By Mark Baber
January 27 – Alejandro Dominguez of Paraguay was elected unopposed as president of CONMEBOL, the governing body of South American football, after Wilmar Valdez of Uruguay withdrew his candidacy.
Dominguez also becomes a FIFA vice president and member of the FIFA executive committee until May 2019 and steps into the shoes of three former CONMEBOL presidents, all of whom have been arrested as part of the US-led anti-corruption campaign.
Unsurprisingly, in his first speech as president of CONMEBOL, Alejandro Dominguez stressed the importance of recovering the credibility of CONMEBOL, saying: “We cannot fail to recognize that we are in a time of crisis and we know the responsibility of what it means taking over the Presidency of CONMEBOL, but we are confident that together we will be able to restore the credibility of the Confederation, with the emphasis on transparency in our management.”
Dominguez, a close friend of previous president, Juan Angel Napout of Paraguay, who is currently on bail in the USA, continued: “CONMEBOL is currently enduring a bad institutional period, we are sure of this, but we are starting a new era in which everything will be done with transparency and clarity. Establish control systems that helps our accounts to be up to date and which will prevent any individual or private entity to profit over the interests of football.”
The new president also emphasised the importance of supporting South American clubs and retaining local talent saying: “As far as the game itself is concern, we will seek to empower our South American clubs with a frank and open relationship which will allow us to retain most of our South American players for our tournaments. Help them to stay and demonstrate their full potential here at home. Hopefully we can retain our best.”
“Fair play, fair play, on and off the field will be the flag ship of this new stage we begin today with the support of all the South American leadership.”
During the Extraordinary Congress in Asuncion, CONMEBOL members also voted for Argentina association president Luis Segura for a second vacancy on the FIFA executive committee.
The Congress was also attended by Gianni Infantino and Prince Ali bin al Hussein of Jordan who are looking to pick up support in the FIFA presidential election, with Dominguez undoubtedly due to play a key role in deciding which candidate will benefit from a potential CONMEBOL bloc vote. CONMEBOL’s indication was that they were getting behind Infantino.
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