Embattled Caribbean Football Union (CFU) president Gordon Derrick could find himself crowbarred out of office by FIFA, after the world governing body’s ethics committee today recommended a four-year ban from all football activities for the Antigua and Barbuda native.
The ethics committee, which is chaired by Dr Cornel Borbély, focused on Derrick’s “alleged conflicts of interest, offering and accepting gifts and other benefits, mismanagement of funds, abuse of position and disloyalty.”
The adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee, which is chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert, has now opened formal proceedings against Derrick, who is also the general secretary of the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association (ABFA).
If Eckert’s chamber agrees with the decision of the Borbély-led committee, it would mean that the CFU will soon need a new president. And Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) president David John-Williams is the most likely beneficiary of Derrick’s possible demise.
John-Williams challenged Derrick at the last CFU elections on 23 July 2016—on the Trinidadian’s 54th birthday—but lost by 18 votes to 12 with one abstention.
Derrick declined comment on the FIFA investigations and said he will seek legal advice on the ethics committee’s decision.
Unquestionably, though, the ruling by the Borbély-led body fits FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s vision for a new CONCACAF. And Derrick has had a bullseye on his back for the past year.
Whatever the strength of the case against Derrick, the outline of the matter immediately raises eyebrows.
FIFA offered few details in their release. However, Wired868 understands that FIFA is investigating a claim against Derrick by disgraced former ABFA general secretary Chet Greene, which is between two and a half years to six years old depending on whom you ask.
Greene was one of former CONCACAF president Jack Warner’s most trusted regional lieutenants and he once threatened to throw British investigative journalist Andrew Jennings down a flight of stairs.
In 2003, FIFA auditors found that a US$1 million GOAL grant to Antigua and Barbuda—during Greene’s tenure—was unaccounted for while the ABFA general secretary pocketed US$4,500 a month despite having a full-time job at the island’s Ministry of Sport at the time.
Greene was eventually ousted as ABFA general secretary in 2004 after a petition against his football body signed by several prominent Antiguan sportsmen, including West Indies cricket legends Sir Vivian Richards, Curtly Ambrose and Andy Roberts.
Ironically, Greene is now Sport Minister in Antigua and Barbuda and the most vocal supporter of controversial West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Dave Cameron.
Greene never lost his thirst for football power on the island, though. Having failed to win re-election, he turned to Warner for help. And the then CONCACAF president ordered the ABFA to pay US$177,000 to Greene for “unpaid debts” or be suspended from all football within the confederation in a matter of days.
The ABFA appealed to FIFA and, since neither could not prove the existence of the debts, Warner and Greene were eventually forced to back away.
Greene popped up again in 2010 as the chief witness for former coach Robert “Pio” Baird in a High Court case against the ABFA. High Court Judge David Harris ruled in favour of the ABFA and ordered Baird to pay costs.
Three years later, Greene supported former footballer Veron Edwards Jr in his bid to unseat current ABFA president Everton Gonsalves. Again, the bid supported by him was unsuccessful.
By then, Derrick was a CFU executive member. And, a year after Warner fell in the Mohamed Bin Hammam scandal of 2011, Derrick was elected to replace him while Cayman Islands football boss Jeffrey Webb ascended to the loftier post of CONCACAF president.
Derrick was also fingered in the Bin Hammam scandal but only for failing to pass on information about the goings-on at the controversial meeting, since FIFA investigators declared that he ought to have known what had transpired.
FIFA gave Derrick a reprimand and fine of 300 Swiss francs while CONCACAF executive member and Jamaican Horace Burrell was banned for six months.
Fast forward to 2016, as FIFA prepared to elect a successor to disgraced president Sepp Blatter.
Derrick and the CFU initially declared support for former Trinidad and Tobago football captain David Nakhid, whose own bid ended in farce as FIFA ruled that he did not have enough nominations.
