Normalisation committee granted one-year extension by FIFA

THE FIFA-appointed normalisation committee has been granted a one-year extension by FIFA to complete its mandate.

The Robert Hadad-led administration now remains at the helm of Trinidad and Tobago football until March 31, 2023.

This was confirmed by the governing body’s general secretary Fatma Samoura on Friday.

Initially, the normalisation committee’s tenure was scheduled to end on March 26, 2022.

But, owing to an array of legal drawbacks stemming from the TTFA board of directors’ disagreement with the committee’s appointment in 2020, partnered with pandemic challenges, FIFA has opted to extend the committee’s reign for an additional year to assist them in achieving their core objectives.

The FIFA statement read, “The Bureau (of the FIFA council) took note that the actions taken by members of the former board of directors of the TTFA (TT Football Association) greatly hindered and significantly impacted the work and mandate of the normalisation committee, as it had to devote considerable effort to countering such actions.

“In addition, that the tasks assigned to the normalisation committee were subsequently delayed due to the covid19 pandemic and sanitary restrictions imposed by the government of TT. The Bureau also took note that there were certain issues that led to the backlog in the normal operations of the TTFA, including finance.

“This contributed to the inability to appoint an independent auditor, which in turn meant that no audited financial statements could be prepared (and thus presented); the inability to make payments directly to the TTFA’s bank account due to a high risk of garnishment, thereby restricting the TTFA from making immediate payments when necessary and having more freedom with regard to the use of the funds; and the budget cuts imposed due to the multiple claims and payment demands from creditors.”

The Bureau also acknowledged that in November, due to the current total debts of the TTFA, the normalisation committee notified the office of the Supervisory of Insolvency of its intention to make a proposal under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act of TT.

They then partnered with a licensed trustee under the Act to manage the debt proposal process.

“Under the above-described circumstances and considering all the urgent and complex challenges the TTFA is still facing, the Bureau decided on December 17 to extend the mandate of the normalisation committee until 31 March 2023 at the latest.”

In March 2020, the normalisation committee, comprising Hadad, Nigel Romano, Judy Daniel and Nicholas Gomez, was appointed by FIFA after the William Wallace-led executive was removed by the governing body owing to mounting debt and mismanagement.

The normalisation committee was then given a mandate to run the TTFA’s daily affairs, to establish a debt repayment plan that is implementable by the TTFA administration, to review and amend the TTFA Statutes (and other regulations where necessary), and ensure their compliance with the FIFA Statutes and requirements before duly submitting them for approval to the TTFA Congress, and to organise and conduct elections of a new TTFA executive committee for a four-year mandate.