Horace Burrell has said he is sorry. So is everyone else, he says. All ‘sorry’.
Who are these repentant sinners? Easy: all those delegates from 24 Caribbean football federations who turned up in Port of Spain last May to hear Mohamed Bin Hammam tell them why he should be elected president of FIFA.
Unfortunately, of course, the Qatari millionaire spoiled the effect and compromised a lot of people by leaving a number of envelopes stuffed with cash lying around.
Quite how all this cash turned up in Trinidad has yet to be explained: a police inquiry into the role played by government Minister and ex-FIFA grandee Jack Warner appears to have been swept under a very thick carpet.
Around two dozen delegates and officials have subsequently had their wrists slapped by FIFA’s ethics committee for an unspecified range of offences. These appear to have been restricted to a lack of co-operation with investigators rather than to having kept the cash.
Burrell, who first emerged on the international stage as Jamaica’s football supreme when the Reggae Boyz reached the 1998 World Cup finals, copped for a six-month ban of which three months were suspended.
Hence not only is Burrell now back on the scene but he is also one of the members of the committee created, on FIFA’s say-so, to stick all the pieces of the Caribbean Football Union back together again.
Earlier this week Burrell told a ‘happy returns’ press conference: “Everyone who attended that meeting last May in Trinidad regrets it. It is not something we are happy about. In fact, we would have preferred not to have gone. Having said that, it is now through the window, and we plan to move forward positively. Also, one has to understand that in life, events will occur, and we should learn from them… as far as FIFA is concerned, all that took place in May is now closed — so said the president of FIFA, Joseph ‘Sepp’ Blatter — and to prove that this is all true, yours truly has been named as a member of the committee responsible for resuscitating the football programmes in the Caribbean.”
So here is the solution to all FIFA’s scandals, all the speculation about illicit cash from ISL, about World Cup vote deals and the convenient distribution of some of those development funds.
All Ricardo Teixeira need do is say ‘Sorry’; the same for Bin Hammam; for Warner; for Anouma, Temarii and the rest. Such an approach might have eased the suspension pain, too, for Luis Suarez and Liverpool after that infamous exchange with Patrice Evra.
But then, as Elton John told us back in the 1970s: Sorry seems to be the hardest word.
THIS WEEK’S ARTICLES:
ROGAN TAYLOR: THE CUP THAT DOESN’T CHEER
DELROY ALEXANDER: SPORT IN BLACK & WHITE
GERRY COX: FOOTBALL AND GAMBLING – A MUG’S GAME
Keir Radnedge is one of the foremost observers of international soccer. He has reported at every World Cup since 1966 and is a regular contributor to TV, radio, newspapers and magazines worldwide. He is London-based Editor of SportsFeatures.com and is chairman of the Football Commission of the International Sports Press Association (AIPS). Visit www.KeirRadnedge.com for further information. Follow him on Twitter for more sports industry updates.
The views of our regular columnists are independent, and as such do not represent those of Leaders in Football.
