Music: {allcanada} Canada's top soccer man named to committee to oversee CONCACAF

Thursday, May 28, 2015

{allcanada} Canada's top soccer man named to committee to oversee CONCACAF

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TORONTO - Victor Montagliani, president of the Canadian Soccer Association, has been named to a special CONCACAF committee charged with "evaluating and sustaining" all of the confederation's business operations of the wake of FIFA's mushrooming corruption scandal.

CONCACAF, which covers North and Central America and the Caribbean, was prominent in the indictments announced Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Justice.

CONCACAF's Executive Committee has "provisionally dismissed" president Jeffrey Webb and Eduardo Li and named senior vice-president Alfredo Hawit as CONCACAF president.

Webb, a FIFA vice-president from the Cayman Islands, and Li, head of the Costa Rican football federation, are facing charges that carry up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Julio Rocha of Nicaragua was also indicted.

Jack Warner, a former CONCACAF president and FIFA vice-president from Trinidad and Tobago, was also arrested.

FIFA suspended 11 people, including Webb, from all soccer-related activities.

"While we are profoundly disappointed by the allegations made by authorities that again, CONCACAF has been the victim of fraud, we remain committed to CONCACAF's goal to develop, promote and manage the game of soccer," Hawit said in a statement Thursday.

"We have now taken the appropriate steps to maintain our operations and continue to deliver on our commitments to all of our constituents, including our fans, members, as well as commercial and broadcast partners. We also continue to co-operate with the ongoing investigation by governmental authorities, which have not placed any restrictions on our ongoing activities."

Canada's Montagliani is joined on the special committee by Justino Compean, president of the Mexican Soccer Federation and Sunil Gulati, president of the U.S. Soccer Federation.

Montagliani, currently in Zurich for the FIFA Congress, was elected president of the CSA in 2012. He was a CSA vice-president for three terms, and has been a member of its executive committee since 2005.

The native of Burnaby, B.C., was appointed to FIFA's Legal Committee in 2012. One of 27 standing committees, it analyses basic legal issues relating to football and the evolution of FIFA's statutes and regulations.

The CONCACAF Executive Committee also placed General Secretary Enrique Sanz on a leave of absence to begin immediately.

Ted Howard, CONCACAF's deputy general secretary, has been appointed acting general secretary. Howard takes over the administrative functions of the confederation's business in the absence of Sanz.