John-Williams, who had just been elected TTFA president, gave Infantino his public blessing after their private meeting—without bothering to canvass the TTFA’s board of directors or even introduce them to the then UEFA general secretary.
However, the CFU never endorsed any candidate after Nakhid while the ABFA is believed to have voted for Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa.
Derrick soon realised what the “new FIFA” had in store for him—and, by extension—the Caribbean when the ethics committee blocked him from running for the post of CONCACAF president in May 2016.
FIFA declared that Derrick was unfit for office owing to his part in the Bin Hammam scandal. It was a curious decision since Burrell retained his seat on the CONCACAF Executive while even Infantino himself had been implicated in the Panama papers after it emerged that UEFA, during his time as the body’s director of legal services, had conducted offshore deals with figures indicted by the FBI.
Canadian Victor Montagliani won comfortably in Derrick’s absence, making it the first time the confederation had a president from outside the Caribbean since the islands became CONCACAF’s biggest electoral district in the early 1990s.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) subsequently supported FIFA’s decision to block Derrick from the CONCACAF election, just as it had ruled in favour of the global football body against Nakhid.
With the Caribbean accounting for 25 of CONCACAF’s 35 member associations, Montagliani—or any other president from North or Central America—cannot rest easy with a CFU boss who is not under his thumb.
And, just a week before John-Williams officially announced his candidacy for the regional presidency, he flew the CFU electorate to Trinidad for a sales pitch. CONCACAF and UEFA promised to foot the bill.
John-Williams’ subsequent CFU campaign manifesto also claimed to have strategic support from UEFA for his grander promises.
Still, the CFU opted to retain Derrick as its leader. But the democratic choice of the Caribbean nations did not soften the Infantino-led FIFA’s resolve.
Earlier this month, as Infantino embarked on a mini-Caribbean tour that included a Trinidad visit, Derrick was not even informed of the FIFA president’s itinerary, much less be invited to join the party.
Today’s announcement by FIFA’s “independent” ethics committee arguably shows that the governing body is prepared to use more drastic means to be rid of the Antiguan.
Last year, FIFA’s travel department head, Severin Podolak, and the chief of the general secretary’s office, Christoph Schmidt, passed on documents to the ethics committee which allegedly pointed to Infantino’s unauthorised use of private jets, unlawful hiring and firing, and inflation of his expenses.
FIFA general secretary Fatma Samoura sacked Podolak and Schmidt before the ethics commission even got around to giving Infantino a thumbs-up.John-Williams’ subsequent CFU campaign manifesto also claimed to have strategic support from UEFA for his grander promises.
Still, the CFU opted to retain Derrick as its leader. But the democratic choice of the Caribbean nations did not soften the Infantino-led FIFA’s resolve.
Earlier this month, as Infantino embarked on a mini-Caribbean tour that included a Trinidad visit, Derrick was not even informed of the FIFA president’s itinerary, much less be invited to join the party.
Today’s announcement by FIFA’s “independent” ethics committee arguably shows that the governing body is prepared to use more drastic means to be rid of the Antiguan.
Last year, FIFA’s travel department head, Severin Podolak, and the chief of the general secretary’s office, Christoph Schmidt, passed on documents to the ethics committee which allegedly pointed to Infantino’s unauthorised use of private jets, unlawful hiring and firing, and inflation of his expenses.
FIFA general secretary Fatma Samoura sacked Podolak and Schmidt before the ethics commission even got around to giving Infantino a thumbs-up.
A FIFA statement on the pair’s departure read: “As in any organisation requiring thorough restructuring, new positions will be created by the new leadership as part of the programme of reforms adopted by the congress and [a] few positions will be terminated as they [no] longer fit the organisation’s overall restructuring process.”
It did little to quell the suspicion that the FIFA ethics committee had squealed on its whistleblowers and pandered to president Infantino.
The FIFA committee has now turned its guns on Derrick. It could mean a belated 54th birthday present for John-Williams, who is anxious to sit on the Caribbean throne once held by his controversial compatriot, Warner.
