Jack urges sport for world progress

FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has called for the CONCACAF region to continue working tirelessly to ensure that sport serves as a catalyst for world progress. He made the call at the CONCACAF Congress Hall of Fame dinner at the Grenada Trade Centre, St George’s, Grenada, where his organisation was hosting their 24th congress which ended on Sunday. Attending the congress were football bosses from all 40 CONCACAF member countries, South Korea, South Africa, Morocco, Scotland, Qatar, England and including FIFA president Joseph Sepp Blatter and his entourage. Also at the congress was South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu who stood in for ex-President Nelson Mandela, who returned home following news of the death of his first wife Evelyn Mase.

Warner spoke on the power of sport and urged all present and others involved in sport, particularly football, to place special emphasis on ensuring it would in some way create a positive effect on the lives of all, especially the youth. “We must look carefully at what sport can do to our lives and more so, football,” he said. “You may recall that when the Afghan war ended the first thing they did was to play a football match and that served as a healing process for them,” Warner said. The Trinidad and Tobago official is currently working with the English FA on a proposed Iraqi goodwill tour of England, during which Trinidad and Tobago will play an Iraq national team in West Bromwich, England, on May 23.

“While sport and football has this power, we who are its practitioners have an obligation which is to ensure that we deliver, maintain and treasure the product which is football. “I am sure many of us ask ourselves what the world would have been without a fax machine or a mobile telephone and internet service and you wonder how the world progressed in the past. “Now I ask you what would happen to this world if we had no sport and more so football. Let us all put our heads together to ensure that the power of sport is always positive. It must have a special effect worldwide,” Warner added.

At the Congress elections to positions on the respective executive committees and to FIFA were held. Both CONCACAF boss Warner and his secretary Chuck Blazer were returned  unopposed for another four-year term on the FIFA executive committee. CONCACAF vice-president Central American Zone Rafael Salguero (Guatemala) and North American Zone Guillermo Canedo (Mexico) were also re-elected unopposed to the executive committee. And Caribbean Zone member Captain Horace Burrell (Jamaica) became the newest executive committee member without any opposition. Special tribute was given to former deputy general secretary, Central America, Oscar Thamar (Guatemala) who recently retired after 30 years. Also, three African nations, Egypt, Morocco and South Africa made presentations of their respective bids to host FIFA World Cup 2010.