THE BARBADOS FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION (BFA) has distanced itself from bribery allegations that have resulted in the suspension of Austin “Jack” Warner as vice-president of football’s world governing body FIFA.
BFA council member Mark “Bob” Forde said yesterday no approaches were made to the Barbados delegation which attended the Caribbean Football Union’s (CFU) May 10-11 meeting, where it was claimed that more than $80 000 was handed over to certain CFU members to vote for Asian football chief Mohamed bin Hammam for FIFA’a presidency in tomorrow’s scheduled elections.
Responding to the question of whether or not any bribes were offered to the BFA through its representatives, Forde told the DAILY NATION: “There was none of that to us. That’s as far as I would go.
“We [BFA] are not commenting on the situation,” he added.
Efforts to reach the BFA president, Minister of Education Ronald Jones, for further comment proved futile yesterday.
Forde, along with BFA general secretary David Hinds, attended the controversial meeting that has been cited as part of allegations of wrongdoing by Warner and Hammam, who along with CFU officials Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester have been suspended by FIFA’s ethics committee pending an investigation.
Efforts to reach Hinds for comment were unsuccessful. Hinds is reported to be part of a three-member BFA?delegation attending a FIFA congress in Switzerland.
With Warner’s suspension, vice president Barbadian Lisle Austin has been named as the acting president of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF).
Meanwhile, former BFA general secretary Randy Harris described the football scandal as unfortunate and said he hoped Warner would be exonerated.
Harris credited Warner’s selection as head of CONCACAF with English-speaking territories getting aid from FIFA.
“I would still hope that he [Warner] would not find himself kicked out of FIFA,” he said.
Bin Hammam had been expected to run against FIFA?president Sepp Blatter in tomorrow’s presidential election but withdrew after he and Warner faced the ethics committee. (TS)
