It is time for David John-Williams to speak up and defend himself.
This call has been made by both Normalisation Committee chairman Robert Hadad and committee member Nigel Romano.
The pair made the call during an interview on the SportsMax Zone programme on regional Cable TV network Sportsmax.
John-Williams, immediate past president of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association, was the highlight of a recent television expose on the Home of Football which raised questions about how the funds for the FIFA project were used.
Hadad, appointed by FIFA in March to head the Normalisation Committee — set up to replace the elected president William Wallace and his executive — said John-Williams needed to say something.
“Absolutely yes. I think he needs to address some of the matters and the accusations about him, definitely yes,” Hadad said. His call was backed up by Romano.
Asked if the Normalisation Committee had found any evidence of money for the Home of Football project going to a bank account in Panama as the CNC3 investigation claimed, he said: “I have not seen any evidence of that. The questions were asked and they need to be answered and I would hope that the people with the answers, the people who own the bank accounts, will step up and explain the source of funds.”
However, questioned repeatedly about whether they had seen any evidence of money that came to the TTFA’s accounts for the project not being accounted for, Hadad said: “FIFA has done their central audit and they have reported that they have found nothing untoward in what they have seen. We have also been very active with a statutory audit...We are not going in to verify that contracts were given to who, how and why. What we are doing is verifying the money spent on the Home of Football, verifying that the invoices are there and that the money was paid out of a legitimate bank account of the TTFA. What we have seen is we have a very detailed report of the $32million spent on the Home of Football and we have invoices for every transaction.”
Romano added: “If the moneys came into a TTFA bank account...we saw where it went out and we have established that there is evidence to support that the outgoings bought material for the home of Football. If the money went direct to Panama, we wouldn’t be able to (verify that).”