David John-Williams is standing on the par-5 fifth tee at the golf course at Savonetta, addressing his tee ball with his driver. Investigative notes in hand, Mark Bassant ‘ambushes’ him.
“Is your middle name Apullnaris?” he asks.
Startled, the ex-president blocks his shot.
“Right!” he yells.
Bassant did not need the confirmation; he already knew that, having done his homework.
CNC3’s Bassant and Wired868’s Lasana Liburd started their journalistic journeys in the same place, the Sports Desk at the Trinidad Guardian, around the same time, the early 1990s. Perhaps that is why both have arrived—by very different routes—at the same conclusion, to wit, that David Apullnaris John-Williams is not the best thing for Trinidad and Tobago football.
Unsurprisingly, DAJW does not agree. However, he never quite says so in so many words. What he does use many words to say is that Bassant’s 10 September documentary on CNC3 titled ‘TTFA’s Secret Panama Trail’ was nothing but crap.
In it, Bassant talks a lot about a cuenta bancaria panameña but, if we are to believe John-Williams, it’s all made up, created, fiction. Nothing but a cuento de hadas trinitario.
In the ex-president’s response, one finds ‘…several articles and […] news stories created by Mr Bassant’ (my emphasis) and ‘all of the allegations made against me are false’. There is too ‘false and defamatory allegations…’ and ‘the untruths, the distortions and the falsehoods’ as well as ‘… odious and contemptible allegations […which] are baseless’.
And here’s the kicker: ‘… attempts to elevate sensationalism and character assassination to the ranks of journalism’.
But, as Liburd points out in his latest story, there is no attempt at refutation. Nary a word.
Liburd, mind you, has always gone out of his way to be fair to the former TTFA big sawatee with the unusual middle name. For example, in a story posted on Wednesday discussing allegations of possible million-USD malfeasance on the part of the ex-president, the Wired868 Editor opts for a headline about DAJW’s successor.
Liburd defends his choice on the grounds that he deemed that angle to be ‘more topical’?
But William Wallace’s major sin, any fair-minded commentator can see, is naiveté, innocence, a lack of street wisdom, being a little unsuspecting sardine in a shark-infested ocean.
Liburd makes links between DAJW and all kinds of people like Veron Mosemba-Ongo. But he steers very clear of the course in the plains of Savonetta.
Not so Bassant. He goes well out of his way to bring fear to DAJW. For over almost half a year, he made several trips—virtually!—to the USA and Panama to unearth possible dirt on the alleged TTFA-president-cum-at-one-and-the-same-time-TTFA’s-House-of-Football-contractor. For any investigative reporter, says Bassant, such journeys are par for the course.
I doubt he was hoping there to show us a Tiger Woods but no such luck. Anyway. All he encounters is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Remember all the promises we heard both before and after the election in November 2015?
“I hear that United TTFA is missing some greenbacks?” the reporter continues. “Do you know how many millions?”
“Fore!” comes the cry. The ex-president has sliced his drive again.
“Actually,” Bassant says dryly, “it’s more than that. But, say what? What’s a few million between footballing friends?”
The reporter backs off, biding his time. If DAJW finds himself not in the fairway but in the rough or in the bunker, lies are going to be an issue. In fact, if the last answer is any guide, lies are more than likely to be an issue anyway.
So when the ex-president’s iron shot finally comes to rest on the fringes of the green, Bassant seizes his moment.
“What’s in your bag?” he asks pointedly. “Dólares?”
DAJW looks like he has seen a ghost. And he probably has. Chuck Blazer’s. It’s the full tape of Jack Warner and Mohammed Bin Hammam that begins to roll before his eyes.
Strategically, the reporter falls silent again. No point causing anybody’s sudden death, right?
Hole 6 is a par 3. That’s the best place for the ace. And Bassant has one up his sleeve.
As the ball rolls slowly towards the hole: “Where did you putt it?” he inquires. “En Panamá?”
Time to beat a retreat.
“You think I could see your card?” he throws over his shoulder at the ex-president, taking his leave. “Not the TTFA FCB one, the one from your personal account in Republic Bank.”
Bunkered! It’s not often you see a man pull a sand wedge on the green.
But it’s not often either that a former high-flying eagle realises that he’s now an albatross around football’s neck.
