BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – INFORMATION reaching SKNVibes states that the FIFA Ethics Committee has today (Aug. 11) opened proceedings against 16 officials of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), including Anthony Johnson, President of the St. Kitts and Nevis Football Association (SKNFA).
The proceedings against the 16 officials are in regards to apparent violations of FIFA’s Code of Ethics concerning the ongoing investigation into the alleged offering of some US$1M in cash bribes to 25 Caribbean football officials by Warner and bin Hammam during the CFU conference held at the Hyatt Hotel in Trinidad on May 9 and 10, 2011.
In addition to Johnson, the other CFU officials are David Hinds and mark Forde of Barbados; Franka Pickering and Aubrey Liburd of the British Virgin Islands; David Frederick of the Cayman Islands; Osiris Guzman and Felix Ledesma of the Dominican Republic; Colin Klass and Noel Adonis of Guyana; Yves Jean-Bart of Haiti; Patrick Mathurin of St. Lucia; Joseph Delves and Ian Hypolite of St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Richard Groden of Trinidad and Tobago; and Hillaren Frederick of the US Virgin Islands.
Shortly before press time, SKNVibes contacted Johnson for his pronouncement on the recent development and was told that he was in receipt of a document from FIFA, but it was unread at the time and he would provide a comment at a later date.
Following the receipt of specific information, the Chairman of the Ethics Committee, Claudio Sulser of Switzerland, had suspended Guyana’s Colin Klass from participating in any football-related activity.
His suspension follows the one-year ban of Barbados’ Lisle Austin from also taking part in any football-related activity, which was administered on Tuesday (Aug. 9) by FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee under the chairmanship of Switzerland’s Marcel Mathier.
Austin was banned for lodging a claim related to football matters in front of the ordinary courts in the Bahamas, which constitutes a breach of article 64 paragraph two of the FIFA Statutes.
He was provisionally suspended by Mathier on July 4, 2011, the date from which the one-year ban will be counted.
The Disciplinary Committee also decided that should Austin not withdraw the claim lodged in front of the ordinary courts in the Bahamas definitively and irrevocably, he would remain banned from taking part in any kind of football-related activity at national and international level in accordance with article 22 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code for as long as the legal proceedings in ordinary courts are pursued.
The one-year ban however is to be served independently from such possible withdrawal.
Last week when this media house contacted Johnson for a comment on the 48 hours given by FIFA for CFU officials to explain their part in the conference held in Trinidad, he said that SKNFA has cooperated with FIFA’s Ethics Committee and would continue to do so.
“We have in the past cooperated with the FIFA Ethics Committee in their investigation and we will remain committed to doing so in the future. That really is the gist of our position and I don’t really wish to add anything further to that,” Johnson said.
When the bribery scandal broke in May, like many other CFU members, the SKNFA distanced itself from it and subsequently issued a press release on June 6 acknowledging FIFA’s investigation but noted none of its officials was named in the scandal.
“The investigation is centered around four (4) individuals none of whom are SKNFA officials. The SKNFA has not been advised of any investigation against the organisation or any of its officials in relation to the said allegations.
“Further, the SKNFA wishes to place on record that our organisation was not at any time offered nor did we receive any bribe or other such inducement in connection with the FIFA Presidential Elections.
“However, we do appreciate that as a member of CFU, the SKNFA will be indirectly impacted by the investigation, but at the same time it does not involve or affect us directly,” the release read.
FIFA’s investigation is premised on evidence provided by officials from the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands, who said they were offered brown envelopes containing four piles of US$100 bills.
Meanwhile, the information also states that the Ethics Committee would contact the 16 CFU officials to arrange further interviews into the alleged bribery scandal.
