Work on the new T&T Football Association Constitution will begin this week when representatives of the Independent Football Reform Commission (IFRC), Fifa and Concacaf meet with president of the T&T Football Association (TTFA) Raymond Tim Kee and local officials. A press conference will be held tomorrow to announce major announcements concerning T&T football. Concacaf representatives Reudi Broennimann, Primo Corvaro, and Marco Leal will join Tim Kee and selected local representatives to serve on the Constitutional Reform Panel to begin work on the new TTFA Constitution that will be presented to the TTFA Executive Committee, members and stakeholders for national review and ratification.
The ratification process and several other areas of concern cited by Fifa will also result in the delay in TTFA elections until after June 15, 2015. However, regional zone elections will take place as originally scheduled. “When I came into office two years ago, I vowed to make meaningful change to this FA, first by taking the necessary steps to improve our on the field product and second, by initiating efforts to develop a new structure and governance model for T&T football,” Tim Kee stated. The origins of the reform effort were born soon after Tim Kee’s election as FA President when he met with Fifa officials, including Fifa President Sepp Blatter, to discuss the way forward for T&T football.
The idea of the Reform Commission was later introduced to and accepted by Fifa representatives during the 2013 Concacaf Congress in Panama, site of the page two presentation of the now infamous Simmons Report that detailed the events and activities surrounding the World Cup bribery scandal that took place in Trinidad in 2011. After convincing Fifa that T&T possessed enough knowledge and talent to achieve substantive reform, the TTFA president began assembling individuals, such as Shaka Hislop, T&T Olympic Committee president Brian Lewis, and Senator Elton Prescott S.C., to join what would be known as the IFRC. “I would like to thank members of the IFRC for their tireless effort in producing a document that can be a template for other sporting NGBs and, of course, thank you to Fifa and Concacaf, particularly Fifa secretary Jerome Valcke and Concacaf president and Fifa VP, Jeff Webb, for their supporting role in our efforts to make football a better governed entity that will now have a real chance at operating and serving all of its members and stakeholders directly.” added Tim Kee.