TTFA to pay former technical director

AN already debt-saddled TT Football Association will now have to find an additional US$783,000 to pay to its former technical director Kendal Walkes who was fired from his post after less than one year on the job.

Walkes was fired from the post in 2015, and sued the TTFA for breach of contract. He was offered the position during a meeting with the association former president Raymond Tim Kee and two other executives and had been recommended by a colleague from the State Association for Youth Soccer in Pennsylvania, where he is based, for it because of his experience and his Trinidadian heritage. At the time, he was coaching in the US Virgin Islands.

In its defence, the TTFA claimed it broke the contract with the technical director after Fifa officials wrote to it and raised issues over Walkes’ compensation package in light of the association’s financial constraints.

It also alleged the contract was not valid.

In a ruling delivered at the Hall of Justice on Friday, Justice Joan Charles said she had no problems finding that a valid contract existed between Walkes and the TTFA.

The judge said the TTFA had set the terms of the contract and Walkes complied.

"There was clearly an intention to create legal relations," Charles held.

She added, “"I found it surprising that the defendant would have disputed the validity of the contract.” She also ruled that there was no merit to the grounds of challenge raised by the TTFA that there were flaws in the contract which FIFA raised and that the contract was only witnessed by one person as opposed to two as required.

In her decision, Charles held that Walkes was entitled to US$65,000 for several months of the contract, from March 2015, when it was signed, to April 2016.

She also said he was owed US$250,000 for April 2016 and March 2018, when the contract would have ended and that he had the option to extend the contract for another three-year term so he was entitled to compensation for it.

His compensation package was US$10,000 a month and a US$3,000 housing allowance.

Walkes was represented by attorney Keston McQuilkin while Anand Misir represented the TTFA.