PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Trinidadian Harold Taylor, a Caribbean Football Union (CFU) presidential candidate, claims that the recent decision by football presidents to form a Normalisation Committee to execute various tasks on behalf of the CFU is illegal.
“It’s unconstitutional. You can’t call a meeting of presidents and then turn it into a CFU Congress. The CFU statutes state that to have a CFU Congress there must be at least two elected members present. There was none. (Sepp) Blatter is talking about cleaning up FIFA of corruption, but Blatter is back to his crookedness because he is supporting people who are acting contrary to the CFU statutes,” Taylor told the Trinidad Express.
Well-known personalities Horace Burrell, Ronald Jones and Yves Jean-Bart were among nine administrators appointed to restore the CFU to normalcy over the next five months.
Burrell, the suspended president of the Jamaica Football Federation, who will regain his status on January 16 next year; Jones, president of the Barbados Football Association and also Barbados’ Minister of Education; and Jean-Bart of Haiti are the three most recognisable figures on the nine-member Normalisation Committee appointed during an Extraordinary Congress of the CFU at FIFA headquarters in Zurich on Tuesday and Wednesday.
They have been joined by Luis Hernandez of Cuba, Victor Daniel from Grenada, Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands, Larry Mussenden from Bermuda, Everton Gonsalves of Antigua & Barbuda and Rignaal Francisca of Curaçao to execute a number of tasks to return the CFU to equilibrium following the fall-out from the cash-for-votes scandal that rocked the regional governing body earlier this year.
Several high-ranking officials in the regional game, principally CFU president Jack Warner, either stepped away from the game, suffered suspension imposed by FIFA, the sport’s world governing body, fines, or reprimands.
Taylor, a former CFU general secretary, is one of three candidates vying for the post of CFU president, along with Jamaican Tony James and Derrick Gordon of Antigua. The CFU’s Extraordinary Congress to elect a new president and executive was due to take place in Montego Bay, Jamaica on November 20 but was postponed due to a lack of funding.
Taylor remains defiant, stating he is still a candidate for CFU president regardless of what FIFA does.
“I am going nowhere. I am still a candidate. They can appoint whatever committee they want. At some time they still have to hold a CFU Congress to elect a new president and members,” Taylor told the Express.
The Normalisation Committee has a ten-point plan on which to work, leading to elections for a new CFU Executive Committee no later than May 15 next year.
The Committee will perform the functions of the CFU Executive Committee until elections are held.
It is also expected to appoint an interim CFU general secretary and review new CFU statutes to be proposed by the CFU Legal Committee.
Leaders of 30 national associations attended the meeting.
