NEW YORK CITY, CMC – American Ted Howard will act in the post of general secretary of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Football.
CONCACAF announced on Monday that Howard was officially named acting general secretary to replace compatriot Chuck Blazer in the position.
Blazer, who blew the lid off the cash-for-votes scandal that bedevilled the game in the Caribbean in the second half of last year, announced last October that he would be stepping down from the position at the end of last year.
Howard has been CONCACAF deputy general secretary over the last 13 years. He served as director and group manager of NBA Marketing from 1988 until joining CONCACAF a decade later.
He was also executive director of the North American Soccer League from 1971 until it folded in 1984.
Howard’s appointment maintained the strong American influence at its corporate offices and his primary challenge will be to restore the image that was tarnished from the fallout of the chas-for-votes scandal.
CONCACAF still has to appoint a full-time President to replace Trinidad & Tobago’s Jack Warner, since Honduran Alfredo Hawit is currently doing the job on an interim basis.
Warner resigned from the post at the height of the bribery scandal after he facilitated a meeting in Port of Spain last May at which Mohamed Bin Hammam was alleged to have offered US $1 million to Caribbean Football Union officials in exchange for votes in last June’s FIFA presidential candidate election. Warner resigned all of his posts in the game, including CFU President and FIFA Vice President, and FIFA dropped their investigation into his part in the scandal on the condition that he stay away from football.
Several CFU officials were suspended, fined or reprimanded, while Asian Football Association President Bin Hammam was banned for life. Barbadian Lisle Austin, Warner’s elected CONCACAF deputy, was suspended for a year after illegally trying to fire Blazer in the wake of the scandal.
