T&T Football Association (TTFA) president William Wallace has requested that that TT Pro League team Cunupia FC apologise and pay his legal costs for responding to its short-lived lawsuit over his team's pursuit of their lawsuit against FIFA.
Wallace's lawyer Matthew Gayle made the demands in a letter issued to Cunupia FC head coach Michael De Four on Wednesday.
In the letter obtained by Guardian Media Sports on Wednesday, Gayle reiterated his position that the case was misconceived and suggested that it was filed by the club to maximise on publicity caused by the TTFA's substantive case against FIFA.
Gayle's letter came hours after Justice Carol Gobin ruled in Wallace's favour and ruled that FIFA acted illegally in replacing him and his team with a normalisation committee led by business Robert Hadad in March.
"It ought to be abundantly clear to you that claim CV2020-03229 in short, is the very definition of a vexatious and/or abusive claim," Gayle said.
He gave De Four and the club until November 13 to respond and stated that he would file a lawsuit seeking same if the requests are not facilitated.
In the original court filings, the club's lawyer Peter Taylor said: "The Defendants' actions were grossly negligent, highly reckless unethical and irresponsible and without due regard to the statutory underpinning which binds the actions of the Association since they knew or ought to have known that failure to withdraw the action in the High Court would result in the suspension of T&T from all the attendant adverse consequences flowing therefrom."
The club claimed that Wallace and his team went against the wishes of the majority of its member associations, who vote to withdraw the case, by withdrawing their withdrawal application, which was filed past the deadline, after FIFA announced the suspension.
"The Defendants' decision not to obey the majority vote of its membership to withdrawing the High Court action is inconsistent with good administration," Taylor stated.
It stated that through the suspension it would miss out on participating in regional club tournaments and receiving corresponding funding, totalling $4.5 million.
Responding to the lawsuit, Gayle suggested that it be withdrawn as it was doomed to fail.
Gayle questioned why Taylor claimed that Wallace and his team in their personal capacity breached an alleged contractual agreement with the club when no such contract existed.
He also queried the club's claim that is sponsorship and funding issues were caused by Wallace and his team's case before Gobin.
"There is no nexus between your client's purported potential and/or theoretical future losses, which the claim compounds by rightly and properly recognising my client as the "duly elected President".
Gayle suggested that the $4.5 million in loses in Government and private funding was not guaranteed as it was dependent on the team's qualifications for regional club tournaments.
"In any event, no causation is predicated and the purported potential/anticipated losses are predicated on the occurrence of several events which ate yet to take place or may never do," he said, as he suggested that the case was based on speculation.
The case was eventually withdrawn on Tuesday.
SOURCE: T&T Guardian