By Andrew Warshaw in London
January 18 – Jeff Webb (pictured), the man charged with putting Caribbean football back on the map for the right reasons, flew into London today for talks with English Football Association chairman David Bernstein aimed at kick-starting a relationship soured by England’s failed 2018 World Cup bid.
Webb, head of the Caribbean Football Union’s (CFU) so-called Normalisation Committee formed in the wake of last year’s cash-for-votes scandal that ripped the region’s football apart, met Bernstein at Wembley to try and repair some of the damage inflicted after former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, according to the FA, broke his promise to vote for England.
Relations were further strained when former English FA chairman Lord Triesman told a Parliamentary Select Committee looking into football that Warner had asked for money to build an education centre in Trinidad – with the cash to be channelled through him – and later wanted £500,000 ($770,350/€599,650) to buy Haiti’s World Cup TV rights for the earthquake-hit nation, also to go through Warner.
Lord Triesman’s claims were ultimately dismissed by FIFA and he was later forced to resign over a newspaper sting.
But his claims, allied to the subsequent FIFA presidential cash-for-votes scandal over which Warner was forced to resign, have always cast a cloud over England’s relationship with the Caribbean region.
Webb, who is leading the fight to restore the Caribbean’s reputation and is being touted as a future full-time President of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) in succession to Warner, spent around an hour with Bernstein (pictured) before flying on to Zurich on FIFA business.
“The FA chairman was very receptive to working with us again and helping during these times of transition,” Webb told Insideworldfootball.
“Both parties have agreed to get back involved and work together.
“During the last year there has not been much activity and everyone knows why the cooperation stopped.
“But we’ve bridged some gaps.
“The English FA have had historical ties with the West Indies for many years.
“Over the past 10 years the development work they have done for the region is unsurpassed.”
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