Photo of CONCACAF under Warner's purview.
By the time this posts, Sepp Blatter will likely have re-ascended to his throne atop the “FIFA Pyramid”–a destabilized pyramid–but a pyramid nonetheless. The pyramid has been shaken be repeated earthquakes caused by various corruption allegations aimed at FIFA executives. The biggest trembler was that released by Chuck Blazer regarding the bribery allegations in the Carribean. Two ExCo members were suspended–Mohamed Bin Hammam and Jack Warner–and the aftershocks continued yesterday.
The Interim CONCACAF president Lisle Austin who replaced Jack Warner attempted to fire Chuck Blazer from his General Secretary position at CONCACAF. Apparently exposing corruption is a fireable offense in Austin’s world.
Then, the Executive Committe for the confederation issued its own statement indicating Austin lacked the authority to fire Blazer and that Blazer continued in his position with full authority.
Thankfully Austin continued the junior high antics by “releasing” a counter-statement which was located on the Facebook page of a Trinidad & Tobago reporter:
I have been made aware of a statement from CONCACAF Media Relations purporting that my actions to terminate Chuck Blazer as General Secretary in my capacity as President (Ag) of CONCACAF were unauthorized. It is instructive to note that the authority of the President to terminate Mr. Blazer rests in the CONCACAF Statutes and was taken after legal advice had been sort.
Article 29 of the CONCACAF Statutes states, “The President has the judicial and extrajudicial representation of CONCACAF.” Moreover, the Executive Committee has no authority to convene a meeting without having the said meeting called and chaired by the President as articulated by Article 29 which confirms that “The President shall preside over the meetings of the Congress, of the Executive Committee, of the Emergency Committee and of the Committees.”
The presence of four (4) Executive Committee members in the hotel room of Mr. Blazer does not constitute an Executive Committee meeting.
The response from the CONCACAF Media Relations is not only the fruit of illegal actions on the part of Mr. Blazer who is no longer the General Secretary, but is tantamount to trespassing since, the unauthorized use of CONCACAF’s services and equipment by non-CONCACAF staff is unlawful.
I can assure you that this is my final statement on this matter , I will not allow myself or this organization to dragged into a tit for tat war in the public domain. The reputation of this organization has suffered immensely over the last two weeks .
In my earlier statement , I called on the membership to heal the wounds my hope is that we can once again look upon each other without mistrust or prejudice.
Our Confederation has suffered and let us move toward a brighter future from this moment.
Lisle Austin
All typos courtesy the original. Too bad Austin doesn’t have the authority to login to the CONCACAF web page and release his statements. At least then he would appear to have authority.
This is where the lawyers get involved and rack up the billable hours.
Anyway, the ExCo response seems to indicate there is some desire to break from the Jack Warner past on their part. When contacted for comment Sunil Gulati, a CONCACAF committee member, had no comment, which is not surprising because this is turning point in CONCACAF. The crown prince has been dethroned and likely for good leaving a power vacuum at the top. Lest we forget there may be 15 to 20 more people in trouble in the Carribean Football Union with these same bribery allegations.
There will be a whole new power structure in CONCACAF. Gulati will need to tread carefully to preserve his position and potentially increase his standing in CONCACAF and FIFA.
Clearly, Austin is not a lawyer, and he doesn’t appear to understand CONCACAF’s own rules. The President may have “judicial/extrajudicial authority,” but that has nothing to do with any power to hire/fire the gen secy. Instead, Austin should have looked at Article 28(c) which pretty plainly states that it is the Executive Committee’s responsibility to “appoint the General Secretary.”