Jeffrey Webb elected CONCACAF President promising accountability and transparency

By Andrew Warshaw in Budapest

May 23 – Jeffrey Webb was formally elected the new President of FIFA’s scandal-hit Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) region today, saying he was “truly humbled and honoured” to lead the organisation and promising a new era of accountability and transparency.

As first reported several months ago by insideworldfootball, Webb (pictured above) – President of the Cayman Islands Football Association – was the only candidate running for the post and took over from Trinidad and Tobago’s disgraced former FIFA senior vice-president Jack Warner (pictured below) who resigned all of his positions last summer during the ongoing cash-for-votes scandal involving Caribbean members.

Speaking slowly but passionately at the 35-nation body’s annual Congress here in the Hungarian capital, Webb said he would leave no stone unturned to overcome CONCACAF’s problems and restore the organisation’s trustworthiness and credibility following last year’s cash-for-votes scandal involving Caribbean members.

“We are at a crossroads,” said Webb.

“We are a family and like any family we have our issues but, also like any family, we can find a way through.

“We must move the clouds and let the sunshine in.

“It’s a new day for CONCACAF, a new chapter.

“Let us embrace this chapter.

“Our past will not define us; we will define our future.

“We must decide our destiny.

“We have a responsibility to make sure the past will never be repeated.

“How did we get here?

“How did I allow us to get here?

“How did you allow us to get here?

“How do we pick up the pieces, dust ourselves off and decide this is not going to define us?

“I wish the story was better but it is not.

“What has our focus been?

“Politics.

“Economics.

“Now let’s focus on our core responsibility which is football.

“We must reform our confederation.”

FIFA President Sepp Blatter (pictured right, with Webb), who preceded Webb on the podium, praised him as a “clear and clean” man with a Presidential style.

“The credibility of CONCACAF is back,” said Blatter who tomorrow will take the floor to the entire 208-member FIFA membership at its own annual congress.

If Webb thought he would get through his opening speech without controversy, however, he was very much mistaken.

Within minutes of him taking the floor, the organisation’s tarnished past came back to haunt them big-time as speaker after speaker denounced what appeared to be serious financial wrongdoing under the previous regime of Warner and former CONCACAF general secretary Chuck Blazer, who stepped down in December but it is still a member of the FIFA Executive Committee.

Astonishing revelations of tax evasion and misappropriation of funds completely overshadowed Webb’s election which could not have got off to a more uncomfortable start.

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