Horace Burrell to be appointed at CFU despite cash-for-votes scandal

By Andrew Warshaw

December 23 – Horace Burrell, the most high-profile Caribbean official sanctioned over the cash-for-votes scandal that led to the downfall of Mohamed Bin Hammam and Jack Warner, is to take up a prominent position in a revamped Caribbean Football Union (CFU).

Caribbean officials met the FIFA President, Sepp Blatter, this week to outline plans for regaining some kind of normality but the decision to appoint Burrell as one of a nine-man “Normalisation Committee” will raise further questions over the CFU’s credibility.

Burrell, President of the Jamaica Football Federation and first vice-president of the CFU for over a decade, was banned for six months, with three months suspended subject to a probationary period of two years.

Yet he will take up his new role in January when the ban ends.

Other members of the new committee are Ronaldo Jones, President of Barbados’ Football Association; Jean-Yves Bart of Haiti, Luis Hernandez of Cuba, Victor Daniel from Grenada, Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands, Larry Mussenden from Bermuda, Everton Gonsalves of Antigua and Barbuda plus Rignaal Francisca of Curaçao.

Warner, the former CFU President, resigned instead of facing a FIFA Ethics Committee probe over the infamous bribery scandal in Trinidad while Bin Hammam was banned from football for life and is appealing. Following an official investigation, a spate of CFU members were punished for their roles in the affair.

The new Normalisation Committee has a 10-point plan which must be completed no later than May 15 next year, including appointing a new general secretary following the decision by Angenie Kanhai to step down citing too much pressure.

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