William Wallace feels that a decision not to tow the line led to FIFA taking action against his former Trinidad and Tobago Football Association executives who, in the Trinidad and Tobago High Court, are now challenging their dismissal by FIFA, the governing body for world football.
Deposed TTFA president Wallace and technical committee chairman Keith Look Loy were both guests on Steve David’s Field of Dreams programme on Flow Sports, There, they gave their version of events leading up to the takeover of the TTFA on March 17, when FIFA replaced the three-month-old Wallace regime with a FIFA-appointed normalisation committee chaired by local businessman Robert Hadad.
Wallace thinks a bold statement he made on becoming TTFA president last November may have ruffled the feathers of authorities in Concacaf and subsequently, FIFA. He believes regional football bodies did not want a return to the days when Jack Warner commanded a block of 31 Caribbean votes and the power in Concacaf, the body which governs football in the Caribbean, North and Central America. He thinks that with Caribbean votes having decided several FIFA elections, governing bodies are more comfortable with the current pliable CFU leadership.
FIFA pointed to an historic US $7m debt and the threat of creditors levying on TTFA assets as its reason for intervening in Trinidad and Tobago’s football. But Wallace feels his bold statement, tied in with two other things, might have sparked FIFA’S rage.
First was reporting of financial impropriety they found in the TTFA upon taking office and second, a decision to temporarily close the FIFA-funded Home of Football which FIFA president Gianni Infantino personally opened, mere days before Wallace took office on November 24, 2019.
“I made a statement, a bold statement in an interview (claiming) that the voice of the Caribbean was lost in this ‘One Concacaf’. I said I have no problem with the One Concacaf but what I’m saying is that the Caribbean is supposed to maintain an identity and voice within the One Concacaf,” Wallace said.
After repeating the statement during another interview, Wallace said things began to unravel, leading to his executive being summarily stripped of power.
“I got a call from the (United) States, saying to me that the statement ruffled some feathers.” Wallace said.
Wallace spoke of FIFA’S lack of communication with his executive from the onset and further disrespect shown by the world body to one of its oldest members, despite his executives reaching out several times and asking for dialogue rather than confrontation.
“Looking back now, I think the direction in which we were going in, I think it wasn’t a happy place for some people. I think, based on that, action was taken,” Wallace said.
Technical committee chairman Keith look Loy chimed in that openly reporting the financial situation, Wallace’s executive found when taking over the TTFA also shook up those in higher authority.
“When we came in, we said what we saw,” Look Loy said. “that surely ruffled some feathers as well.”
Look Loy described the new TTFA as a sovereign and independent body.
“We are accountable to Concacaf and FIFA and the international organisation we belong to. But first and foremost, we are accountable to our members and the people of Trinidad and Tobago,” he added.
Look Loy hypothesised that their fall out with FIFA stemmed from reporting financial malpractice of the previous David John-Williams-led regime and also refusing to tow the line of the international body, FIFA.
“Because the president (Wallace) indicated early in the game that we are going to chart an independent course, we not kissing anybody’s ring, we don’t see ourselves as beholden to anybody, the people who hold the purse strings at the FIFA decided we cannot abide by this. We have to move these people from office,” Look Loy speculated,
Wallace reckoned that he knew of 33 countries that faced FIFA normalisation.
“The only country that the officers were put out of office for not being culpable for anything, sins that they did not commit, is Trinidad and Tobago,” said Wallace. “And this tells you something.”
“The FIFA (and) Concacaf, one is led to believe, have a political investment in our dependency and the disarray of Caribbean football,” Look Loy put in.
“They do not want strong, independent national associations. They want us forever hanging onto FIFA financing and little more, and do not want a collectively strong Caribbean football Union that could dominate the politics and the development of Concacaf football because we have the numbers.
“They don’t want that. So they quite happy to support the existence of Caribbean football leaders who tow the line, who do what they want and who are terrified of losing funding because they do not wish to have to do the work that will generate independent financing to give them a leg to stand on.”
Wallace promises to fight his case in court regardless of the outcome.
“We are talking about Trinidad and Tobago being banned. Of course there is a possibility of whatever action FIFA can take at the end the day,” admitted Wallace, who is banking on T&T’s fate being decided by collective consensus of all of FIFA’s 211 members rather than just a few individuals.
“If football associations all around the world decide that this is the correct thing to do, well, so be it,” he said.
“This action was taken based on knowing we have a case. We have a very strong case and our case will be taken into account when a decision like this has to be made.”
Look Loy added that many other countries are looking carefully at the outcome of the impending Trinidad and Tobago High Court battle with FIFA.
“We are not the only ones chafing under this colonial relationship with FIFA,” Look Loy said. “Because you have odds stacked against you, does that mean you back away from the fight?”
SOURCE: T&T Express