FIFA swooping down on CFU

World governing Football body, FIFA is determined to tighten the noose on Caribbean Football Union (CFU) members and, last week, banned Guyanese Colin Klass for two years and two months for his part in a bribery scandal involving former presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hammam.{{more}}

Klass, the President of the Guyana Football Association, was found guilty of three breaches of FIFA’s code of ethics, including confidentiality rules and not disclosing evidence of violations of conduct.

FIFA expelled Klass through October 2013 and also fined him 5,000 Swiss francs (US$5,500). Klass can appeal the ban.

Klass, a close ally of former CFU and CONCACAF boss, Trinidadian Austin “Jack” Warner, will lose his seat on FIFA’s Futsal and beach soccer committee and the presidency of Guyana’s football federation, which he has led since 1989.

Klass’ suspension stems from an Extraordinary Meeting of the CFU, which took place at the Hyatt Hotel in Trinidad and Tobago, May 10 and 11, this year, arranged by Warner, in which fifteen Caribbean officials are suspected of accepting US$40,000 in cash payments to back bin Hammam’s challenge to FIFA President Sepp Blatter at the May 31 FIFA elections.

Bin Hammam was banned for life by a FIFA Ethics panel in July and lost his appeal last week.

Warner, who led the regional body for thirty years, and who was to have faced the Ethics Committee to answer charges in the scandal, resigned in June as a FIFA Vice President, the head of CONCACAF and CFU.

Subsequently, all allegations against Warner were dropped.

Also perishing in the scandal was Barbadian Lisle Austin, who FIFA banned for one year after he went to court in the Bahamas to try to force through his claim to succeed Warner as President of the CONCACAF Confederation.

Also last week, reports are that FIFA officials were seen at the Center of Excellence, located at Macoya in Trinidad and Tobago, which also houses the offices of CONCACAF Development Officer Darryl Warner.

The younger Warner is the son of former CFU and CONCACAF Boss Austin “Jack Warner.

It is expected that Daryl Warner will lose his post in the continued shake up of the confederation.

The CFU, which is made up of 25 members, represents the majority share in CONCACAF, as the power struggle continues to divide the region and blunt its potence. (RT)