice presidents Clynt Taylor, Joseph Sam Phillip and Susan Joseph-Warrick, was given another opportunity to make things right with the FIFA.
On August 26th, Samoura issued a letter to Hadad, warning the TTFA they would be banned if they did not drop the court matter and accept the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland as the jurisdiction for the settlement of all disputes among Member Associations.
The TTFA has been challenging a decision by the FIFA to install a normalisation committee on March 17, thereby replacing them (TTFA) as the duly elected executive to run the affairs of TT football.
To date, Wallace and his team which is trading as the United TTFA, has had favourable fortunes with T&T High court judge Carol Gobin, who has ruled on August 13, that the local court can hear the matter involving both parties.
Both parties are now before the Court of Appeal with the matter to be heard on October 21. However, FIFA is expected to file their defence by today or the High court matter which starts on October 9.
Wallace and his executive were replaced by Hadad as chairman, attorney Judy Daniel (deputy chairman), and retired banker Nigel Romano as the administrators of T&T football through the Normalisation Committee.