BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – Caribbean Football Union president Gordon Derrick believes the organisation has turned the corner and is poised to take off yet again.

The governing body was left in disarray following the cash-for-votes scandal three years ago and subsequently underwent a change of leadership and an overall restructuring.
Derrick said CFU was now a stable entity again and was anxious to regain its place in the football world.
“Slowly but surely the CFU will continue to be solidified. In fact, I think we have solidified now so we’re now back to the building stage to really put our stamp on the CONCACAF region,” Derrick told CMC Sports in a recent interview.
“My hope and my vision is that in short order – within ten years – to become a dominant region within CONCACAF that any tournament that is being played, Caribbean teams will be mentioned in the finals with the possibility of actually winning some of these tournaments.”
Derrick took over the reins of the tournament in 2012, following the resignation of then long-serving FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF president Jack Warner.
Several Caribbean associations were implicated in the corruption scandal, resulting in bans and fines for various regional administrators.
However, Derrick said many of the CFU members were finding their feet again and were also looking to make strides. He said an emphasis on youth football would be key to football development in these countries.
“The majority of the countries are doing well. There are one or two, whom we have to give some assistance to, but the important thing is to start and once you start … you can constantly improve. Once you’re doing that you can only get better,” Derrick explained.
“Youth football must be important. We must make it an important event. Once it becomes important, sponsors come on board, parents come on board, everybody comes on board and the quality of the product will definitely improve so a lot of countries are concentrating on that.”
He added: “CONCACAF is putting a lot of money into grassroots development. We have started our coaching licences … so we now have a unified licensing programme throughout the whole of CONCACAF and CFU so all that will help for the further and future development of the sport.”
Derrick said the establishment of the Women’s Caribbean Cup, which kicked off Friday across the region, was testament of the development taking place in CFU.
“We’ve never had this before at the senior level and that is something we have instituted to show our real commitment to women and the development of women in football itself,” he said.
“It’s going to be a qualifier for the Women’s World Cup and an Olympic qualifier so we have a lot of football going.”