March 22 – The long running saga over the crippling debt built up by the Trinidad and Tobago FA could be resolved, at least in part, this week with creditors set to receive payments from bankruptcy proceedings. But not on the schedules they had agreed with TTFA trustee Maria Daniels a year ago.
Having agreed to settle with Daniels (who acts for accountancy business Ernst and Young) for 63 cents on the dollar in May 2022, the amount has now been dropped to 37 cents on the dollar. An amount that the major creditors would likely never have agreed to. Last week Normalisation Committee chair Robert Hadad reiterated the settlement would be at 60 cents on the dollar in local media.
Daniels has US$3.5 million of funds, to be provided by FIFA, to settle the debts to more than 290 creditors. For the bulk of the creditors the agreement is a good one in that they will receive full payment – every debt under TT$200,000 ($20,000) is being honoured.
But for five coaches in particular, and perhaps the men who gave most to their country in terms of making them competitive in international football and recognised worldwide, the loss of 26% of what they agreed at the creditors’ meeting leaves a bitter taste.
Daniels is due back in front of the bankruptcy court judge in the next few days to presumably report that creditors have been settled and the TTFA can exit bankruptcy proceedings and return to more normal trading.
Privately the major creditors are saying they have been misled by Daniels. Whether the goalposts were moved by her, or for her, to reduce the amounts to be paid out is unclear.
In a letter to creditors dated March 16, Daniels says that the reduction is due to an amount (estimated at $360,000) being held in trust while on-going claims by former English coach Terry Fenwick and the somewhat invisible former marketing director of the TTFA, Peter Miller, make their way through the court system.
The two Englishmen were both brought into the TTFA by former chairman William Wallace and former technical director Keith Look Loy. Their regime was somewhat nuclear but also shortlived as FIFA rapidly replaced them with a Normalisation Committee tasked to clean up. That task has not been completed and has been a cause of frustration for the TTFA’s members who want the TTFA returned to its membership.
That Normalisation Committee term has been extended for a second time while the TTFA has been battling to get out of bankruptcy proceedings is in significant part due to Fenwick and Miller. It has prevented the game moving forward in the country.
The claims by Fenwick and Miller have not been accepted by the trustee as valid but both will come before the Trinidad and Tobago court system. Fenwick’s claim will be dealt with in May while Miller’s will be heard in October. If they fail with their claims then the returned money currently held in trust will be distributed to the approved creditors with amounts outstanding.
Fenwick and Miller have a long history of association with very few wins – either on the pitch or in the commercial sponsorship realm. It is understood that Miller still owes £250,000 to English Football League club Port Vale.
In Trinidad Miller (who reportedly did not visit the country once while he was marketing and failed to deliver a single money-earning commercial sponsorship) was associated with the controversial Arima Stadium redevelopment plan that was Wallace and Look Loy’s big idea for dealing with outstanding debt. That scheme was rapidly shelved as multiple unanswered on finance and ownership went unanswered.
For the five former unpaid coaches in Trinidad who have been damaged most by the process, and again by Fenwick and Miller – Stephen Hart, Russell Latopy, Anton Corneal (former technical director), Kendall Warkes and Dennis Lawrence – the wait goes on.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734855677labto1734855677ofdlr1734855677owedi1734855677sni@n1734855677osloh1734855677cin.l1734855677uap1734855677