Wallace, Ferguson tipped for TTFA presidency race

Tues­day is nom­i­na­tion day and the in­cum­bent David John-Williams will know at the end of the day who will be his chal­lengers at the No­vem­ber 24 an­nu­al gen­er­al meet­ing (AGM) of the TTFA.

The elec­tion of a new pres­i­dent and three vice pres­i­dents will form part of the AGM's agen­da items.

Guardian Me­dia Sports un­der­stands that Wal­lace, the Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League (SS­FL) pres­i­dent, is the pre­ferred choice to be the group's nom­i­nee ahead of Ray­mond Tim Kee, a for­mer T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent, who was in­flu­en­tial in hav­ing key amend­ments to the TTFA's con­sti­tu­tion back in 2015, and An­tho­ny Har­ford, the North­ern Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (NFA) boss who him­self, has worked all his life in foot­ball and oth­er sports.

Con­tact­ed on Mon­day Wal­lace said the slate to con­test the elec­tion will be cho­sen to­day and if he's asked to lead, he will def­i­nite­ly con­sid­er it be­cause of the cur­rent state of foot­ball in the coun­try.

"I have shown my sup­port for the group pub­licly, so you can­not talk the talk and not walk the walk, " Wal­lace said.

The elec­tion of a new pres­i­dent and three vice pres­i­dents will form part of the AGM's agen­da items.

Guardian Me­dia Sports un­der­stands that Wal­lace, the Sec­ondary Schools Foot­ball League (SS­FL) pres­i­dent, is the pre­ferred choice to be the group's nom­i­nee ahead of Ray­mond Tim Kee, a for­mer T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent, who was in­flu­en­tial in hav­ing key amend­ments to the TTFA's con­sti­tu­tion back in 2015, and An­tho­ny Har­ford, the North­ern Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (NFA) boss who him­self, has worked all his life in foot­ball and oth­er sports.

Con­tact­ed on Mon­day Wal­lace said the slate to con­test the elec­tion will be cho­sen to­day and if he's asked to lead, he will def­i­nite­ly con­sid­er it be­cause of the cur­rent state of foot­ball in the coun­try.

"I have shown my sup­port for the group pub­licly, so you can­not talk the talk and not walk the walk, " Wal­lace said.

Quizzed on whether a choice of him be­ing T&TFA pres­i­dent, will pre­vent him for con­tin­u­ing in his po­si­tion as the schools' foot­ball boss, he said there is nowhere in the con­sti­tu­tion that pre­vents some­one from func­tion­ing in both po­si­tions, but he will know fur­ther.

The Unit­ed Group, it is un­der­stood is ex­pect­ed to be Clynt Tay­lor, the Cen­tral Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (CFA) Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary, who al­so con­test­ed the TTFA pres­i­den­cy four years ago, and is ex­pect­ed to con­test one of the three vice pres­i­dents po­si­tions, which can po­ten­tial­ly set him on course with his head at the cen­tral foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion- Shymdeo Go­sine, who it is un­der­stood, will be fea­tured on a slate be­ing head­ed by Fer­gu­son.

Su­san Joseph-War­rick, the pres­i­dent of the women's foot­ball league and Sam Phillip, a for­mer chair­man of the T&T Pro League will be the oth­er two nom­i­nat­ed vice pres­i­dents.

The Ter­minix and As­cen­sion boss con­firmed that he will be throw­ing his hat in­to the ring, hav­ing been in­volved in the sport for the past year or so. “I have spon­sored the As­cen­sion In­vi­ta­tion­al Foot­ball League and we are cur­rent­ly fund­ing the Su­per League. We are al­so await­ing the go-ahead to spon­sor the T&T Pro League al­so,” Fer­gu­son said.

He be­lieves his slate which com­pris­es Ed­die Dean of Club San­do, Ray­mond Thom of Po­lice FC and Go­sine, the CFA busi­ness­man who is the cur­rent spon­sor of cen­tral foot­ball, has built up a de­cent mo­men­tum so far.

Fer­gu­son promised his man­i­festo will be ready by the end of this week and will con­vey their de­sire to rid the as­so­ci­a­tion of the debt that cur­rent­ly ex­ists, have a two-tier Na­tion­al League with pro­mo­tion and de­mo­tion, and to make foot­ball fi­nan­cial­ly vi­able in the twin-is­land Re­pub­lic. He said his team Ter­minix has al­ready be­gun show­ing what can be done to as­sist foot­ball in T&T.

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Wallace to challenge TTFA boss.
By Narissa Fraser (Newsday).

SECONDARY School Football League (SSFL) president William Wallace will challenge David John-Williams for presidency in the TT Football Association (TTFA) elections on November 24.

Wallace, a former youth and national team manager, was nominated today by the Northern Football Association. He is part of the United TTFA group, comprising several local football stakeholders, that has been critical of John-Williams' leadership.

The current TTFA boss began his tenure in 2015 and is seeking a second term. In July, several respected former TT footballers, including World Cup goalkeepers Kelvin Jack and Shaka Hislop, and former women’s team captain Maylee Attin-Johnson called for John-Williams' resignation.

Last week, TTFA board member Keith Look Loy told Newsday he believes John-Williams has created a mess, and the United TTFA group is aiming to fix it.

United TTFA consists of Wallace, Look Loy, Anthony Harford, Joseph Sam Phillip, Clynt Taylor, William Wallace and Susan Warrick.

In a press release issued today, the group said they are committed to the "good governance" of the TTFA and will instil the values of honesty, collective decision making, transparency and accountability and professionalism.

"United TTFA’s slate of candidates offers to TTFA and Trinidad and Tobago the personal integrity of its candidates and a wealth of experience in the management of the main pillars of the game – youth football, women’s football, elite and grassroots club football, regional associations, and refereeing."

They continued, "Our football is in desperate need of salvation. The election of 24 November 2019 will be a watershed event in the history of our football , TTFA and Trinidad and Tobago. United TTFA stands ready."

The group will unveil its "action programme" on November 2.

Full nominations by United TTFA:

President: William Wallace (SSFL president, former youth and senior national teams’ manager, former TTCB board member).

First vice president: Clynt Taylor (Central FA General Secretary, former vice president of TT Football Referees Association).

Second vice president: Susan Joseph-Warrick (Women’s League Football president, TTFA board member, co-owner of Trincity Nationals FC).

Third vice president: Joseph Sam Phillip (former TT Pro League chairman, former TTFA board member, former club and senior men’s national team player and manager) .

William Wallace and Clynt Taylor have been nominated by Northern FA.

Susan Joseph-Warrick and Joseph Sam Phillip have been nominated by FC Santa Rosa.