Count me out – former SVGFF general secretary

A former general secretary of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation (SVGFF) has refuted statements that he had knowledge of World Cup soccer tickets issued to the Federation in 2014.

Trevor Huggins made the denial following statements made by Marvin Fraser, acting president of the SVGFF at a press conference on Wednesday, July 4.

At that event, Fraser disclosed that former president Venold Coombs and the general secretary at the time had knowledge of the ticket details.

“The issue came about because the Executive allowed that situation to be dealt with by the president and by the general secretary at the time,” Fraser stated.

Huggins was the General Secretary of the SVGFF until his suspension in August 2015 and subsequent dismissal by Coombs.

Huggins, in a letter sent to Fraser on Wednesday, July 11 and copied to affiliates of the SVGFF and the media, distanced himself from any involvement with the sales of the World Cup tickets.

“It seem (sic) as if you want to tarnish my repetition (sic) by dragging me into the whole World Cup ticket issue… Let me make it abundantly clear that I was not in charge with the then president for the tickets,” Huggins wrote.

Huggins added, “The then President was totally in charge of such…. There were (sic) very little discussion on the World Cup ticket during executive meeting, everything regarding the tickets were (sic) kept secret by the sole person.”

Fraser at the press conference affirmed: “Other executive members knew that World Cup tickets were being sold, but we did not get involved in how much they would have been sold for…. We did not get into that issue.”

“If you look at a lot of the meetings, minutes pertaining to discussions on the tickets sales and stuff, I was absent from those meetings,” Fraser noted.

However, Huggins dismissed Fraser’s claim of being absent from such meetings.

He said that the Minutes of executive meetings would show that Fraser was present.

Taking a moral stance, Huggins said: “I can make these Minutes available to the media, however, this is not my style.”

Coombs was banned and fined US$40,000 after he was found guilty of having violated article 21 which deals with Bribery and Corruption, article 19 – Conflicts of Interest and article 15 (Loyalty) of the FIFA Code of Ethics.
Coombs’ ban and fine were in relation to his involvement in the sale of World Cup tickets ahead of the FIFA finals 2014 in Brazil.

The investigatory chamber of FIFA ethics committee analyzed allegations that Coombs had sold tickets purchased by the SVGFF and by him personally, in his capacity as a FIFA standing committee member, “for a profiteering mark-up”.

Since Coombs’ ban, Fraser, who was elected the SVGFF’s second vice president since September, 2011, has taken over as acting president.