BARBADOS Football Association (BFA) president Ronald Jones will be involved in a major election today, Tuesday in Hungary.
Jones, who is also Barbados’ Minister of Education is among four regional football administrators battling for the post of president as the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) write a new chapter in its history when members vote for a new executive committee at the XXXV Ordinary Congress in Budapest.
Antiguan Gordon Derrick, Cuban Luis Hernandez and Trinidadian Harold Taylor are vying with Jones for the top CFU post, which will signal a new phase in the post- Jack Warner era of football administration in the region.
Warner, a former FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF president, led the CFU for 21 years before resigning last year amidst corruption allegations at the height of the cash-for-vote scandal.
The scandal decimated the CFU and resulted in FIFA imposing bans and suspensions on several Caribbean officials.
Accompanying Jones on the trip to Hungary are BFA’s general secretary David Hinds and junior vice president Basil Gittens, who is also a Board member of the National Sports Council.
Football’s world governing body, FIFA, and CONCACAF, the governing body for football in North, Central America and the Caribbean, will also hold their annual Congresses in Budapest this week, along with the CFU.
Cayman Islands Football Association president Jeffrey Webb, who is the lone nominee for the post of CONCACAF president, explained that the CFU had accepted FIFA’s proposal to hold the Congresses simultaneously because of time and budgetary constraints.
“Conducting an election is of paramount importance in stabilizing the Union and while the Finance and Legal Committees are still trying to ascertain the true financial position of the Union, the business of the various Associations and Members must progress for the good of the game,” Webb pointed out. (EZS-CMC)
