PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – As the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) continues its fight against FIFA taking over administration of the organization, its ousted president William Wallace has warned First Citizens Bank against changing the signatories on the association’s accounts there.
Wallace, through lawyers representing the TTFA in its challenge to FIFA appointing a normalization committee to replace the association’s board, has reportedly written to the bank warning that legal action would be taken if it was discovered that signatories or any other information was changed without the required authorization.
“Since the elections held in November 2019, following which Mr William Wallace was duly elected president of the TTFA and subsequent thereto added as a signatory to the accounts, there has been no further change,” the lawyers wrote in an April 17 letter, according to Sports Max.
“Any attempts to change the signatories on the account which may have already been made in March or April 2020 or attempts which may be made hereafter without the express approval of Mr William Wallace and/or the duly elected executives is unauthorized.
“Should it come to light that the bank has provided any confidential information to, or acted to make any changes in respect to the TTFA accounts…my clients shall without delay approach the High Court or urgent assistance in preventing or stopping any breach or unlawful interference,” it added.
A normalization headed by a local businessman was appointed by FIFA to take charge of TTFA’s operations late last month, after an assessment by football’s world governing body and continental body CONCACAF found that “extremely low overall financial management methods, combined with a massive debt” had left the local body “facing a very real risk of insolvency and illiquidity”.
The committee, which will have up to two years to carry out its work, has to create a debt repayment plan for the embattled TTFA, review the local governing body’s statutes and ensure their adherence to FIFA regulations, and oversee new elections.
But the TTFA is challenging FIFA’s takeover at the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Switzerland.
In the correspondence to First Citizens Bank, the TTFA’s lawyers made it clear that as far as they were concerned, FIFA had no standing to touch the association’s bank accounts.
“My client would like to believe that in the modern banking context which is set against a backdrop of robust due diligence, no mere letter from a body with no legal standing in Trinidad and Tobago, could usurp the due authority of the TTFA Board of Directors and/or induce the bank to breach its contract with the TTFA,” they wrote.
Last week, FIFA insisted that its normalization committee remains the sole authority for football governance here, after Wallace sent a letter to the Trinidad government stating that he and his executive remained the constitutionally elected leaders of the TTFA.
