Picture this. Veteran football association executive Jeffrey Webb, after a unanimous vote, becomes president of CONCACAF, and in effect, becomes FIFA vice-president. Webb was already a successful banker, managing risk and investment banking for Fidelity LTD., and a former president of the Cayman Islands FA. At 47, Webb was the youngest regional association leader. In 2013, FIFA president Sepp Blatter made him the chairman of the anti-discrimination task force.
Only two short months ago, Webb spoke with Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl about reforming CONCACAF, shaking it free of the cobwebs of corruption created by the former regime of Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer. “We started on a journey two-and-a-half years ago of really reforming our confederation and becoming the catalyst for real transition,” he told SI.
Webb talked about progress made in areas of youth and coaching development, as well as, ironically enough, improved transparency. And of course, he spoke about the legacy left behind by Blazer and Warner. You see, although CONCACAF’s regime changed, they still owed millions in back taxes. In fact, Bloomberg Business reported on just this in February. As has been well tread territory, Blazer and Warner did not file tax returns for themselves or the organization. Webb’s CONCACAF was still negotiating terms of restitution with the IRS.
Jeffrey Webb was supposed to be the breath of fresh air needed to clean up the image of the embattled confederation, that has only a few heavy hitters, and many smaller federations. It is often thought that if a FIFA presidential candidate had all the smaller Caribbean nations on his or her side, that they would never fall out of favor or lose a vote. In many ways, this is true.
During the last CONCACAF congress, many high ranking executives within the confederation, were publicly comparing FIFA president Blatter to Martin Luther King and other revolutionary figures in history. These comparisons were a bit erroneous, and there was Webb right at Blatter’s proverbial side.
On Wednesday morning, Webb was taken into custody to await extradition back to the USA to face racketeering charges. The breath of fresh air seems to be part of the dirty underbelly of the beautiful game after all.
Another interesting figure in the is NASL’s Board of Governors chairman Aaron Davidson. Davidson is president of Traffic Sports USA, the company that has a primary stake in the Carolina RailHawks. Interestingly enough Traffic has been shopping the RailHawks in order to sell their stake in the club. Traffic, after being a major investor in the NASL, has spent the last few year divesting their stake in the league, selling off their shares of every club they were involved with, except Carolina.
Unfortunately, the NASL may be caught with egg on their face after all is said and done. However, that has not stopped them from doing some damage control. According to sources, NASL has ceased all business partnership with Traffic Sports, and has suspended Davidson from the Board he has been chairman of.
Traffic Sports has been the commercial management company for a vast majority of CONCACAF’s competitions in the region, including the upcoming Gold Cup and Champions League, among others. It is still unclear how recent events will affect upcoming competitions. How far do the ripples caused by Traffic Sports’ allegations go? In England, Manchester United has reportedly denied any involvement with Traffic, although the agency lists United as one of it’s supporters.
One tournament that will not be affected by recent upheaval and allegations is the 2015 Women’s World Cup, being hosted by Canada. On a day of statements posted by seemingly every soccer organization in the area, the Canadian Soccer Association expressed their disappointment in Wednesday’s events, and their confidence that the upcoming tournament will not be affected.
However, the 2022 World Cup, awarded to Qatar, has been embattled since it’s announcement. Qatar has come under fire for multiple human rights violations. The number of worker deaths while building the stadiums that will be used for the event seem to be endless, and the creative minds in marketing have used the designs they’ve created for sponsors as spaces of protest.
A former marketing executive of a major sponsor told LWOS on Wednesday that whereas it is unlikely for his former employer to back out of their sponsorship contract, they could show their displeasure with the situation by applying “gentle” pressure to the organization. What is the nuclear option? “The sponsor could choose to honor the payment part of the contract, but not activate against the World Cup, to avoid blowback against the company and her brands. The Masters did this voluntarily a few years back, to protect its sponsors from protests surrounding its policy against admitting women. Gotta have deep pockets to do this.”
The former executive continued, “The U.S. Justice Department has the financial means and the historical tenacity to drag this out, and the longer it stays in the public consciousness, the worse it’ll be for all involved. I see no way that Blatter survives this long-term. The really interesting thing will be to see if Qatar loses the right to host the World Cup in 2022. I think that the sponsors are working hard behind the scenes as I type this to try to get the 2022 bid revoked and have the Cup move to a less controversial site.”
It seems far fetched that Qatar, no matter how ugly it gets, will be stripped of the World Cup. Qatar seems to be too entrenched politically to be stripped of the tournament. However, with the ongoing investigation by U.S. and Swiss officials, it seems unlikely that the result will be as “incomplete and erroneous” as a German Judge called the “independent investigation” conducted by Michael Garcia months ago.
One thing is clear, the US Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Loretta Lynch, is not done. They have seized documents and electronic records from FIFA’s offices in Zurich, along with an early morning raid on CONCACAF’s Miami offices. In a statement Wednesday morning, US Attorney Kelly Currie stated succintly, “Let me be clear: This is indictment is not the final chapter of our investigation.”
While FIFA plans to go on with their elections on Friday, 7 members of their executive board await extradition to face charges half a world away. It is unclear how long it will take for the officials to be brought to the US. In the meantime, Swiss officials have reportedly informed the remaining FIFA officials that they will not be allowed to leave the country until further notice. This may be because other indictments will be brought to light shortly. Sources in the legal profession told LWOS on Wednesday that it is very possible that charges will be brought against FIFA president Sepp Blatter, as well.
That said, this is clearly going to be a continuously developing story worth watching.
