The call by Jamaica's candidate for the presidency of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), Tony James, for greater transparency on the part of FIFA with regard to the bans, suspensions and warnings handed out to a number of CFU officials has great merit to it. Last week, FIFA expanded the number of sanctions taken against CFU officials in the matter related to the alleged giving and accepting of bribes from then FIFA presidential candidate, Mohamed bin Hammam, allegedly aided and abetted by former CFU president and FIFA vice president Jack Warner. With the world football body having spent quite an amount of time and money investigating the allegations and making several statements on the matter, "now they have to follow up with a press release indicating what they have done and why they have done it.
People have been guessing and it shouldn't be like that. FIFA should explain why X person has been banned for X time," states Mr James. We join cause with Mr James because FIFA, notwithstanding its all-powerful nature, is ultimately an organisation of member football associations and so has a major responsibility to those organisations. So too does the governing body of football have a responsibility to the hundreds of millions of football fans who are the very reason why football is a multi-billion dollar industry, perhaps one of the largest and most country-representative in the world.
We are all now very familiar with the bribery allegations made against the CFU officials including Mr Warner, who was then FIFA vice president and Mr bin Hammam, who was contesting the presidency of FIFA against the incumbent Sepp Blatter. There is also the promise of Mr Warner to "tell all" at the appropriate time with regard to the practices of FIFA across national boundaries over many decades. As Mr James has rightly said, there is need for transparency, clarity and reason in the statements from FIFA on the actions taken against several CFU officials. This requirement for clarity becomes even more urgent because of the allegations by Mr Warner that what FIFA is doing is seeking to severely weaken the CFU member states in football.
Among other allegations, Mr Warner claims that by year end, FIFA plans to remove its development office from Trinidad and has already, through an unnamed official, relocated the CFU office from Port-of-Spain to Miami; the outcome being that any Caribbean official wanting to be at CFU meetings must have a US visa. This latter move would appear to be a case of the business of the Caribbean being determined outside of the region.
Most importantly, separate and apart from the contentions against CFU officials, we call on FIFA to tell the region immediately if it will be penalised in terms of the development of its football because a few CFU officials have been accused of corrupt activity. If this is so, it would be manifestly unfair, unacceptable, unwarranted and against the norms of natural justice to penalise the development of football in an entire region-including the relocation of the CFU office-because of the alleged misdeeds of a few. Mr Blatter must know that Caribbean peoples will not take easily any unwarranted attacks against the football prospects of the region.
Surely football development in the region must not be subject to conflict between parent body FIFA and a few football officials of the Caribbean. Moreover, it must be recognised that the CFU has membership associations of 25 countries which cannot and must not be penalised without reason.
This responsibility for transparency and accountability goes beyond whether Mr Warner and all the accused CFU officials were guilty or not, in some form or manner, of participating in illegal activities at the May meeting of the CFU here with Mr bin Hammam. In giving each FIFA members the vote, the organisation has accepted the status of the member countries and its citizens as participants in the football family. FIFA has an obligation to treat all members of the family with fairness, balance and objectivity.