Hardly anyone batted an eyebrow when Fifa announced that a “normalisation committee” had been set up in Trinidad & Tobago. But the key question is: Could this be nothing but an act of revenge from Gianni Infantino?
By Philippe Auclair
In football governance, the procedure known as 'normalisation' usually follows a well-travelled route: a local FA encounters critical financial, political or governance problems, contravening its own statutes in the process, as well as those of Fifa’s, which then has no choice other than to suspend the administration in place and take over the running of its affairs.
It is a depressingly common occurrence, which has affected countries as diverse as Uruguay, Benin, Kuwait, Argentina, Mali, Greece and many others in the recent past. So depressingly common, in fact, that hardly anyone batted an eyelid when Fifa, following a 'fact-finding mission' which had taken place in February, added Trinidad & Tobago to the list of MAs (Member Associations) under 'normalisation' on 17 March of this year. Trinidad & Tobago, the former playground of disgraced Fifa panjandrum Jack Warner...not exactly a surprise, is it?
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Normalisation or elimination?
Except that this was a normalisation with a difference. The TTFA (Trinidad & Tobago Football Association) Board which had been summarily dismissed by Fifa had only been in place since November 2019. It had been elected - fairly, as everyone agreed - by representatives of T&T's forty-six grassroots football associations on the strength of a programme of reform and renewal, had conducted audits of its shambolic finances, addressed the issue of debt head-on a...
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