United TTFA gets injunction to stop Sept 15 meeting

THE ousted TT Football Association (TTFA) executive has been granted an injunction to stop Tuesday’s extraordinary general meeting of TTFA members which is being facilitated by the FIFA normalisation committee, headed by businessman Robert Hadad.

Justice Carol Gobin on Monday granted the injunction which remains in place until an October 9 hearing of the challenge of the ousted TTFA executive, led by William Wallace, against the normalisation committee’s power over the local football.

Gobin also refused FIFA a stay of her previous order for it to file a defence in the matter filed by Wallace and his team. The world governing body was given until Friday to file its defence failing which the matter goes to trial on October 9.

An appeal of the judge's earlier ruling in August will be heard on October 21.

In its application for the injunction, Wallace and his deputies Clynt Taylor, Susan Joseph-Warrick and Joseph Sam Phillip, who are members of the United TTFA team that took over the helm of the TTFA at its annual general meeting in November 2019 argued that the meeting which was scheduled for Tuesday, was “illegal.”

The TTFA executive was removed by FIFA and replaced by the normalisation committee on March 17 owing to mounting TTFA debt and "a very real risk of insolvency and illiquidity."

Tuesday’s meeting was called to address United TTFA's contentious High Court battle against FIFA. The world governing body insists the Court of Arbitration for Sport is the sole body authorised to handle disputes between FIFA and member associations. FIFA gave TTFA a September 16 deadline to withdraw the matter from the local court of face suspension proceedings.

Wallace and his team are represented by Dr Emir Crowne, Matthew Gayle, Crystal Paul and Jason Jones while Senior Counsel Christopher Hamel-Smith and Jonathan Walker.