T&T Football Association (TTFA) president David John-Williams, who is seeking to retain his presidency in the association’s upcoming elections, has challenged his competitors to a public debate.
The TTFA elections will be held on November 24. John-Williams will be going up against Secondary Schools Football president William Wallace and Terminix director Richard Ferguson.
He made the call in a one-on-one interview with Newsday, yesterday morning, at W Connection’s head office, in Couva. He believes it would be an opportunity for full transparency as candidates would be put on the spot, rather than having the benefit of an extended amount of time to prepare answers to crucial questions.
“I want a public debate. Anytime allyuh (sic) ready.
“I have nothing to hide. Contrary to what has been put out there, I can stand by my actions. Furthermore, I challenge my two opponents to a football debate. Let’s see who truly has T&T football at heart.
“I don’t even want to choose who the narrator (sic) (mediator) is. Bring anybody.”
John-Williams began his tenure in November 2015. While he is confident in his chances of retaining presidency, he believes the other candidates also have a fair chance.
“In an election, anything can happen. T&T football will get the leadership that it deserves. Nobody ever goes into an election not confident. But you check the history of T&T politics – everybody has a chance and is entitled who have qualified and met the criteria to run for office of the TTFA including me.”
On the topic of being satisfied with his tenure in office, he said, “If I’m permitted to say and pat myself on the back – I would say I gave it my best shot and if I leave office in the morning, history will show that I left the TTFA in a better place.”
He told Newsday while he understands receiving negative feedback is inevitable as a leader, most of the comments are usually “lies” and “innuendo” and many tend to focus on him as an individual, rather than the TTFA.
“Because of the approach that I took in terms of cutting out certain things and dealing with certain issues, people tried to malign my name. They paint the worst things about me. You know it have a saying, ‘The best thing since sliced bread’? I is probably the worst TTFA president ever to head the organisation.
“They malign me, they crucify me. Everything in T&T football was DJW but when we beat America out of the World Cup it wasn’t DJW. When the Home of Football will be open, it won’t be DJW. It will be the TTFA opens spanking new facility.”
In his press release issued on Monday, in which he announced he will be seeking presidency once more, he said, “There is no success without change and no change without conflict.”
Asked about this statement, he clarified, “Change has nothing to do with the presidency. It has to do with the change in the way we do things.”
“If you come into an organisation that didn’t own a parrot on a stick, that was in $30 million debt with an asset base of $197,000 and this president leaves it with $100 million, you decide if that was performance. I wouldn’t say.”
Newsday contacted Wallace for a comment on the call for a public debate. He said a local TV station reached out to him with a similar suggestion but he declined.
Wallace is a member of the United TTFA – a group of a group of football stakeholders who are aiming to unseat John-Williams. The group’s other members are Keith Look Loy, Anthony Harford, Joseph Sam Phillip, Clynt Taylor and Susan Warrick.
He said, “We (United TTFA) have a meeting, on Thursday ,so we will discuss that on Thursday afternoon and we would see if we are going to engage in that.” Newsday also attempted to contact Ferguson but all calls went unanswered.
SOURCE: T&T Newsday