FIFA has not banned the T&T Football Association (TTFA), former referee, and constitutional expert Osmond Downer said on Thursday as concerns have been raised regarding national coach Terry Fenwick conducting national training.
Concerns were raised on Thursday in the football fraternity about whether Fenwick, who was appointed by the TTFA as the head coach of the Soca Warriors team in December which is expected to participate in the CONCACAF Gold Cup and World Cup Qualifiers in March next year, had the power to call national training on Wednesday while the TTFA is on a suspension from the world governing body and there's not functioning executive to make decisions.
However, Downer told Guardian Media Sports that FIFA did not ban the TTFA but rather suspended the executive of the football association which comprises former president William Wallace, and vice presidents Clynt Taylor, Joseph Sam Phillip, and Susan Joseph-Warrick, saying all parts of the TTFA is functional.
"FIFA has not removed the T&TFA as a member of the FIFA. All FIFA has done originally by their letter of March 17th was to replace the executive of the T&TFA with the Normalisation Committee, but the T&TFA and its constitution have not been abolished by FIFA."
He added: "All FIFA has done is to ban the TTFA from the international game and so on, but it has not expelled the TTFA, so everything still exists except the elected executive, which originally was replaced by the normalisation committee. FIFA withdrew the normalisation committee and left only the chairman after Gobin's ruling, and then proceeded to suspend the TTFA."
He pointed out that, "The Referees Committee, which is appointed by the board according to the constitution, has been having its normal, regular Monday meetings, discussing refereeing business and referees training and all that. So nothing prevents Fenwick from carrying out his duties, keeping of course, in line with the coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions. FIFA has not banned T&T from football. Fenwick is right, quite right to try his best to institute training, because jump high or jump low, I believe FIFA will remove the suspension and re-install the normalisation committee, " Downer explained.
He said everything that the FIFA requested was granted to them.
How, he believes that what is needed now is for FIFA to re-install the normalisation committee, which can go ahead with the business of the association.
Both Fenwick and his manager Basil Thompson have said on separate occasions that they will have to wait on the FIFA if things are to be back on track. Soon after Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, on Saturday, announced that national teams could resume training, Thompson said he preferred to wait until the FIFA gave the all-clear.
Meanwhile, FIFA in a letter to normalisation committee chairman Robert Hadad two weeks ago, said it acknowledged the efforts made by the sport's general membership, as well as the Court of Appeal, and would respond toward lifting a suspension they handed the TTFA on September 24th, soon.
Downer said according to the constitution, all the committees were appointed by the Board legally before the normalisation committee came into being, and an important committee is the Technical Committee that exists.