The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has extended the time the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) will be run by a Normalisation Committee, which will now hold the reins of power for another year.
The Committee was put in charge of the day-to-day affairs of the country’s football in 2020 after FIFA claimed it had concerns over the organisation's ability to repay its debt. The move was initially contested at the nation’s High Court by the then William Wallace-run administration, which briefly led to T&T suspension from world football. The body was, however, later re-admitted after dropping the court case.
The interim body was initially scheduled to hand power back to the TTFA in March of next year, but the period will now be extended to March 2023. The decision, which was made by The Bureau of the Council, was communicated by FIFA secretary general Fatma Samoura via a letter. The Normalisation Committee, headed by Robert Hadad, was tasked with establishing ‘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.’ The Committee it appears will not complete the task list in time.
According to the document, however, The Bureau of the Council took note of delays that impacted the Normalisation’s Committees ability to complete its duties. One issue mentioned was the lawsuit brought before the courts by the former TTFA board and also the impact of the global pandemic, which has hampered its ability to freely go about its tasks. In addition, The Bureau also pointed to certain other issues ‘that led to the backlog in the normal operations of the TTFA, including finance.’