CHAIRMAN of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Normalisation Committee Clinton Urling says that the sport of football cannot continue to live under the current suspicion of corruption.Urling, speaking yesterday during a press conference at the body’s Section K Campbellville head office said that the recent upheaval at the regional and international level has caused the sport to be taken with a pinch of salt.
“Football cannot survive under the current cloud of suspicion, mistrust and the perception that prevail in the public long term. Football on the field will always survive, you know we have a slogan that says let football play and football can always be played but there are other dimensions to football.
“The administrative part of it is important and that’s where we seem to be having all the trouble; everybody wants to be in charge but nobody wants to discharge the ethical responsibilities that are required to do so,” Urling pointed out.
The Normalisation chairman added that he was shocked by the recent arrests of Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Associations of Football (CONCACAF) president Jeffrey Webb as well as several others.
“For us at the federation, all the allegations especially the ones relating to the CONCACAF officials came as a huge shock and surprise for us,” the football boss added.
He further noted, “His arrest (Webb) has created an enormous vacuum in the CONCACAF family; he has since been dismissed from the position and has been replaced temporarily by acting president Alfredo Hawit (the general secretary of the Honduras association) and he is being supported by a small committee – a committee of three which will ensure that competitions that are or were planned under CONCACAF will continue.
“The members that will run will come from the Mexican federation, I know the United States federation and the Canadian federation.”
Urling contended that the recent indication by FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Monday to resign was also something that came as a shocker.
“Tuesday’s announcement (by Blatter) was prodigious, that was a colossal surprise for everybody.”
Blatter was elected for a fifth term in office last Friday after he beat out challenger Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, the candidate that Guyana chose to vote for. Urling explained that this was due to the fact that reform was needed, especially at the top.
“We made it public that we supported Prince Ali’s candidacy. The decision for us came down to who we felt best would take global football forward. I don’t believe that Mr Blatter is corrupt, I don’t think the institution called FIFA itself, based on my observations, is as corrupt as the media portrays it to be but Mr Blatter being president of FIFA, we felt that his moving forward as president would have created or sent mixed signals and also presented an ominous situation for other member associations where we would have been judged harshly as being perceived as one of these corrupt organisations led by Mr Blatter,” Urling said.

NO DEALS!
When quizzed if Guyana was offered any extra deals by any of the two contenders during the recent election, Urling responded in the negative.
“No. It’s ludicrous to even consider that either Mr Blatter or Prince Ali would offer a bride to any MA (member association) favours in return for a vote,” Urling bluntly refuted.
“I’ve never heard of that happening and I can tell you outright, it has not happened and if it had happened then we would have out-rightly rejected it and made a public pronouncement,” the local business man said.
Urling was also asked about the possibility of Guyanese officials being implicated in any of the scandals but responded by saying that he had no clue who the United States Department of Justice is pursuing.
He has, however, said that there will be more arrests in the coming days and the recent arrests were “just the tip of the iceberg”.
The recent scandals rocking the sport at the regional and international level have seen several high-ranking members of FIFA and CONCACAF arrested over allegations ranging from racketeering and conspiracy to corruption and bribery. Blatter says that a special meeting will be held between December 2015 and March 2016 to appoint his successor.

By Stephan Sookram