By Paul Nicholson
February 23 – FIFA is continuing its meeting of member nations in regional workshops with the latest stop on their schedule being Jamaica, March 1-4, where 14 Caribbean member associations will be gathered.
The meetings are designed to outline details of the FIFA FORWARD Programme – the new programme by which FIFA allocates development funding to member associations.
Previously development funding was administered through regional offices by specialist development officers who worked with member associations on both their funding applications and the administration of the funds.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino scrapped the old system in favour of his new scheme that has been slow to take off, leading to delays in funding and confusion from federations as to the new procedures. The new system has also been widely criticised internally for a lack of governance control and its ability to be used as political tool when it comes to votes and resolutions at FIFA – ironically the criticism made of previous FIFA president Sepp Blatter which led to an overhaul of the funding system and criteria while he was still in charge
With so many fewer people now involved in the grant process and (more importantly) the implementation and use of funds, the opportunity for corruption and political manipulation has multiplied. Reports from Africa already identify FIFA’s new member associations director as straying into political areas beyond his supposed development remit.
The Jamaica meetings will be attended by presidents and general secretaries from Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Haiti, Monsterrat, St . Kitts and Nevis, St.Lucia, US Virgin Islands, and Turks and Caicos .
The meetings will be led by Veron Mosengo-Omba, newly appointed Director – Member Associations and Development (FIFA) and Solomon Mudege, Manager Development Programmes (FIFA).
The Caribbean has been a political battleground in CONCACAF and FIFA elections. CONCACAF has been gradually been asserting greater control over the region, predominantly through control of money and competition organisation, taking much of the direct decision-making away from the member associations. This in turn has led to discussion of a breakaway and of a direct affiliation to FIFA outside of CONCACAF. The FIFA meeting is well timed in this regard as member associations look for clarity of what the landscape looks like for them and football in their region.
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