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Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) interim general secretary Amiel Mohammed announced Fifa’s fourth appointment on its normalisation committee today: Massy Finance and Republic Bank director Trevor Nicholas Gomez.
Remarkably, Gomez was actually appointed by Fifa on 15 March 2021 and immediately became an active member of the team. However, Hadad not only chose to keep the football public in the dark, but did not even inform the TTFA’s delegates or stakeholders about the change.
Gomez, according to his bio on the Massy Finance website, is a former chair of the audit and accounting committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Trinidad and Tobago with ‘over 30 years of public accounting experience’. He is a former national youth team cricketer, who also represented the Queen’s Park Cricket Club (QPCC) and Fatima College.
He was said to have ‘a robust understanding of the critical business, financial reporting and regulatory issues challenging companies in several industries across the Caribbean’.
Hadad is the co-CEO of family-owned business, HadCo Limited, while vice-chair Judy Daniels—who lives in Atlanta, at present—is a lawyer, and ordinary member Nigel Romano has a finance background.
The normalisation committee chair is believed to receive US$6,500 (TT$44,000) per month from Fifa while the other members collect US$4,000 (TT$27,000) each.
The normalisation committee, which can have up to five members, does not have anyone with any experience within football.
Fifa secretary general Fatma Samoura informed Hadad of Gomez’s involvement on the day of his appointment: 15 March.
“The new member shall assume his duties as from 15 March 2021 and will have to pass an eligibility check to be carried out by the Fifa Review Committee in accordance with the Fifa Governance Regulations,” stated a Fifa dispatch. “All other terms of the mandate of the normalisation committee as decided by the Bureau of the Fifa Council as well as the other members of the normalisation committee appointed on 26 March 2020 shall remain the same.”
Fifa similarly announced the appointment of Hadad and his fellow members, on 26 March 2020, with ‘eligibility checks’ still pending.
Mohammed did not explain why the normalisation committee failed to inform TTFA members and stakeholders about Gomez’s appointment and stated only:
“We take this opportunity to welcome Mr Trevor Nicholas Gomez and wish him all the best as the NC continues to fulfil its mandate.
“The timing of Mr Gomez’s public announcement, was done to facilitate the finalisation of additional technical formalities and paperwork.”
In 12 months since his appointment, Hadad is yet to hold a single press conference to discuss his job as normalisation committee chairman while the TTFA has not held a general meeting during that period either.
Notably, Samoura reiterated that the normalisation committee’s tenure should not extend past 26 March 2022 and the scope of its mandate has not been altered.
The mandate of the normalisation committee is:
• to run the TTFA’s daily affairs;
• to establish a debt repayment plan that is implementable by the TTFA;
• to review and amend the TTFA Statutes (and other regulations where necessary) and to ensure their compliance with the FIFA Statutes and requirements before duly submitting them for approval to the TTFA Congress;
• to organise and to conduct elections of a new TTFA Executive Committee for a four-year mandate.
Members of the normalisation committee are not eligible for any of the open positions in the TTFA’s next elections under any circumstances.
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Trinidad & Tobago’s racism is sickening and demoralizes the youth. Why is it that this committee’s employees don’t reflect the composition of the people who actually play football professionally? This is ridiculous! This committee takes hiring tips from angostura?
Sorry! Where do you get your information from?
There are those who play and those who administer and ne’er the twain shall meet–for as long as the current regime–I use the word advisedly–is in place.
I think that is what we asked for when we failed to throw our total support behind William Wallace.
Deal with it, bro!
Sorry, did i seem to suggest that there should be ithose who play’ in the place where ‘those who administer’ should ve? or did i speak to the fact that somehow the ladder from ‘those who play’to ‘ those who administer’ goes (phenotypically), from dark-light, african-non-african. The people that have always shown the most commitment and contribution to footbal (male & female), don’t reap the rewards when prestigious football jobs become available in trinidad…irrespective of qualifcations.
“Cricket” has become EXTREMELY racist in the past few decades…many talented, prodigous african youth were left to twist in the wind in favour of much less promising indians and this has broken the spirit of interest for many.
Mr best,
Mr. Murray is honourable…interview him about this issue.