President of the Caribbean Football Union – CFU, Gordon Derrick has successfully secured a second go-around as head of the organization.
Derrick beat President of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association David John-Williams and President of the US Virgin Islands Football Association Hillaren Frederick at the organisation’s General Congress held in Florida, which was attended by members of the Bermuda Football Association.
Derrick was barred by the FIFA ethics committee from contesting the CONCACAF election in April.
An article appearing on www.worldsoccer.com on July 19th and headlined in Bermuda a week later claims that a financial audit conducted on CFU by regional governing body CONCACAF showed liabilities of more than US $1 million.
According to Derrick, however, the article is “laced with inaccuracies”.
“It’s clearly a political article designed to cast aspersions and innuendoes at this time, so I understand it. I have been in this too long not to know when articles are done in a way to get a certain reaction. The article is laced with a lot of inaccuracies anyway and, like I said, the audited financial statements have been sent out to everybody and they have had them now for the last six weeks where the auditors have given us a clean bill of health,” he said.
The article further stated that an audit was carried out after the CFU told CONCACAF in December 2015 and January 2016 that it was unable to make what the confederation describes as ‘timely repayment’ of a $230,000 loan.
The probe reportedly unearthed that monthly payments of $45,000 to support the CFU’s administrative and overhead expenses had been made into a different account set up in Antigua & Barbuda on November 10, 2015.
Derrick, who was barred by the FIFA ethics committee from contesting the CONCACAF elections in April, rebutted that the CFU has grown significantly since he was elected four years ago.
Clearly the member countries of CFU were satisfied with the accounts and other issues as Derrick was re-elected.
The other members elected were: Cheney Joseph (Grenada) First Vice President; Rignaal
Francisca (Curacao) Second Vice President; Lyndon Cooper (St. Lucia) Third Vice President; Richard Dijkhoff (Aruba) Fourth Vice President; and Randolph Harris (Barbados), Eric Labrador (Puerto Rico), Bruce Blake (Cayman Islands), and Jeaninne Wong Loi Sing (Bonaire) Executive Committee Members.
The elections were conducted by CFU General Secretary Neil Cochrane, who was assisted by Marco Leal, CONCACAF’s Head of Member Associations and Legal Affairs. The scrutineers were drawn from the Dominican Republic, St. Martin and Suriname.
The elections, which were originally listed as the last item on the agenda, took place early after Puerto Rico successfully moved a motion to bring the process forward.
In accordance with the CFU Statues, the mandate of the new Executive Committee will begin after the conclusion of the Congress.
The official election results are:
President
Gordon Derrick (Antigua and Barbuda)
First Vice President
Cheney Joseph (Grenada)
Second Vice President
Rignaal Francisca (Curacao)
Third Vice President
Lyndon Cooper (St. Lucia)
Fourth Vice President
Richard Dijkhoff (Aruba)
Executive Committee Members
Bruce Blake (Cayman Islands)
Randolph Harris (Barbados)
Eric Labrador (Puerto Rico)
Jeaninne Wong Loi Sing (Bonaire)
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