By Andrew Warshaw
October 30 – The US Virgin Islands has been identified as the country that scuppered former Trinidad and Tobago international midfielder David Nakhid’s hopes of standing for FIFA president.
Nakhid would have been the eighth candidate, and the only one from CONCACAF, but was disqualified from the February 26 ballot because one his five required nominees also supported another contender. Under FIFA’s electoral rules, that renders both nominations invalid.
He has promised to appeal against the decision but has pointed the finger squarely at US Virgin Islands Football Association president Hillaren Frederick as being the culprit and for “betraying” the Caribbean region.
Frederick was apparently unaware of the rules but Nakhid blasted: “The Caribbean people have been cut short of a voice by one of our own. In the last hours of the nomination he (Frederick) submitted a bid in order to sabotage our candidacy. Never had he mentioned to us that he had voted for someone (else) and it was done in such a surreptitious way and we have all the emails and all the evidence.”
“FIFA confirmed that the USVI nominated us and somebody else. This sycophancy is exactly what we have encountered throughout this campaign. Our whole region is now not represented as of this point in time.
“We are hearing now that Frederick said he made a mistake and he didn’t know the electoral rules and nominated someone before. You would imagine that would have come up in the conversations and emails between us.
“I faced both attempted character assassination and sporting assassination from (ex-FIFA vice-president) Jack Warner and I came out better for it. Now, I am facing attempted political assassination from another figure who is happy to betray the Caribbean and his own region.”
Nahkid, speaking with Digicel SportsMax’s SportsMax Zone, also denounced the electoral committee, headed by Domenico Scala, for allegedly breaking its own rules.
“When you look at the circumstances, the electoral committee, by the very nature of their existence, is to ensure fair and transparent elections and that the process is held to the highest standards,” Nakhid said. This process, he claimed, was breached by the committee which he says urged him to get the US Virgin Islands to send their letter of support at the last minute.
According to Nakhid, the committee must have known that the USVI had already supported another candidate. “If they were aware that USVI had already sent a nomination they breached their own ethics,” he said. “It’s obviously an undermining of the electoral process,” said Nakhid, explaining that FIFA contacted his team to let them know the USVI letter had not been received .
“We have launched an appeal. Not against Hillaren, he knows what he did, against the electoral committee because they were quite aware, up until the 23rd, that the United States Virgin Islands had already submitted a bid for nomination.”
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734907909labto1734907909ofdlr1734907909owedi1734907909sni@w1734907909ahsra1734907909w.wer1734907909dna1734907909