SUPER League president Keith Look Loy has successfully stopped the TT Football Association (TTFA) from challenging the legitimacy of his 2017 appointment to the board of directors, and ousting him from the football body.
The TTFA’s general secretary Camara David tabled a “board appointment issue” on the agenda for a meeting which was expected to be held at 3 pm yesterday. Hours before the meeting was scheduled, Look Loy’s attorneys, Dr Emir Crowne, Matthew Gayle and Crystal Paul, filed an emergency injunction application, seeking to restrain the TTFA from going ahead with the motion to remove the Super League president from the board because of perceived defects in the appointment.
Look Loy, in his appeal for the injunction, said he was fearful that if it was not granted, he would have been unlawfully removed as a director and his drive for transparency in the TTFA stalled.
The injunction was granted by Justice Robin Mohammed, but Newsday understands the meeting was cancelled.
The judge’s order also contained a penal notice warning the TTFA if it failed to comply with the terms of the order it would be in contempt and may be liable to jail time and its assets confiscated.
The notice also warned any other person who knows of the order and does anything to help or permit the TTFA from breaching the terms of the order will also be held in contempt and may face jail time or have their assets seized.
On Saturday, by e-mail, David informed Look Loy of the board’s intended actions, saying the issue arose after legal advice was sought and an enquiry was made by a member, Michael Awai. The legal advice from Senior Counsel Elton Prescott, a former chairman of the constitution committee, said the article made it obligatory that a quorum was required for a meeting which included on the agenda the election of members to the board.
In his High Court action yesterday, Look Loy complained of the failure of the TTFA’s president David John-Williams to permit him access to the association’s bank statements.
In March, Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh ordered the TTFA to disclose documents relating to the US$2.5 million Home of Football, being constructed in Balmain, Couva.
The local governing body was given seven days to provide Look Loy with the documents, which also included bank statements and records reflecting all the TTFA’s accounts, investment, loans, and other financials from November 2015 to present.
Look Loy believes it was his insistence to get the information on the TTFA’s finances that led to the motion being tabled.
He said instead of granting him access to the bank records, on April 20, David wrote to tell him his appointment as a director was “invalid and not consistent with the Constitution of the TTFA.”
“Clearly this is with a view to frustrating and/or preventing my accessing the bank statements and other documents with a view to increasing transparency and accountability within the sport,” he said in his affidavit in support of his judicial review claim.
Look Loy said David’s letter was ironic since in August 2017, David, as former league secretary to the Super League, wrote to the TTFA’s former general secretary telling him Look Loy had been duly elected to represent the league on the TTFA board.
Look Loy said he has taken part in board meetings and fulfilled his role as a director since March 2018.
Look Loy was officially elected by the Super League board to be its representative on the TTFA’s board on February 23, 2018. He was confirmed as a director of the TTFA on December 23, 2017, for four years.