Incumbent Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) president Raymond Tim Kee has vowed to seek reelection at the football body’s presidential elections and annual general meeting on 29 November 2015.
Tim Kee, who has over two decades of experience on the TTFA executive, had been evasive about his intentions in recent months. However, the Port of Spain Mayor and PNM Treasurer announced his reelection bid, via a press release, after DIRECTV W Connection Football Club president David John-Williams threw his hat in the ring last week.
“I will stand,” stated Tim Kee, via press release. “I am ready and motivated to go for another term…
“As president I have a duty to serve all members of the association and like I have done during my first term, I will do my best to fulfil that responsibility without fear or favour, without discrimination. And with the sole objective of upholding the statutes and regulations of the TTFA, once given that opportunity for a second term.”
Tim Kee’s decision sets the stage for the first presidential contest in the TTFA for over two decades. In November 2012, Tim Kee was appointed unopposed after challenger Colin Murray withdrew his nomination.
Disgraced former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner claimed that he paved the way for Tim Kee’s ascension to the local football throne, although the latter figure denied the assertion.
Tim Kee, who is also a member of the CONCACAF Associated Championships Committee and the FIFA Futsal Committee, is asking football stakeholders for the opportunity to build on the TTFA’s “successes.”
“A new term in office gives the FA the chance to build on our successes,” said Tim Kee, “to fix our shortcomings and to set new milestones to put the game on a stronger footing in Trinidad and Tobago.”
Tim Kee’s presidency has been a mixed bag at best.
The “Women Soca Warriors” came within a whisker of a historic place at the Canada 2015 Women’s World Cup. And the National Senior Men’s Team ended a six-year absence from the CONCACAF Gold Cup to advance to the quarterfinal stage of the 2013 and 2015 editions.
However, the TTFA continued to be plagued by charges of incompetence and mismanagement with a mysterious alleged licensing fee for an Argentina friendly, a controversial fundraiser for deceased ex-World Youth Cup player Akeem Adams, an aborted 2014 Caribbean Cup players strike, a shocking pre-CONCACAF Women’s Championship training camp, claims of dishonesty and dictatorial behaviour by his own executive committee members and a persistent failure to raise private sector funding among the public embarrassments.
Earlier this year, FIFA froze funding to the TTFA due to its failure to presented audited accounting books to the governing body.
Tim Kee, who fulfilled his promise of an updated constitution for the TTFA earlier this year, will let football’s stakeholders decide if he is the best man for the job on November 29.