FIFA must help Trinidad and Tobago’s Football Federation clean up corruption

Former T&T national goal keeper and TTFF technical director Lincoln Philips calls for a reform of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) and appeals to FIFA to take the lead by installing a Normalisation Committee and removing the Executive Board of the TTFF.

In an article in the online Trinidad newspaper Wired868.com, Philips argues that “neglectful oversight of the TTFF enabled the festering of poor administrative, accounting, and ethical practices within the TTFF leading the organization to its present state of turmoil”.

He therefore feels that FIFA has an obligation to help repair the football federation, adhering to the rule of “you break it, you fix it”. Not that Phillips sees FIFA, which itself has been faced with numerous corruption allegations in recent times, as a particularly good example of administrative and ethical practices. Rather, he argues that FIFA now has the opportunity as much as a duty to redeem itself by cleaning up the mess it partly helped create. 

In December 2011, FIFA and the Caribbean Football Union announced the creation of a Normalisation Committee established to reform Caribbean football administration. Phillips calls for a similar intervention with regards to the TTFF. He argues that without a fundamental change in the current constitution of the TTFF any attempt of reform is likely to fail – a reform that is needed in order to bring the federation more competent administrators and give the clubs their rightful stake in national football affairs. 

“The crisis currently facing T&T football can become the greatest opportunity to build anew, reject the practices of the past, and engage in proper stewardship of the game” Phillips writes.

Trinidad and Tobago has played a central role in international football politics as the home nation of the now excluded ex-vice president of FIFA, Jack Warner. Warner has acted as special advisor to the TTFF, and is currently being investigated by the T&T high court for allegedly withholding money from the 2006 World Cup that was supposed to be paid to the TTFF.

Source: Wired868.com

Read the whole article, including the Declaration of Good Governance and Accountability, at wired868.com

Read more articles on FIFA from a T&T perspective here

Read more about the Warner investigation and lack of media attention