Blatter wishes new Antigua football boss well

ST JOHN’S: Newly-elected president of the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association (ABFA), Mervyn Richards, has been congratulated by the man who heads the world governing body.  Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, offered his “best wishes” to Richards and his executive following their election on April 18, in a letter dated April 23.  “I would like to extend to you my deepest congratulations, as well as my best wishes of success at the helm of Antiguan football for the next four years,” the letter read. “After months of difficult times for the ABFA, you now have in front of you the complex but exciting task to help the football of your country to reach new heights and to regain the international recognition it deserves,” Blatter wrote.

“Your experience will constitute a huge asset for the family of Antiguan football.”  Blatter said he was looking forward to seeing Richards at the CONCACAF Congress in Grenada this weekend to discuss with him “projects for the future.” Richards will be accompanied to Grenada by his first vice-president Gatesworth James and Shelley Clarke, the third vice president.  Richards defeated Paul “Chet” Greene for the ABFA presidency by nine votes, six months after the elections should have taken place. FIFA had suspended the ABFA for about six months from last May after it said “a chaotic situation” existed because the protracted annual general meeting had failed on at least three attempts to elect an executive. The world body said they did not recognise the interim committee that was set by the ABFA council to run the sport after the former executive was dissolved.  Instead, FIFA set up a Normalisation Committee after it paid a visit to Antigua in September and then lifted the suspension a month later. The Normalisation Committee was mandated to revive the constitution and set the date for the elections, at which Richards and his team were elected two weeks ago.