Wallace launches fund to challenge FIFA

William Wallace
William Wallace

(Trinidad Guardian) It’s now official. Former president of the T&T Football Association (TTFA) William Wallace will challenge FIFA’s decision to remove him and his three vice president from elected office.

Wallace, the former president of the Secondary School League (SSFL) is calling on the nation to support he and his elected vice presidents stance to challenge the world governing body for the sport of football – FIFA through the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, via a ‘go fund me’ campaign which was launched yesterday.

The campaign will require members of the public to contribute generously towards fighting the cause of injustice against FIFA, through the website (https://www.gofundme.com/f/TTFAFights). Wallace together with vice presidents — Clynt Taylor, Joseph Sam Phillip and Susan Joseph-Warrick will be represented by sports attorneys Dr Emir Crowne and Matthew GW Gayle. The legal cost is estimated to be around TT$300,000 to $500,000.

After more than a week of deliberating on their next move, after the FIFA decided on March 17 to appoint a Normalisation Committee to run the affairs of T&T football, in accordance with articles 8.2 of its Statutes, Wallace and company in a strongly-worded letter released on Monday, said the actions of the FIFA were unwarranted and illegal and called on the public to cover the tremendous cost involved in fighting for the rights of the people of Trinidad and Tobago to have the normalization committee removed, and reinstate the democratically elected administration. Wallace and his attorneys have until April 8 to make their submission to CAS.

According to Wallace’s release: “The legitimately elected officers of the T&T Football Association, democratically elected by the electorate in the presence of both FIFA and CONCACAF officials on 24 November 2019, wish to assure the people of our beloved country of our continuing rejection of FIFA’s unwarranted and illegal intervention into football in T&T. FIFA’s injustice is made all the more transparent by the fact that it failed, consistently, to intervene against the David John-Williams administration that operated and generated massive debt for four years with FIFA’s knowledge and supervision, through their annual audit.”

It added “It is ironic that after we assumed office and generated a report which pointed out the absence of any financial internal structures, that the report was sent back verbatim as one of the two reasons given for FIFA’s action. Moreover, based on recent information we are aware that FIFA’s intervention was premeditated and the implementation of this action commenced since we won the elections. The elected officers of TTFA advises the public that we will oppose FIFA’s injustice at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.”

“We need to be heard and that right is enshrined in the FIFA statutes that govern all Member Associations. Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable…every step towards the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering and struggle. The expense of this legal challenge is a tremendous obstacle but we are determined to fight for what is right, to defend democracy and the sovereign right of our people to determine our own affairs. To that end, we have created a “go fund me” campaign and are calling on all patriots to contribute to our national cause as generously as they can. Please visit (https://www.gofundme.com/f/TTFAFights).”

However, Ramesh Ramdhan, the current general secretary of the TTFA, publicly outlined a debt-relief plan which Guardian newspapers published on March 21 which he said was given to a FIFA/CONCACAF auditing team which came on a fact-finding mission in February. The payment of the mounting TTFA $50 million-dollar debt was to be done via a multi-million-dollar partnership deal between the TTFA, UK Architecture firm Lavendar and the Arima Borough Corporation which were to embark on a state-of-the-art sporting, a commercial and residential facility in Arima.

Still, the FIFA was not convinced and sought to appoint businessman Robert Hadad to head its normalization committee, with his deputy being Environmental Attorney Judy Daniels, another businessman Nigel Romano, as well as two other members, to be appointed soon FIFA disclosed.