It is ironic that one of Warner’s closest aides, Greene, might have assisted the TTFA president’s ambition with an old claim which did not appear to have particularly interested FIFA up until Derrick showed an interest in higher office.
RELATED NEWS
Editorial: Piracy in the Caribbean
By Paul Nicholson (insideworldfootball.com)
The battle for political control of the Caribbean is entering a crucial phase, and it has nothing to do with football and everything to do with controlling the votes, the agenda and the money. At the centre of the power play is the CONCACAF-driven attempts to remove Caribbean Football Union (CFU) president Gordon Derrick from office and split the CFU membership.
The war has moved into a phase uglier than even the politics of the disgraced Jack Warner era with allegations that FIFA money has been repeatedly threatened to be withheld from the CFU until member associations remove Derrick. It is political blackmail of the worst kind from a faction that clearly believes it can do and get away with whatever it wants.
The political support of the Caribbean as a block has long been a route to achieving high office in world football, not just within CONCACAF but also at FIFA. It is this block vote that CONCACAF is looking to break up as the dominatingly North American-centric organisation reinvents itself as a credible confederation on the world stage.
While the North Americans need to break the Caribbean solidarity to bring the numbers to cement their political power base, Derrick has been a strong and reasonably well-supported voice for Caribbean unity, arguing that it is only with a unity of purpose that the Caribbean’s 31 members can achieve a football equality both within CONCACAF and the world game. In reality the two positions might not be that far apart but the (One)CONCACAF mandarins, puppeteers and opportunists want a bloody and example-making execution that will resonate – Derrick’s.
It is the North American block and its influence that has stood slavishly behind FIFA president Gianni Infantino as it deals its way to the centre of world football’s governing body and the hosting of the 48-team 2026 World Cup with automatic qualifying places for the three host nations of Canada, Mexico and the US. Infantino’s next election is in 2019 – it would be naïve to think that the global manipulation of confederation politics is purely for the good of the global game rather than predominantly for the purpose of his 2019 re-election.
The politics of the process have been impressive, if a little uncomfortable in the new ‘football first’ and transparently reformed FIFA – well, judge for yourself on that. A hard look at the politics and coercion in Africa will tell you whether global football is really travelling to a better place. After all, there sits a new African president who solicited a payment from a man who is banned from life from football for making illegal payments. He was working for a man who is banned for life from football for making illegal payments. This is your new FIFA – a Russian doll of Trumpian values.
From the current football top table viewpoint, looking down (in all ways) on the Caribbean, divide and rule is the strategy. Previous attempts to unseat Derrick in CFU elections at the end of last year failed with a CONCACAF-backed opponent from Trinidad. That election win seems almost forgotten with a number of his opponents calling for his resignation at the CFU meeting held in Aruba at the same time as the CONCACAF Annual Congress almost two weeks ago.
They co-ordinated an attempt from the floor of the CFU congress calling on Derrick to resign, based on the loss of a recent appeal he had before CAS.
It is important to look closer at what this appeal loss was about as it points towards a big brother agenda that does neither football’s newly installed Gods or those in the CFU using it as a blunt tool any credit – intellectually or politically.
Derrick had appealed against FIFA’s ban on him standing for election to the CONCACAF presidency – a presidential battle won by Canada’s Victor Montagliani. The position comes with a seat on the FIFA Council which FIFA said Derrick could not have taken up because of a reprimand he had previously received from FIFA Ethics – hence his ban from the election. Note – CONCACAF did not ban him, they were happy with his conduct and passed him for the election, it is only recently they have ‘strategically’ and suddenly decided to become concerned.
The reprimand that led to Derrick’s election was over the investigation into the 2011 cash-for-votes scandal in the Caribbean – CONCACAF’s first major corruption scandal.
And this is where some of the CFU members need to look very closely at themselves as many of those presidents took the $40,000 of Mohammad Bin Hammam cash, but are still in position, some of them on CONCACAF’s own top committee.
