William Wallace, the ousted president of the T&T Football Association has disregarded a threat by FIFA's Normalisation Committee chairman Robert Hadad to not use the football association's letterhead, by issuing a release using the TTFA's letterhead in a responding to Hadad.
Afterwards, he told Guardian Media Sports he will continue to function in his capacity of president of the TTFA, noting his legal representative will deal with everything else.
Wallace and his vice presidents Clynt Taylor, Sam Phillips and Susan Joseph-Warrick were booted out of office on March 17, when the governing body for the sports globally FIFA decided to enforced Article 8.2 of its Statutes to appoint a normalisation committee on March 27 to manage local football.
Wallace and his team have since decided to challenge this through the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne Switzerland. on Wednesday in a letter, however, Wallace said the accusation by Hadad is unfortunate and untrue. According to the local football boss: "I have read in one daily newspaper a quote attributed to the spokesman for the purported Normalization Committee appointed to manage the affairs of the Association, which accuses the democratically elected officers of the TTFA of "fraud" This is both unfortunate and untrue."
"Having been elected following a democratic election, which incidentally was conducted under the supervision of FIFA and CONCACAF, we remain in charge of the Association and the only persons authorised to use the TTFA stationary. While the TTFA remains an affiliate of FIFA, it does not have the power to remove the democratically elected Executive and usurp the running of the TTFA by decree."
"Thus the use of the TTFA stationary etc by FIFA’s normalisation committee is and remains unauthorised. This matter is presently before the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Given the value that the TTFA places in the relationship with FIFA, we have chosen to submit to the jurisdiction of CAS. However, make no mistakes about it, unless and until CAS rules to the contrary, the duly elected executive remains in charge of TTFA. I, therefore, will continue to use the TTFA stationary, as necessary, to communicate with TTFA personnel and the general public."
The two parties (Wallace and Hadad) have also been embroiled in a legal battle for the use of the football association's accounts at First Citizens Bank, but the latter in a legal document on Monday denied both parties, saying it was unsure of whom had the right of ownership of the accounts. The bank, in a letter from its Attorney Kendell Alexander, said whoever wants access to the accounts must walk with a legal document as proof of ownership.
Its decision prompted an immediate response from Wallace through his attorney Matthew Gayle, who described the situation as regrettable.
But with the accounts needed for FIFA proposed injection of funds that represent its grants to member associations, as well as a Covid-19 Relief Funds, it is uncertain if Hadad would get it in time to pay office and technical staff salaries, among other things.
Hadad was last night expected to meet with members of the technical staff and it was expected that he was going to assure them salaries soon.
SOURCE: T&T Guardian