And, worse, all of footballing T&T—including Liburd’s Wired868—is about to find it out…
RELATED NEWS
DJW vows action after legal review but yet to rebut specific CNC3 claims.
Wired868.com.
Former Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) president David John-Williams has promised libel action against Guardian Media Limited and its investigative reporter Mark Bassant, as well as to clear his name from allegations of financial misconduct related to the Home of Football project.
However, John-Williams has done neither—not yet anyway.
In a press statement this morning, exactly a week after Bassant’s one hour documentary entitled ‘TTFA’s Secret Panama Trail’, John-Williams declared all the allegations false. But he did not offer alternatives to the specific claims made in the CNC3 programme and subsequent Trinidad Guardian newspaper articles.
“Mr Bassant, no doubt in an attempt to immunise himself and GML from liability for their falsity, ambushed me on a golf course,” said John-Williams, “and inundated me with a series of questions and statements which I could not reasonably be expected properly to answer in the course of his ambush. I give the unqualified assurance that there are complete answers to all of Mr Bassant’s allegations.
“I have also been advised that Mr Bassant’s attempt to immunise himself and GML from liability does not have the prophylactic effect for which he and GML undoubtedly wished, and that he and GML are both liable for the false and defamatory allegations contained and made in these articles and television news stories, which they continue to publish and to carry.”
John-Williams said he has ‘engaged’ attorneys, although they have not so much as issued a pre-action protocol letter to GML—let alone initiated libel proceedings. Instead, the W Connection president said his lawyers are reviewing his documentation, after which they should ‘advise’ him. John-Williams expects to lay charges at that point.
He warned that Bassant and CNC3 will ‘pay dearly’ for the allegations.
“I have engaged attorneys-at-law to examine and to advise me on the material which I have in my possession and which is otherwise available to me,” he said, “and which lays bare the untruth, the distortions and the falsehoods contained in these articles and television news stories.
“Once my attorneys-at-law have completed their due diligence, I will be instructing the filing of legal proceedings against GML and Mr Bassant for these odious and contemptible allegations which have caused my family and myself incomprehensible distress.”
John-Williams suggested that his attorneys will decide how much of his supposed defence to Bassant’s allegations will be shared with the public.
“To the extent that I am permitted by my attorneys-at-law to do so, I also propose to make publicly available the material which I have in my possession and which is otherwise available to me,” he said, “which will show all of these allegations to be baseless.”
John-Williams might also have to show his ‘material’ to the Fraud Squad, as the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) opened an investigation into his conduct this week.
Former TTFA president David John-Williams’ full response to TTFA Secret Panama Trail:
Over the past few days, Guardian Media Limited (GML) has published several articles in its Guardian Newspaper and has carried several news stories on its television station, CNC3, all created by Mr Mark Bassant, and in the course of which allegations of wrongdoing have been levelled against me in connection with the construction of the TTFA’s ‘Home of Football’ during my tenure as TTFA president. All of the allegations made against me are false.
Prior to publishing these allegations, Mr Bassant, no doubt in an attempt to immunise himself and GML from liability for their falsity, ambushed me on a golf course and inundated me with a series of questions and statements which I could not reasonably be expected properly to answer in the course of his ambush.
I give the unqualified assurance that there are complete answers to all of Mr Bassant’s allegations.
I have also been advised that Mr Bassant’s attempt to immunise himself and GML from liability does not have the prophylactic effect for which he and GML undoubtedly wished, and that he and GML are both liable for the false and defamatory allegations contained and made in these articles and television news stories, which they continue to publish and to carry.
I have engaged attorneys-at-law to examine and to advise me on the material which I have in my possession and which is otherwise available to me and which lays bare the untruth, the distortions and the falsehoods contained in these articles and television news stories.
Once my attorneys-at-law have completed their due diligence, I will be instructing the filing of legal proceedings against GML and Mr Bassant for these odious and contemptible allegations which have caused my family and myself incomprehensible distress. Further, after their review thereof and to the extent that I am permitted by my attorneys-at-law to do so, I also propose to make publicly available the material which I have in my possession and which is otherwise available to me, which will show all of these allegations to be baseless.
In the meantime, I deprecate in the strongest terms possible GML’s and Mr Bassant’s attempts to elevate sensationalism and character-assassination to the ranks of journalism and I await my day in court when I will clear my name and cause GML and Mr Bassant to account dearly for their libel.