Jack on delegation to examine Antigua’s slow pace of change

A joint FIFA/CONCACAF delegation, including FIFA Vice-President Jack Warner, is heading for Antigua and Barbuda this weekend to assess that country’s restructuring of their football administration. The two-day trip will address concerns that the Normalisation Committee appointed to oversee the sport’s administrative restructuring after a FIFA ban, may not be functioning efficiently. “I am not too pleased with the pace at which they are going,” Caribbean Football Union (CFU) General Secretary Harold Taylor told CMC Sport yesterday. “It’s about time we get there to assess what the committee has done so far and to see what direction we could give to ensure that they complete the exercise within a reasonable time,” Taylor added.

Taylor, Warner, Deputy General-Secretary of FIFA Jerome Champagne, and FIFA Executive Member Senes Erzik, are travelling tomorrow to meet with the Antigua Football Association (AFA) officials. The FIFA Emergency Committee had imposed a suspension on the AFA — which was lifted in October — on the grounds of administrative irregularities, citing a “chaotic” situation in the administration of the game that prevented the national association from “assuming its duties correctly”. Taylor said there are fresh concerns now that the Normalisation Committee may not be carrying out procedures agreed on in a November meeting. “We decided on a procedure and after we decided on a procedure, it looks as if somewhere along the line they decided to change. “We gave them some deadlines.

They are supposed to do a new statute and supposed to have elections towards the end of February and they are supposed to put systems in place to ensure accountability and transparency, that committee has been working since November,” Taylor said. Antigua and Barbuda were denied from contesting in the Olympic qualifiers last year because of the FIFA ban but are now clear to contest in the World Cup qualifiers this year. They will play Netherlands Antilles in the first round of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers in February.