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| Mohamed bin Hammam |
Acting president of the embattled Caribbean Football Union (CFU), Jamaican Captain Horace Burrell, says he expects all members yet to cooperate with FIFA’s Ethics Committee investigations into bribery allegations to comply in time to meet a 48-hour ultimatum issued by the world governing body of the sport.
FIFA has given Caribbean football leaders a last chance to explain their part in a Trinidad meeting where Mohamed bin Hammam allegedly offered them bribes, or face the possibility of life bans from football.
“All members of the CFU have agreed that they will comply with the latest FIFA order, and I expect that they will,” said Burrell, who is also president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF).
Football’s scandal-hit governing body sent letters Monday July 25 setting out a today deadline for CFU members to provide “truthful and complete” versions of events.
“Any person who has relevant information but does not come forward during this 48-hour period will be subject to the full range of sanctions,” FIFA said in a statement.
Of nine countries that are on record of co-operating with investigators, Burrell categorically stated that Jamaica was one of them.
“We (JFF) have co-operated with these investigations and were present at the Bahamas meetings conducted by former FBI director Louis Freeh, who is leading the investigation on behalf of FIFA. We spoke with Mr Freeh and the meeting was respectful from both sides,” said the CONCACAF Executive Committee member.
The CFU membership had refused to meet with Freeh and his team for interviews in Miami, but some complied when the venue was switched to the less prejudicial Bahamas last month. “Some members were not able to attend for various reasons,” Burrell said yesterday.
Last month as the story unravelled about the cash-for-vote that resulted in bin Hammam being banned for life by FIFA’s ethics committee on Saturday, Burrell had defended Jamaica by declaring that “we were neither offered nor received” any gifts. He has maintained that position.
The Qatari bin Hammam was accused of offering US$40,000 cash bribes to Caribbean officials to back his later-abandoned presidential bid to unseat Sepp Blatter.
In its letter to all 25 CFU members on Monday, FIFA asked “the associations, their presidents and any of their members... (for) knowledge of anything that transpired” in Trinidad at a May 10-11 conference, which bin Hammam acknowledges that he paid for.
“Following this 48-hour period, the ethics committee will be asked to open the necessary ethics proceedings,” the FIFA correspondent said. “Truthful and complete reporting will be considered in mitigation by the ethics committee when deciding on potential sanctions,” it added. With at least nine Caribbean countries said to have co-operated with FIFA’s investigation into the bribery claims, and a 10th — Cuba — was not present in Trinidad for the controversial meet.
Of the 15 remaining CFU members, 12 wrote testimonies denying the allegations
and supporting bin Hammam and Caribbean football powerbroker Jack Warner when they first appeared before FIFA’s ethics panel in May.
Those supporters were targeted in recent weeks by FIFA investigators, led by Freeh, but some did not cooperate or did not accept invitations to be quizzed in Miami and the Bahamas last month.
The sanctions threatened by FIFA could potentially remove the Caribbean’s most experienced football leaders.
Most are longtime allies of Warner, who avoided the ethics panel’s scrutiny by resigning from all his football positions last month, including his 28-year seat on FIFA’s executive committee, and his presidencies of the CONCACAF regional confederation and the CFU.
FIFA said Warner maintained a “presumption of innocence” as he returned to his job as a government minister in his native Trinidad and Tobago. Bin Hammam denies wrongdoing and has pledged to appeal his lifetime ban.
Two CFU staffers, Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester, got one-year bans from FIFA on Saturday for their part distributing the cash payments. Meanwhile, Burrell said he is anxious to see the ugly matter laid to rest and that the CFU can return to being a united family.
“It is important to remove this cloud and return to the business of getting the family back together and focused on the business of football... it is indeed a challenging time for Caribbean football and for me to take the reins at this time, but as leaders we have to expect this kind of thing,” he ended.
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