Trinidad and Tobago FA creditors accept debt repayment proposal

In this file photo, former TT senior men's coach Stephen Hart oversees a training session at Lakeside Park, Salt Lake City, Utah.  Photo courtesy TTFA Media
In this file photo, former TT senior men's coach Stephen Hart oversees a training session at Lakeside Park, Salt Lake City, Utah. Photo courtesy TTFA Media

ATTORNEY Keith Scotland, representing former Soca Warriors head coach Stephen Hart, said his client is elated following the outcome of Thursday’s meeting with TT Football Association creditors who voted unanimously in favour of a debt repayment proposal through the Bankruptcy Act.

Hart was among several coaches and football administrators owed money.

Scotland told Newsday, “I am very happy about it, it is better than nothing. It is a very happy day for us because we are getting 61 cents on the dollar as opposed to nothing for the past years.”

Hart was fired in 2016 after more than three years in charge of the national men’s senior football team. He still had time left on his contract and therefore money was owed to him.

Scotland said Hart is also satisfied, saying, “I spoke to him about an hour ago…he is elated that this matter is being brought to an end.”

The normalisation committee was praised by Scotland. “Mr (Robert) Hadad and they, sometimes we knock them but this one was well done between them and the trustees.”

The TTFA media release said the creditors will “receive based on the current validated claims anywhere from 63 cents on the dollar to 100 per cent of the monies owed to them.”

The meeting, held at the Home of Football in Couva, was chaired remotely by the Supervisor of Insolvency, who was in quarantine.

Creditors were invited to vote after a comprehensive 45-minute presentation by the TTFA appointed trustee, Maria Daniel, that gave a full illustration of how the TTFA found itself in its current state of debt and the options that were considered before arriving at utilising the restructuring option available through the Bankruptcy Act option.

Referee’s Association representative Osmond Downer, commended Daniel on the quality of her work and proposal, evoking applause from the entire room.

The proposal, which was developed by Daniel and her Ernst and Young team in collaboration with the TTFA’s FIFA-appointed normalisation committee, will be funded by an interest-free US $3.5 million instrument that the TTFA will have ten years to repay. Creditors owed up to TT$200,000 will be paid in full and the balances above that will be pro-rated. They will also have the option to be paid in US or TT dollars.

There were 299 creditors listed in the trustee’s repayment proposal with a total unsecured debt of TT $84.5 million. Ninety-three of these submitted, had claims amounting to $59.3 million of which 88 were validated with a value of $34.4 million before Thursday’s meeting. Fifty-one of them (or their proxies) registered and voted at the meeting. Notably absent was the TTFA’s largest listed creditor, Jack Warner, who topped the list with a debt of $22.7 million. Daniel advised the meeting that Warner did not submit a claim for validation.

The trustee’s original proposal, which creditors received on April 22, was enhanced prior to the meeting – total funding was increased by US$500,000 to US$3.5 million, and instead of allocating a TT$3 million provision for the BIR and the NIB, funds would now be set aside for outstanding payments monthly.

The meeting included representatives from the Office of the Supervisor of Insolvency; law firm Fitzwilliam, Stone, Furness-Smith & Morgan; Ernst and Young; and normalisation committee chairman Robert Hadad and member Nicholas Gomez.

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"Trinidad and Tobago FA creditors accept debt repayment proposal"

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