Jefferson George, president of the Unified Football Coaches of T&T (UFCTT) says he is a little bit disappointed but at the same time understands the delay in the organisation’s admission to the T&T Football Association (TTFA) membership at their annual general meeting (AGM) held on Sunday.
The AGM was attended by most of the TTFA membership and chaired by the Fifa-led Normalisation Committee chairman Robert Hadad who addressed many of the challenges that the TTFA is faced with.
While most of the issues raised were addressed, three items on the agenda were left unresolved and are to be discussed when an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) is reconvened in 14 days time.
They include the approval of the audited financial statements for the year ended 31st December 2019; expulsion of the Coaches Association, and admission for membership of the Unified Football Coaches of T&T application.
At the AGM which was held virtually, it was determined that these items will be tabled at an EGM to be held on October 13, inclusive of the 2019 audited financial statements which are still to be approved.
During the 2018 AGM, the TTFA Membership attempted to expel the Coaches Associations from the Membership based on inactivity/dormancy. However, this motion was not properly executed as per the TTFA Constitution, and will now be addressed at the upcoming EGM."
At an Extraordinary General Meeting on April 21, 2018, that was called by the March 2018 AGM, the Coaches Association was among 21 members that faced sanctions for alleged non-compliance. However, only those two members were expelled according to the meeting Minutes via a vote of 18-9. Osmond Downer moved a motion that was seconded by Anthony Harford to expelled both the Coaches Association and Players Association for:
The minutes stated: "The above two (2) associations had not submitted any documents to fulfil TTFA's compliance policy, and there were no representatives to speak on their behalf. It was felt that due to non-activities of the two associations, they should be expelled from the TTFA."
Commenting on the last Sunday’s proceedings George, a former youth goalkeeper said he was a little bit disappointed that they were not approved as members at the AGM, but at the same time understood the reasons why.
George said that at present they have no fewer than 136 applications to join the UFCTT. “I’m disappointed because we have to wait for the EGM to take place in the next 14 days and we expect to be fully admitted then. At the same time, we also understand that for us to move forward together at the end of the day everybody has to do better."
Looking ahead to the EGM, George told Guardian Media Sports on Monday: “For us, we see no hiccup in being admitted by the TTFA as we have everything in place that is requested of us based on the constitution and we are a fully functional body. But in fairness to the decisions makers on the weekend we do understand that we cannot operate or co-exist at the same time as the previous coaching body which is non-functional and we must first wait for it to be officially defunct before we can be admitted."
Sunday’s AGM was attended by 40 out of the 47 delegates that were eligible to vote at the meeting of the general membership but TTFA acting general secretary Amiel Mohammed said 37 was present to acknowledge the roll call and constituted a quorum.
Also present was FIFA Director of Member Associations for the Americas - Jair Bertoni, CONCACAF Chief Officer, Member Associations - Marco Leal, FIFA Member Associations Governance Manager - Sofia Malizia and Caribbean Football Union General Secretary – Camara David.
The UFCTT constitution was adopted and ratified by an EGM of its members on Sunday, August 15, 2021, and was drafted by Osmond Downer, president of the T&T Football Referees Association, who is also responsible for drafting the existing TTFA constitution.
Other members of UFCTT includes Wayne Sheppard (first vice-president), Rayshawn Mars (general secretary), Johan Contaste (assistant secretary), Curtis Orr (treasurer), James Saunders (media officer), and Justin Reid (public relations officer).