FIFA Suspends T&T Football Association

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Sept. 25, 2020: The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association, (TTFA), has been suspended indefinitely by FIFA, after its failure to comply with a request to withdraw a legal case brought against the global football body and currently before the courts of Trinidad and Tobago, FIFA said in a statement Thursday.

The case was brought by deposed members of the former TTFA executive, who took issue with FIFA’s appointment of a normalization committee to govern the nation’s football affairs.

The Bureau of the FIFA Council said the suspension was “due to grave violations of the FIFA Statutes.”

“The suspension was prompted by the former leadership of the TTFA lodging a claim before a local court in Trinidad and Tobago in order to contest the decision of the FIFA Council to appoint a normalisation committee for the TTFA. This course of action was in direct breach of article 59 of the FIFA Statutes, which expressly prohibits recourse to ordinary courts unless specifically provided for in the FIFA regulations,” FIFA said.

“A normalization committee was installed by the FIFA Council after it was established that the former leadership of the TTFA had engaged in various acts of serious mismanagement. The decision of the former leadership to go to a local court to contest the appointment of the normalization committee jeopardizes not only the future of football in Trinidad and Tobago but also endangers the overall global football governance structure, which relies on the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) as the exclusive forum for resolving disputes of this nature,” it added.

The relevant parties were initially given until 16 September to withdraw the case but failed to do so. This deadline was then extended until 23 September, which was not respected either.

“This suspension will only be lifted when the TTFA fully complies with its obligations as a member of FIFA, including recognizing the legitimacy of the appointed normalization committee and bringing its own statutes into line with the FIFA Statutes,” the statement added.