FIFA bans four Caribbean officials, including candidate to replace Jack Warner

By Andrew Warshaw

October 14 – Exactly a week before FIFA President Sepp Blatter unveils his eagerly anticipated anti-corruption plans, the infamous cash-for-votes scandal claimed four more senior officials tonight in the conspiracy’s latest raft of sanctions.

As Caribbean football was plunged into disgrace, FIFA’s Ethics Committee banned four prominent members of the region and reprimanded eight others for their roles in the events of last May in Trinidad when Mohamed Bin Hammam, then a FIFA Presidential challenger to Blatter, offered $40,000 to delegates of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU).

Bin Hammam was subsequently banned from football for life – a sentence against which he is now appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport – while the then head of CONCACAF, Jack Warner, was also charged with bribery but resigned rather than face an Ethics Committee hearing. Warner was FIFA’s longest serving vice-president and had been embroiled in a series of earlier controversies.

During this week’s hearing, the Ethics Committee watched a video of Warner apparently telling his fellow Caribbeans it was fine to accept the cash gifts.

The heaviest of today’s punishments was meted out to Franka Pickering (pictured) of the British Virgin Islands, one of the most senior women in world football who heads her federation.

She was barred for 18 months from taking part in any football-related activity and fined 500 Swiss francs.

But arguably the most eye-catching and controversial sanction was delivered to Horace Burrell, the highly prominent head of Jamaican football and a long-time ally of Warner.

Burrell was banned for six months, with three months suspended subject to a probationary period of two years.

He will now have to automatically withdraw his candidacy in the CFU presidential election scheduled for next month.

Burrell, first vice-president of the CFU for over a decade, had been favourite to replace Warner on November 20, leading a list of four nominees for the top post in Caribbean football.

The other three candidates are fellow Jamaican Tony James, Antigua’s Gordon Derrick and Trinidad and Tobago’s Harold Taylor.

Osiris Guzman of the Dominican Republic and Ian Hypolite of St. Vincent and the Grenadines were both barred for 30 days, with 15 suspended, subject to a probationary period of six months. Both were also fined a token 300 Swiss francs.

Reprimands and fines were also issued to Aubrey Liburd of the British Virgin Islands and Hillaren Frederick of the US Virgin Islands while Anthony Johnson of St Kitts and Nevis received a reprimand.

David Hinds and Mark Bob Forde from Barbados, Richard Groden from Trinidad & Tobago, Yves Jean-Bart from Haiti and Horace Reid from Jamaica received the lesser offence of a warning.

Felix Ledesma, from the Dominican Republic, was cleared while the hearing of Guyana’s Noel Adonis was postponed and more information requested in the case of St Lucia’s Patrick Mathurin.

The cases of David Frederick, from the Cayman Islands, and Joseph Delves, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, were closed since they are no longer football officials.

But should they return to football official positions, their cases would be examined again.

The sentences were announced following a week-long hearing into the conduct of 15 Caribbean officials whose cases were heard by four members of the Ethics Committee – chairman Claudio Sulser, Robert Torres, José Pedro Damiani and Les Murray.

They were told that the 15, only a few of whom actually appeared at FIFA headquarters in Zurich where the hearing took place, either took money or obstructed the inquiry that led to the life ban of bin Hammam, former Asian Football Confederation chief, and the resignation of the equally influential Warner.

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