Foreword

• Pages: xiv-xvi

We, former World Cup 2006 and England Premier League goalkeeper Shaka Hislop and Jus-

tice Adrian Saunders, President of the Caribbean Court of Justice, are proud to contribute the

Foreword to this text as we look at two sides of the same coin, with one perspective from the

playing field and the other from the legal bench:

ATHLETES NEED A CHAMPION

I’ve played football all my life. From the playgrounds of Diego Martin, through university

in the United States, to some of the most iconic stadia in European football. The first time

Iput on the national colours of Trinidad and Tobago was against a national select team from

Venezuela. Iwas 10years old. The last was against England at the World Cup. Iwas 37. Now,

as Isit in the comfort of retirement and look back on my years in the game with the clarity

that only hindsight aords, Ican’t help but recognize the way football has defined its own

existence, with a government and laws of its own, handed down dictatorially. The intersec-

tionality between sport and the actual law of the land played out in ways that were unique to

the places, cultures and histories of the countries I played in. Oftentimes playing outright in

front of my very eyes.

In the United States, life is defined by the constitution. And rightly so. Despite the ages and

successes of the established leagues, everything has to relate to that doctrine, and the at-the-

time interpretation of it. The National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) has seemed to

define its own existence, yet is now bracing for the most significant challenges since the Title

XI amendments were passed in 1972. Ifirst stepped through the doors of Howard University

in 1987, and the Title XI interpretation was still being debated and challenged by the NCAA

even then.

It was six years after my arrival in England, and my turning pro, that the European Courts

handed down judgment in favour of Jean-Marc Bosman, upending the European, and conse-

quently world, transfer system. Iwas among the first to benefit from what became known as a

‘Bosman transfer’ in moving from Newcastle United to West Ham United in July1998.

But while the US’s sporting landscape is dominated by the constitution, European football

wrestles with its relationship with the European courts, and players increasingly view FIFA’s

preferred go-to, CAS (the court of Arbitration for Sport), as little more than an extension to

FIFA itself. Iis in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), and indeed the wider Caribbean, where Ihave

most reason to take pause.

I honestly can’t remember what the leadership or administrative structure was like as

Iclimbed the ranks and age groups of junior national football. Ido remember my first call up

to the senior national team in 1990 though, for what was then the Shell Caribbean Cup– an

experience that was cut short by the attempted coup. It was an experience that started with a

broken verbal agreement made by the TTFA. Maybe it’s as a result of T&T’s own colonial past,

or maybe it was a product of FIFA’s enforced culture on world football; but footballers were not

meant to challenge authority, we were expected to obey and to accept whatever was decided

was best for us– what we were due, and what we should expect and accept. There was little

recourse for players in the case of any disagreement. There was even less by way of a formal,

FOREWORD