Mixed expectations have been given ahead of Sunday’s Emergency General Meeting (EGM) of the T&T Football Association (TTFA) with an urgent need for the association’s audited financial statement to be approved, if monies from FIFA are to be forthcoming.
Eastern Football Association (EFA) president Kieron Edwards believes the accounts will be approved while two other members Lee Davis of the T&T Super League (TTSL) and Selby Browne of the Veteran Football Foundation of T&T (VFFOTT) are unsure that approval will be granted.
Both men are desirous of receiving more information on the reasons why a $42 million price-tag for the piece of land housing the controversial Home of Football in Balmain, Couva was left out of the audited statements, and why Robert Hadad, the chairman of the Normalisation Committee, did not approach the relevant authorities to achieve a certificate of title for the auditors, ahead of the EGM.
According to Davis, questions will have to be asked to former president David John-Williams about why the land has no deed, saying: “The thing about it is, who has the deed for the land? And what access does the TTFA have to do whatever they need to do to convert the land to any business.
"The last thing I would have heard is that nobody could really say who has the title to the land, which is a serious issue since we've gone and build aspects of the TTFA on the land, and that’s a serious thing. Who really owns the title to the deed or property, that needs to be clarified.”
Davis, who recently got the nod over Edwards and Ryan Ottley for the presidency of the Super League, noted: “We have to wonder what Mr David John-Williams was doing and the kind of considerations might have gone his way for certain things to go how they went.
"We know in T&T a lot of the institutions are literally almost corrupted. People could do things and hope for the best down the road. The mere fact that the auditor doesn’t have that to present as to the exact title and deed, for me it should be even more disconcerting.
"All this was done and we still don’t have no statement or no deed or no letter of comfort to say that we have access to this property. I am wondering now if the land is really ours or because of some administrative issue we don’t have the title or the deed or they playing smart."
Browne, on the otherhand, was one of two members who wrote to the Normalisation Committee requesting answers to the financials and the land. Browne also told Guardian Media Sports that questions of why a certificate of title was not requested, was also not responded to or acted upon.
The VFFOTT boss said Hadad’s recent statement that the TTFA is insolvent has further compromised his position.
“What I expect is that, as I stated in my letter, the situation as is would suggest that the NC would be prepared to give a declaration to the membership that, should the membership approve the 2019 audited statement, the NC would not entertain any question of solving the issues of the TTFA.
"Subsequent to that an announcement by Mr Hadad that the TTFA is insolvent, has brought further concerns on his ability to hold the appointment that was made of him by FIFA.
"The TTFA is owned by the membership of the TTFA. I think that our initial expectation to have Mr Hadad and the NC do that declaration in the effort to move forward amicably, has now been compromised and it would really be left in to the delegates to determine whether they accept or reject any proposal from Mr Hadad or the NC."
Meanwhile, Edwards is calling for the approval of the audited financials, believing that all will be sorted out with the TTFA once approval has been granted for financial statement to be sent to FIFA.
"I think the auditors would adhere to the questions the membership would’ve asked and I think the audit would be approved. I think everybody understands the importance of the audit being approved in terms of finances."
He added: "It’s a simple matter of the deed not being finalised, if it is not finalised, they cannot put it on the financial statement. It’s a process that the normalisation committee, now doing what is required to ensure that the deed is finalised and once that happens then it will be placed back on the financial statement to be audited in a year to come.
"I’m not seeing that as a major problem. It was a concern for members seeing that it was not finalised in totality. I think the justification behind it is clear right now, so they would approve the audit and that would be sorted out in time to come.
"However, what the membership would have to do is to get an undertaking by the normalisation committee to ensure that they would sort out the situation,” Edwards explained.
SOURCE: T&T Guardian