Sancho: Selfishness will cost TT football

The decision by ousted TT Football Association (TTFA) president William Wallace and his executive to pursue the ongoing dispute with FIFA at the TT High Court can end all hopes of this nation’s 2022 World Cup qualification bid and effectively end the careers of some of TT’s most prolific footballers.

TTFA board member Brent Sancho believes the actions of Wallace will have far-reaching consequences when FIFA decides to put its foot down.

In FIFA’s most recent statement on the matter, on Thursday, the world governing body warned that Wallace’s “insistence” to bring this matter to a local court instead of “the established dispute resolution forum at the Court of Arbitration for Sport greatly endangers the position of TT football internationally.”

It also stated, “The absence of a resolution that is in line with the statutes of both FIFA and the TTFA will result in the matter being brought to the attention of the relevant FIFA bodies for consideration and potential further action.”

In a telephone interview with Newsday on Friday, Sancho, a 2006 World Cup player, questioned whether Wallace and his axed executive have considered the negative impact their stance could have on both the local administration and its players.

He said, “Their (FIFA) actions could vary from suspension to expulsion. FIFA’s statutes are abundantly clear. Wallace and Co need to understand they’re putting our 2022 World Cup qualification campaign at risk. If we are suspended, worse yet expelled, would that not severely hamper or immediately end our chances of qualifying for Qatar?

“If TT is banned from football activity, you are ending the careers of (national players) Khaleem Hyland, Marvin Phillip and the other young men who have a great opportunity to qualify for the World Cup. You are going to end their career because of your selfish ways. Has Wallace spoken to any of the national players how they feel on this?”

Sancho challenged Wallace and the United TTFA to seek a mandate from the over 45-member TTFA membership on their decision to legally tackle FIFA on local soil.

Sancho is of firm belief the ousted executive will not gather more than 50 percent of the membership’s support and should give up their protest on FIFA’s decision to remove the executive and appoint a normalisation committee.

“I can guarantee and only until he (Wallace) can show that, he and his vice-presidents are operating rogue and outside of the membership. They are now limiting decisions on the future of TT football to five or six persons, which is a complete disrespect to the membership.

“If he believes this is best for TT football, bring it in front of the membership now, I dare him to do that and get the majority vote that he needs to conjure that. I can guarantee he does not have the majority and they do not feel that way. If he does not have the majority support, step aside and remove this from the local court and not allow TT to be sanctioned for selfish needs and reasons,” he added.

The Central FC director also questioned why Wallace would contest for local presidency if he did not agree with FIFA’s statutes.

On March 17 FIFA removed Wallace and his vice-presidents Clynt Taylor, Susan Joseph-Warrick and Joseph Sam Phillip, who were elected in November 2019. FIFA said the decision was made due to the association’s financial woes and massive debt.

FIFA then placed a normalisation committee, headed by businessman Robert Hadad, to run the TTFA’s daily affairs and establish a debt repayment plan. In April, however, Wallace’s contingent appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland, saying the decision was a breach of the TTFA’s constitution.

Wallace's team withdrew the appeal claiming CAS would not give a “fair hearing” and instead went to the High Court in Trinidad on May 18.

FIFA responded saying they do “not and will never, accept the jurisdiction of a local court in TT to decide on the legality of the appointment of a normalisation committee currently appointed to run football in the territory.”

On August 13, Justice Carol Gobin rejected FIFA’s application to strike out the claim because its rules prevents member federations and associations from commencing proceedings against it in their local courts.

Gobin said, “I do not think that arbitration would be the appropriate forum for the resolution of this dispute. This case goes well beyond TTFA’s alleged governance issues and the justifiability of FIFA’s purported action in appointing the normalisation committee."

Former TTFA technical committee chairman Keith Look Loy on Friday said he was not surprised by FIFA’s resistance of the local court’s decision. He claims taking the matter to the CAS is a clear plan to hide the inconsistencies of past administrations and gain a legal advantage in Zurich.

“What they are afraid of doing is submitting themselves to the court (local) for this substantive matter, which is whether FIFA has the authority to remove a democratically-elected executive and impose a committee from outside. That hearing is going to go into all of the mismanagement of the past administrations and the role of FIFA in that.

“I have maintained from the start that this is what the normalisation committee is all about and I hold to that. They don’t want to get to the substantive matter that’s why they want to get it out of TT and off to Switzerland where they have control over the process and information,” said Look Loy.

The United TTFA member also believes the current court matter would not affect TT’s World Cup qualification campaign. He has even requested FIFA disburse its annual allocation (approximately US$3m) and the US$500,000 covid19 release funds promised by the Gianni Infantino-led organisation to each of the 211 national associations.

Look Loy continued, “If all parties involved claim to be interested in TT football, the normalisation committee would get the money from FIFA to finance this World Cup campaign while we fight it out in the courtroom. Football can still go on, on the field. I challenge them to do that. I would encourage them to find the money from our outstanding FIFA allocation.”

The FC Santa Rosa president added, “The next step is that they (FIFA) have to submit their appeal and then we would have to submit our response to that. A High Court judge would be appointed, he or she would set a date and the hearing will proceed. The judge will take however long to arrive at a decision. In principle, this could take months. That’s the legal procedure.”