By Paul Nicholson
February 6 – The row between stakeholders in the US Virgin Islands that triggered a visit from a FIFA and CONCACAF delegation has calmed but the storm may not be over.
FIFA, represented by Veron Mosenga-Omba, instructed all parties to put ego aside and agree to a roadmap to a more settled future. A cornerstone of this roadmap is a greater financial transparency agreed within the executive committee of the USVI Soccer Federation that will see monthly accounts presented to the executive committee.
The attempted suspensions of the president Hillaren Frederick and two other members of the executive committee were lifted – Frederick in actuality never stood down, maintaining that the meeting between the four officials was illegal according to the statutes of the USVI federation.
Two of the four exco members who voted for suspension at a meeting at which they were the only four in attendance, have written a letter saying that voting for the suspensions was a mistake and did not follow federation procedure. This letter has been seen by Insideworldfootball.
At the same time the USVI Disciplinary Committee lifted its suspensions of the four rebel exco members. These suspensions were made as a concession though Frederick says they were constitutionally correct decisions from a Disciplinary Committee that was first constituted in 2014.
FIFA’s position on this dispute is a little confusing. While they have clearly backed Frederick, they haven’t said so publicly, opting to instead get involved in the war of words and putting the dispute down to personal differences rather than ruling on statutory infraction or any evidence of financial wrong doing (none has been presented).
The war of words is unlikely to be kept at bay for long as Ferdinand Francis, the outspoken leader of the rebel executive members has openly and repeatedly called Frederick a liar and has threatened him with investigation by the USVI attorney general.
This isn’t the first time Francis has declared war on a USVI Soccer Federation president. Frederick won his first term as president after former president Derrick Martin was accused similarly of financial corruption. Martin in the end had enough and resigned from the presidency. No evidence of financial corruption was ever found and Martin still works as a bank executive.
Allegations of financial corruption appear to lie at the centre of Francis’s allegations again this time. Though so far there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of financial misdeeds. At the heart of the claims were that suppliers and staff had gone for months unpaid.
Frederick says that full time staff had always been paid, but some part time staff had not been paid for December. He said this has now been rectified and suppliers had now all been settled, though many had pressured for an increase on the agreed amount which he had refused.
The main reason for late payment was that the federation was still waiting for its FIFA grant. $250,000 was received at the end of last week enabling the federation to settle outstanding amounts. A second $250,000 will be paid in July.
In terms of budget 2016 was a difficult year for the USVISF which hosted a four-country CFU Boys U-17 tournament in July 2017 on St. Thomas, principally at the insistence of Francis and the rebel exco members. This tournament cost the federation $100,000 of unbudgeted loss.
Separately Francis is being asked to account for missing funds from the St. Thomas Men’s League.
FIFA said that if it has to return to the US Virgin Islands it will be “to kick everybody out”. That would under normal circumstances mean the imposition (assuming financial or governance rules have been broken) of a normalisation committee until new elections are held.
But FIFA may be pushed to the point of expelling the federation altogether. The USVI is a small country with a population of 106,000 across two islands – Mosenga-Omba has indicated FIFA is not prepared to spend much more time on the issue and it is up to those on the islands to settle their differences within the rules and to the roadmap agreed.
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