NEW YORK, NY (CMC) – Former Barbados Chief Justice, Sir David Simmons, has been appointed to chair the newly formed Integrity Committee of Football’s regional governing body for North and Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF).

Simmons, who served as the 12th Chief Justice of Barbados from 2002 to 2010, will lead a three-member committee of representatives from each region of the confederation.
The other two members are Judge Ricardo Urbina, a retired United States District Court Judge for the District of Columbia and Ernesto Hempe, a retired partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers, who has over 30 years of financial experience.
“This meeting marks the beginning of the independent review process requested by members of the Confederation during the Congress in Budapest,” said CONCACAF President, Jeffrey Webb, following the committee’s first meeting in New York this week.
“We have invited the most qualified and reputable individuals in their fields to assist us in the fulfilment of our vision of integrity, transparency and accountability, which will help us build a transparent structure and allow our region to grow.”
The committee has been presented with CONCACAF’s Terms of Reference and will have the task to review and report past practices to the Executive Committee in order to ensure clarity regarding all pending issues within the confederation.
“It was beneficial to meet with President Jeffrey Webb and the other members of the Integrity Committee,” said Sir David Simmons.
“This was the first step towards an important process and I am pleased that CONCACAF is approaching such matters in a responsible manner as it sets an ethical standard for its new governance.”
The new CONCACAF Integrity Committee, created after the departures of former leaders Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer, will meet regularly over the coming months.
Warner resigned as CONCACAF president last year after Blazer accused Warner and then-Asian confederation head Mohamed bin Hammam of attempting to bribe Caribbean delegates to vote for Bin Hammam in the FIFA presidential election.
Blazer resigned as CONCACAF’s Secretary General in December.
Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands, who succeeded Warner in May, has said that an audit of CONCACAF will not be completed until next year.