Despite being 24 hours late with his promised response to explain why he signed four contracts contrary to T&T Football Association board decisions, the beleaguered former TTFA president William Wallace delivered his written defence on Wednesday.
On June 15, the United TTFA accused Wallace, who is also the Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) president, of signing unapproved contracts for national coach Terry Fenwick, general secretary Ramesh Ramdhan, marketing representative Peter Miller and a $25 million sportswear deal with UK firm Avec Sports without the knowledge and approval from the TTFA board.
The United TTFA group, which includes Keith Look Loy, a former TTFA Technical Committee chairman, North Zone Football Association (NFA) president Anthony Harford and former TTFA vice presidents Clynt Taylor, Susan Joseph-Warrick and Joseph Sam Phillip, condemned his actions to that similar to former president David John-Williams, whom the group fought to replace during TTFA annual general meeting (AGM) election on November 24 last year.
On Saturday during an interview on I95FM Sports Show Wallace had promised to issue a comprehensive statement on his stewardship with regards to his decision for signing the contracts on behalf of the cash-strapped association by Tuesday.
<Wallace deems his actions as mistakes>
In his six-page response on Wednesday, Wallace wrote: "When a story broke on Sportsmax that the salary signed off on Terry Fenwick's contract is not what we agreed on. My initial thoughts were that Terry unilaterally changed the terms of his contract. In an attempt to get clarity on the situation, an easy solution was put forward; throw Terry under the bus.
Mistakes can be made, but to throw someone under the bus is deliberate and does not come naturally to me.
Further discussions revealed, for the first time to me at least, the details of the negotiations in finalizing the contract. My understanding then and still is that the terms in the contract that came under scrutiny were indeed part of the final settlement but the MISTAKE was that they should not have been reflected in the final TTFA contract. I admitted then that a mistake was made and that it would be corrected.
The facts are as follows:
*I played absolutely no role in the negotiation of Fenwick's contract. This negotiation was left entirely in the hands of the Technical Committee.
*Two emails were sent to me by the GS on Tuesday, December 17th, while I was in Qatar. The Subject: Adjusted terms and conditions.
In one email the GS indicated that there was agreement on the final terms of the contract. The attachment in the email indicated a salary of USD 20,000.
The second email forwarded was from Peter Miller to Keith Lookloy. Details of the second email are as follows;
Dear Keith,
After much discussions, a revised position has been arrived at which is attached for your information prior to our discussions on Thursday. Please feel free to give feedback in order to arrive at a firm position given the urgency of the matter.
Kind regards.
The attachment in this email indicated a salary of USD 20,000.
*I assumed that the final terms would have been sent by the negotiating team to the attorney to prepare the contract.
*When the contract came back to me and was handed over by my General secretary for signing there were no red flags.
*I signed the contract believing that the terms therein were agreed on with my negotiating team.
<Wallace acted based on the constitution>
With regards to the contract of the General Secretary, he said, "I move to the other issue and that is the Ramesh Ramdhan's contract. As one Senior Counsel puts it; “from reviewing the TTFA constitution it seems as though the General Secretary is the sole responsibility of the President. The discussion with the Board is merely a courtesy”
Even without this interpretation, I acted based on my own interpretation of the constitution, along with common sense and logic. My condemnation in this matter was based merely on the persons who were speaking the loudest and fuelled by their own agenda. Nowhere in the constitution speaks to the Board drawing up the terms and conditions of the GS. The Board role is to appoint or dismiss the GS on the proposal of the President. Ramdhan was proposed to the Board and the Board agreed to his appointment. A suggestion was made by a Board member that the length of the contract be one year, and I say a suggestion because the Board is not empowered to draw up the terms of the GS contract. If this power is ascribed to the Board it means that all the other terms of the contract should have been drawn up by the Board and not just the length of the contract."
<Peter Miller won United TTFA the elections>
The response continued to the Peter Miller, Wallace stated, "As part of the United TTFA, I was initially asked to consider leading the group but refused to commit. The major reason given for my noncommittal was the financial state of the TTFA. I reasoned that the only way that I am committing is if there is a plan to deal with the debt. During this period, my deceased friend, Raymond Timkee shared with me a very impressive commercial package designed for the TTFA, that was negotiated on his behalf, and which would be implemented if he was elected president. In that package was a plan to deal with the historic debt of the FA, and of course, that piqued my interest. I was also introduced to the name, Peter Miller.
Based on Mr. Timkee's failing health he eventually asked me to go forward with the plan. The package was presented to the other members United TTFA and they were all impressed.
I gave my word to Peter Miller that if I was elected president, I will honour the agreement that he had with Timkee. The truth is Peter Miller's package/presentation was responsible for us winning the elections, our campaign was based on its content and we were heavily dependent on its successful rolling out after November 24th.
Post-November 24th, Peter Miller indicated that he needed an agreement before he moves forward to firm up the pre-election letters of intent. This was not an unreasonable request; however, it presented a dilemma for me to find a way to transition the un-official arrangement with the United TTFA to the TTFA. Settling this quickly was made even more urgent since by then, we realised that the situation that we met in the FA was even more dire than we expected and that we had to depend on Miller to deliver.
The GS and I tried to find a way to navigate the situation, but the options were few. The only workable decision open to us at that time was the one I took and that is a decision to sign an agreement with Miller.
I took this decision as leader of the team and decided not to burden anyone else with it.
Was there an inherent risk? Yes, but there are times when you have little choice."
Wallace further wrote, "Miller position was that no changes be made to the original agreement with Raymond Timkee, however my suggestion to Miller was that the flat rates quoted as a monthly salary would have to be reflected as a percentage of what was delivered and that there were no issues if instead of lumpsum payments the disbursement was done monthly.
It did not matter to me what the percentage was because the numbers were already agreed on with Raymond and I gave my word before the elections that I will honour the agreement. In addition, my own philosophy is that we had nothing so whatever came in would be more than we had.
Via email, Miller asked if any part of FIFA funding could be used for marketing. The GS responded via mail that FIFA Forward funding cannot be used for in any way. (emails available)
The Plan
To sign a letter of intent since any binding contract of this nature has to be approved by the Board. The intent, of course, was to make sure that Miller remained on board and what we campaigned and depended on could still be delivered.
Payment to Miller would come from what he brings to the table so there is no direct risk to the TTFA
We get the Board to agree in principle that we have to outsource marketing. The Board did agree.
The roll-out of the sponsorship was carded for June. Once the successful roll-out commenced, a recommendation would have been taken to the Board to officially contract Miller as the marketing person."
He concluded by stating that, "Since entering office, no action taken by me brought any personal benefits to me, my intentions were that TTFA would always be the beneficiary."