The Associated Press From The News Observer

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Caribbean soccer leader Gordon Derrick has testified at the Court of Arbitration for Sport to challenge being barred from an election to become a FIFA vice president.

CAS said after the appeal hearing Monday that a verdict in Derrick’s case against FIFA is expected early next year.

Derrick, the Caribbean Football Union president from Antigua, failed an eligibility test in April to be a candidate for the presidency of CONCACAF, the governing body of North and Central America and the Caribbean.

CONCACAF’s president also has FIFA vice president status and joins FIFA’s strategy-setting council. As part of anti-corruption reforms at FIFA, candidates for top jobs and elected positions must now pass integrity checks.

The FIFA audit and compliance committee did not publicly specify in April why Derrick was barred from the vote. It intervened after reviewing information from United States-based lawyers retained by CONCACAF.

Derrick was reprimanded by the FIFA ethics committee in 2011 in a wide-ranging investigation of alleged Caribbean bribery in that year’s FIFA presidential election. Details of his case were not specified then.

In 2014, FIFA also imposed a 30,000 Swiss franc ($29,600) fine on the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association — where Derrick is general secretary — for mortgaging its technical center in breach of rules overseeing spending on development projects funded from Zurich.

The CONCACAF election was won in May by Victor Montagliani of Canada in a two-candidate vote.

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IMAGE: insidethegames.biz Gordon Derrick