Three out of four clubs that threatened legal against the T&T Super League if they did not get the right to vote at Sunday's annual general meeting (AGM) and Election virtually, have agreed to drop their case on the basis that they were re-instated.
The other team Harlem Strikers will decide by the end of this week if they will be taking legal action, its manager Gregory Mc Sween has said.
Central 500, Harlem Strikers, 1976 Phoenix and Youth Stars were among seven suspended clubs, the others being Defence Force, WASA FC and Marabella Family Crisis Centre, to have been suspended by the Super League back in 2019 for non-compliance. The suspension meant they were also debarred from casting votes for a new president on Sunday.
The four clubs, via their Attorney Peter Taylor, sent a pre-action protocol letter to Super League secretary Peter Thomas on Friday, noting that their non-compliance should not prevent them from exercising their powers to vote.
Following a marathon session on Sunday, eight out of the 13 clubs abstained from voting to re-instate the suspended clubs, while another- Cunupia FC was absent. The reinstatement of the clubs came from votes by Petit Valley Diego Martin United, Guaya United, Mature Re United, Erin FC and the University of T&T.
Youth Stars owner and manager Anselm Robley said after speaking to 1976 Phoenix and Central 500, the clubs are happy to be back in the League and will not pursue the matter further.
"The most important thing is that we get to play football again. When you think about it, who do we penalise for this?, in the end, football will suffer, because the Super League doesn't have money to compensate us for wrongfully doing to us what they did. The truth is that some of the things that they did were unlawful, and because people don't have the know-it-all, we got licks for it," Robley told Guardian Media Sports on Monday.
The Tobago team was one of just a few teams and organisations to have been compliant when the T&T Football Association, at an Emergency General Meeting on April 21, 2018, decided to provide much-needed help by regularising them, instead of following through on a recommendation to suspend or expel the clubs and organisations from an earlier AGM on March 31 of that year.
Contacted on Monday Mc Sween dismissed claims of their reinstatement, saying: "We didn't get a chance to vote which is the most important thing.
I think it was a whole set-up if you really check it, because of an agenda of who they want to be president," Mc Sween explained.
Meanwhile, Prison officer Lee Davis is the new president of the TTSL after he got the nod ahead of Kieron Edwards, the former Eastern Football Association (EFA) president and Defence Force's Ryan Ottley in virtual election alson on Sunday. After Ottley got only two votes and was dropped in the first round of voting, Davis got 8 votes to Edwards' 4 to secure the predency, a similar number to what they both got in the first rounds from the 14 clubs that participated in the process.
SOURCE: T&T Guardian
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