Go legit? Jack Warner and Terry Fenwick reach out for another TTFA payday

By Paul Nicholson

September 7 - Most Wanted Footballer Jack Warner (pictured) has stopped more than 100 Trinidad and Tobago football creditors from being paid after he challenged the trustee settlement agreement in court Trinidad and Tobago courts earlier this week.

Creditors will now have to wait until September 26 to find out whether the court will accept the deal as proposed, or whether the deal will have to be redrawn with the inclusion of Warner's claim. If this happens, it seems likely that the source of the loan funds that underpins the creditors' agreement will be withdrawn and no one will be paid.

Warner had its own claim of TT$22.7 million ($3.3 million) denied by the creditors' settlement trustee who found its claim invalid. Warner was joined in his court appeal by former TTFA head coach Terry Fenwick, who also had an unpaid salary claim denied.

It is understood that Fenwick had already agreed and received a severance package when he was fired as head coach in early 2021.

Many of the TTFA's creditors who accepted the proposed settlement have been waiting for payment for more than three years as the federation sinks deeper into financial crisis, to the point where FIFA stepped in and appointed a standardization committee.

Finally, a trustee was appointed under the country's insolvency laws to find a solution to the crippling and unresolved TTFA debt. The trustee notified creditors that a $3.5 million loan had been secured and asked them to approve a proposal to repay the debt which was administered through the country's bankruptcy law. /p>

Creditors owed up to TT$200,000 ($29,000) were to be paid in full and balances above this amount would be pro-rated at 60% of what is owed. This agreement was before the court for approval yesterday (September 6).

Attorneys for Fenwick and Warner appealed their exclusion from the settlement and Judge Rampersad dissolved the hearing to consider their appeals.

Previously, the trustee said that Warner had not submitted a validation of its claim and therefore its claim was considered out of settlement. No one has been able to shed light on the subject of Warner's claim.

The TTFA administrator said the $3.5 million loan secured to repay the debt would be repaid over 10 years. Any claim by Warner, if accepted, would dramatically alter the terms of the creditor's agreement as its claim alone approximates the full agreed loan amount.

The source of the agreed loan for the TTFA has not been officially revealed although it is clearly FIFA, with the clawback most likely taken from the TTFA's annual grant on the 10-year repayment plan .

Sources told Insideworldfootball in June that "there is no way FIFA is lending money to Trinidad and Tobago FA to pay Warner".

If Warner's appeal is upheld and included in a forced rewrite of the creditors' agreement, other creditors will see their payments significantly reduced.

“There were 299 creditors listed in the trustee's reimbursement proposal with a total unsecured debt of TT$84.5 million. $59.3 million, of which eighty-eight have been validated with a value of $34.4 million prior to today's meeting.Fifty-one of them (or their proxies) signed up and voted at today's meeting,” said a TTFA statement in June following a meeting of creditors.

Once again, Warner's long shadow casts an ugly shadow over the future of Trinidad and Tobago football.

Earlier this summer, Warner's latest extradition hearing was heard by the UK's Privy Council, the highest authority responsible for legal disputes in Trinidad and Tobago. A decision is expected that will effectively decide whether Warner can be sent to the United States to face multiple counts of fraud, money laundering and corruption - charges that could mean he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

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