By Paul Nicholson in Rio de Janeiro
June 19 – Justino Compeán, Mexican vice-president of Concacaf, says the biggest challenge facing his confederation still lies in the Caribbean – two years after the cash-for-votes scandal that rocked CONCACAF to the core. But, he says, the organisation is in safer hands than ever under its increasingly influential president Jeffrey Webb.
Compeán, head of the Mexican FA, has been an outspoken voice and was one of the first members of Concacaf’s executive committee to highlight the misconduct of the confederation’s former general secretary Chuck Blazer.
Blazer was suspended by FIFA last month, five days after publication of a Concacaf integrity report which accused both him and former Concacaf president Jack Warner of being “fraudulent” in the way they ran the body for the best part of a generation. The report specifically accused Blazer of having received $20 million in compensation, mostly through commission fees, despite having no contract with his confederation from 1998.
Although he lost out by one vote to Sunil Gulati for a place on Fifa’s executive committee, Compean believes Concacaf is collectively only going one way – forwards.
“I am very happy with the new CONCACAF,” he told InsideWorldFootball ahead of Mexico’s Confederations Cup encounter with Brazil on Wednesday. “The confederation is now open to everyone. Most of us have been appointed to committees covering areas like finance, audit and governance, the World Cup. This new transparency is a very important step for our confederation.”
“Jeffrey Webb has started to make the changes we needed. This has been a big challenge. The integrity report was important. Not everyone wanted this, we know, but it had to happen.”
Yet some of the old challenges remain, particularly in the development of football in the Caribbean, plus governance of the game, especially around financial distribution. On this Compeán is unequivocal. “No more money will be lost in the Caribbean. They will have to account for everything properly. This is clear.”
The bigger picture for the Caribbean region is actually developing football. “They need everything,” Compean said. “They don’t even have enough pitches because it is financially better to put a hotel resort on the land than a football team. “They are strong athletes, there is a lot of talent. They could do very well.”
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