Derrick didn’t take the cash – one of the few. But he was nevertheless reprimanded by FIFA who said he hadn’t complied fully with the investigation into those that did. It was a reprimand and a fine lower than the threshold you can appeal against at FIFA. Remember, in most countries you can appeal against a parking ticket. Derrick’s reprimand was barely at that level, but it became a convenient reprimand for those needing leverage (just ask Qatar’s Saud Al-Mohannadi what being on the wrong end of that kind of politics is like) and useful for excluding him from the election he would have likely won.
Derrick took his appeal to CAS … and lost. The wording of the CAS ruling is the important part here. After a remarkably long wait, CAS ruled that FIFA were procedurally correct in their decision – they, conveniently for FIFA, did not go so far as to rule that the initial reprimand was incorrect or even reason its correctness. In fact, there was no ruling on the ‘whole’ of the case before them. Instead they chose to rule on the authority FIFA had to make their ruling. Their spineless lack of commonsense justice has for Derrick compounded the situation – convenient for CAS, face-saving for FIFA and great for CONCACAF and its political objectives in the Caribbean.
A quick look at other cases shows the inequity/duplicity/political expedience (delete as appropriate) of the process as it concerned Derrick. Liberia’s Musa Bility was banned from standing for the FIFA presidency but welcomed with open arms on to CAF’s executive committee. UEFA’s Angel Maria Villar was disciplined and fined CHF 25,000 by FIFA Ethics but was still allowed to stand for the UEFA presidency and sits on FIFA’s Council. The common factor here is that Bility and Villar are both significant supporters of Infantino.
Derrick was reprimanded the price of a dinner for two with a cheap wine in a Zurich restaurant and is subsequently being pilloried from Aruba to Trindad via Canada, the Dominican Republic, Barbados, the Cayman Islands and Grenada. Is this FIFA’s ethics and value system in action?
With CFU members being pushed to make a stand and CONCACAF president Montagliani even separately briefing local journalists that Derrick must go because of the CAS ruling, plus the threats of “no money unless he goes”, fast forward the plot to Aruba, Trinidad and a trip on which the plot’s Caribbean ring leaders are visited by jet-loving Gianni on one of his ‘papal’ visits (this time his wife and mother weren’t accompanying him on the jet).
The full context for the visit is unclear – he shook hands of loyal supporters, met island leaders, was shielded from press questions by failing microphones and over-zealous guardians, came up with a curiously old-world definition of racism and how to combat it, opened a national training centre, probably kissed a few babies and of course played a football match (he scored the opening goal, one of the best seen by a FIFA president in the Caribbean).
What he didn’t do was contact or visit the CFU president, discuss the plans for a Caribbean Professional League or even enquire how the $1 million he had promised the CFU at the FIFA Congress in Mexico last May was going to be spent. What money? It hasn’t arrived yet but as Infantino theatrically remonstrated with pointy fingers and waving arms in Mexico City, “It is YOUR money.” But it appears only when he and his elite band of electioneers decide YOU can have it, and that comes with conditions.
The CFU Congress itself was an emotional affair. With Derrick withstanding a challenge to resign in the preceding executive committee meeting, Puerto Rico Football Association president Eric Labrador, (that really is his name and one presumes he was following his master’s orders) resigned from the executive committee on the floor of the congress. Since then First Vice-President Cheney Joseph, the Grenada Football Association boss, has also resigned. If the principal of their resignation is the principle of the CAS appeal then they probably haven’t taken the trouble to read the ruling or understand the case. Even the smartest attack canines generally look before they leap.
This tale is of course what politics is about. And this is all about politics and has little to do with football. Derrick has become the proverbial political football and has taken a bit of a kicking as a result of the personal ambitions of football’s new political elite and their use of their power and influence.
For the moment Derrick stays and the battle for Caribbean football’s self determination through its own elected union representatives continues, just. But it is a frontier under attack and being deliberately starved of cash by bullies with a non-football agenda.