T&T futsal men get $500k in ‘justice’

The futsal team, represented by attorney Keston McQuilken, made claims for non-payment of salaries, match fees and per diems for the CONCACAF Futsal Championships, which took place in Costa Rica in May, 2016. The TTFA has to pay the team $475,743 plus interest at three per cent per annum and also cover their legal fees.

Former national footballer and head coach of the futsal team at the time, Clayton Morris, took charge of the team in 2016 following an oral agreement between himself and ex-TTFA president Raymond Tim Kee.

The TTFA, however, took the position that an arrangement between itself and the futsal team was done before John-Williams' tenure and was in violation of Article 36(j) of the TTFA constitution, which gives only the board of directors authority to select technical staff for a national team.

However, the presiding judge, Justice Margaret Mohammed, viewed John-Williams' defence to have been discredited in cross-examination by attorney Keston McQuilkin, who showed that the constitution came into existence well after Morris and Tim Kee had reached a verbal agreement about the futsal team's programme.

Attempts to reach John-Williams for a response to yesterday's verdict were unsuccessful.

Morris, despite winning in court, was not in an entirely celebratory mood.

"I feel relieved that justice has been served," he told Newsday yesterday.

"It's bitter-sweet. I've played football for 85 per cent of my life and all that I've achieved is though this sport. It's bitter because you have to go to court to get what you've earned. The main thing is respect for our players," he said.

Morris, captain of the 1989 Strike Squad, said he hopes the stance taken by the futsal players will inspire other teams who may feel aggrieved to stand up for their rights.

"A lot of other managers are afraid to step forward because they feel they will be victimised. At the end of the day we want what's best for T&T football," he said.

Does he fear being blacklisted for taking the TTFA to court?

"I have no fear. As a coach, you have to stand before the players and they look at you bigger than a teacher or a priest. You must have that confidence to tell them (what to do). I have no fear with respect to this. I was inducted into the First Citizens Hall of Fame in 2015 and I was supposed to get a pass to attend any game free of charge and my pass has been withheld. I have to line-up and pay like everybody else. I have no fear.

"It is about respect for the human resource and human beings. Just as we loving up the Home of Football, we have to respect the footballers and the people washing the bibs. These people deserve respect too," he said.

Morris said he was never in doubt that the futsal team could lose the case.

"Why do we have to go this way? You ask people to make sacrifices. I dipped in my pocket, submit bills and all they could say is they don't know anything about that. No way we could lose. We had all documents, cheques for us to travel, CONCACAF documents that were sent to us. We were very confident," he declared.

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High Court awards Futsal footballers $.5M.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).

Af­ter a two-year bat­tle with the par­ent body the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion for un­paid salaries, per diem, trav­el costs, match fees, rental fees and oth­er ex­pens­es, the na­tion­al Fut­sal team, yes­ter­day fi­nal­ly claimed vic­to­ry in the High Court in Port-of-Spain to the tune of $500,000.

The amount, to­geth­er with the le­gal costs of the fut­sal team of $69,200.82 was to be paid im­me­di­ate­ly.

Af­ter­wards, then coach Clay­ton Mor­ris said the vic­to­ry was not for him but rather for the dis­re­spect shown to the coun­try's foot­ballers, both men and women, who toil every day to be able to rep­re­sent the red, white and black at lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al tour­na­ments.

Mor­ris, the for­mer cap­tain of the now fa­mous 'Strike Squad' team of 1989, was the dri­ving force be­hind the court bat­tle, say­ing he was begged to pre­pare a team for the Caribbean Foot­ball Union (CFU) Tour­na­ment in Cu­ba in 2015, which he ac­cept­ed to pre­vent the em­bat­tled foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion from be­ing pe­nal­ized by the CFU.

In spite of the haste to get a team pre­pared, Mor­ris got the sup­port of his play­ers who train four days a week, both day and night, and qual­i­fied for one of two play­off spots by virtue of plac­ing third. How­ev­er, their joy quick­ly turned to sor­row when pres­i­dent David John-Williams al­leged­ly de­nied even know­ing who had giv­en Mor­ris and com­pa­ny the team to train.

The team was led by cap­tain Jer­wyn Balt­haz­ar and in­clud­ed Ish­mael Daniel, An­tho­ny Small, Ka­reem Per­ry, Jamel Lewis, Col­in Joseph, Adri­an Pirthys­ingh, Kevin Gra­ham, Ke­vaughn Con­nell, Ke­ston Guy, Noel Williams, Cyra­no Glen, Bevon Bass and Jameel Nep­tune. Mor­ris head­ed the tech­ni­cal staff along with Ronald Br­ere­ton (man­ag­er), Ster­ling O'Brien (as­sis­tant coach), Per­ry Mar­tin (goal­keep­er coach) and Brent El­der (train­er/physio).

Mor­ris said he took mon­ey out of his own pock­ets to rent fa­cil­i­ties for the team to train while play­ers showed amaz­ing com­mit­ment by trav­el­ling long dis­tances with fam­i­lies at their sides to prac­tice, but com­pen­sa­tion for all this, to­geth­er with match fees, per diem and oth­er costs were de­nied by John-Williams.

"We came to­geth­er as a team and agreed to take le­gal ac­tion against the ad­min­is­tra­tors of the sport. This is not about mon­ey, but they have to re­spect peo­ple for the work that they do. There needs to be a hu­man touch with­in the foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion," Mor­ris said.

"I feel re­al­ly sad to see now what our women foot­ballers have gone through and the dis­re­spect they were treat­ed with."

At­tempts to reach John Williams for a com­ment yes­ter­day proved fu­tile as calls to his cell­phone went unan­swered.