Keith Look Loy, president of the T&T Super League is calling on the public to support his call for the immediate resignation of T&T Football Association president David John-Williams, vice presidents Ewing Davis and Joanne Salazar, and the appointment of a caretaker administration by the Board of Directors, to govern the affairs for the remainder the term.
Look Loy, who is also the TTSL’s representative on the Board of the TTFA, believes the football boss has exceeded his bounds when John McIntyre of the Charge d’Affaires at the US Embassy can publicly criticise the way the sport is being managed.
Only recently John-Williams said the reason why the country’s Under-15 Girls team did not go to the CONCACAF Under-15 Championship at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, USA, was because most Caribbean nations are faced problems when trying to acquire US Visas. Due to this John-Williams suggested that the Concacaf looked into the idea of hosting the event and others in the future in other countries.
However, Mc Intyre, in a response yesterday said, “Williams and the TTFA just flat out dropped the ball on the visa process. Our Embassy for months noted that individuals and groups should plan well in advance for any trips to the USA. The T&T Girls U-15 representatives approached the Embassy about visas after we were closed on Tuesday, July 31 to get their visas by Friday, August 3 with the Emancipation holiday in between.”
Meanwhie, when contacted John-Williams said that what has happened is unfortuniate and the TTFA will contact Mr John McIntyre, Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy, to have the issue resolved in an amicable way.
Look Loy, who has already written to the CONCACAF and the FIFA about the way the sport is being managed, believes the US embassy’s involvement should be the last straw for the embattled president and his executives.
He said collectively, these three TTFA officials have presided over, indeed engineered the calamitous deterioration of our football.
“Since the advent of John-Williams and his officers in November 2015, TTFA has been buffeted by Unilateral decision-making by the president: “one-manism” with no consultation of, and/or agreement by, the TTFA Board of Directors, such as contracts supposedly awarded in the “Home of Football” project: Purchase of service from radio I95.5FM: Steady deterioration of TTFA’s national teams’ programme – we no longer win in the international arena and are no longer a force even in CFU: and Cronyism in the appointment of national teams/programmes technical and administrative staff who are all associated (past or present) with W Connection FC.”
He also took offence to “Mismanagement of TTFA’s finances– the debacle of the 2016 audit, the inability to pay staff and players and maintain programmes: Frivolous accumulation of lawsuits and the various expenses associated with same, e.g. Caroline Morace, Sheldon Phillips, Stephen Hart, etc – due to poor management and illegal actions: Lack of transparency in administrative and financial matters – legitimate requests for information from members almost invariably go unanswered, e.g. the ongoing failure to present documents from the works on the “Home of Football”
He said the current administration has taken football to its lowest point and it might be a position we may not recover from.