TTASL: Gymnastics and Lessons to be learnt

TRINIDAD:  April 26, 2016: The Trinidad and Tobago Association of Sport and the Law (TTASL) is and independent body which aims to enhance the participation in sport from grass root to professional level and also promote the effective administration of local sport governing bodies.

Given that we are an impartial body and there may be looming legal proceedings we have decided not to
take any particular side, as justice must be delivered without outside and undue interference.
The events of recent weeks have however highlighted the need for effective alternative dispute resolution
within our local sporting fraternity. We at TTASL recommend the formation of the Trinidad and Tobago
Dispute Resolution Council which will aid in resolving disputes not just between Athletes and Governing
bodies but in resolving commercial and anti-doping disputes also.
We believe that there is a very important lesson that can be learnt and that herein lies an opportunity for
our sporting administrators, the sport company of Trinidad and Tobago and the Ministry of Sport to begin
the conversation on legally binding Alternative Dispute Resolution within the sporting industry.
The alternative to this will be that the only meaningful recourse that any aggrieved party would have is to
pursue costly and lengthy litigation before the Honourable Supreme Court. The end result would not be a
sporting result and will always leave the losing party with a bitter taste of vengeance in their mouth.
A sporting dispute resolution council will be based on the ideals of the Court of Arbitration for sport that
exists in Lausanne, Switzerland. It will be mediation and sporting centered and the panel will not just
include legal luminaries but also experienced sporting personalities that will add balance and equity to
any decision delivered with the interest of sport being paramount.
In the circumstances we see it fitting to end with the Words of Lord Denning in Enderby Town Football
Club v The Football Association [1971]Ch 591, ‘justice can often be done better by a good
layman than a bad lawyer’. We call on the Sport Company as well as the Olympic Committee to join
the TTASL to advance this conversation and put systems in place for the effective, speedy and equitable
resolution of sporting disputes within our beautiful twin island republic.