By Paul Nicholson
February 9 – The battle for the presidency of CONCACAF has been raised a notch in intensity with the official announcement by Canadian FA president and CONCACAF executive committee member Victor Montagliani that he will run for election in May at the confederation’s congress in Mexico.
That Montagliani is running is no surprise as lobbying of member associations had already begun with US president Sunil Gulati being a powerful supporter. Both are understood to have been calling Caribbean members for their vote including rival candidate Larry Mussenden, president of the Bermuda FA, who it has been suggested should withdraw his candidacy.
Montagliani is the third candidate to announce for the election. The first to declare was Mark Rodriguez, a Guyanese football coach and businessman based in the US.
The Montagliani manifesto is based on what he says is the “root and branch” reform that CONCACAF desperately needs to “rebuild credibility with the football world”.
“As CONCACAF’s representative on FIFA’s 2016 Reform Committee and someone who lead a major reform project at my own FA in Canada, I know first-hand that successful ‘root and branch’ change is not easy. It takes time and requires full commitment at the highest levels of the organization to be successful. I also know such undertakings often come at a price and can result in short-term pain for an organization. In my experience however, the cost of doing nothing, or implementing inadequate change, is likely to be far higher,” said Montagliani in a letter to member associations.
For the voting members of CONCACAF the question will be what “price” is it that they have to pay for this reform?
Montagliani outlines eight key challenges for the confederation over the next four years including the development of the women’s game, a drive for more professional leagues, the bringing of the 2026 World Cup to the region, and suggesting a move to “aggregate and leverage our collective commercial assets”.
He also talks about establishing centres of coaching and refereeing excellence finding ways to “guarantee the sustainability of our competitions both commercially and on the field”.
With Montagliani in the running, it means that the four member North American Football Union has two of its members aiming for the presidency. Bermuda, although located in the Caribbean and playing in Caribbean Football Union competitions, had its political union switched to the North American block under Jeffrey Webb’s reign as CONCACAF president.
It will ultimately be the Caribbean that again holds the sway over who will be president as their 29 votes can dominate the 41 member association if they vote as a block. Previously this has meant they can get their own man elected though it is unclear who their man will be, though it is rumoured that CFU president Gordon Derrick is poised to announce his candidacy.
For Montagliani to win he will need to split the Caribbean and win significant regional support – getting Mussenden on to his side would be a significant start. Montagliani can pretty much count on the 100% support of the central American federations whose destinies are pretty much controlled by US influence in the region.
CONCACAF is hosting its member associations in Miami at the end of this week to further debate its reform proposals that will go forward to the extraordinary Congress for approval on February 25 in Zurich. The proposals have not been unanimously approved to date with Caribbean members concerned that they will dilute their influence and powerbase within a confederation that has become increasingly US and North American dominated following the arrest of former president Jeffrey Webb in May 2015 by US justice authorities in Zurich, and the arrest of interim president Alfredo Hawit similarly in December.
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