CIFA Press Release – For Immediate Release

Monday, 7 December 2015

As announced in the international press, following the guilty plea entered by Mr. Jeffrey Webb on Thursday, 3 December 2015, the Cayman Islands Football Association (“CIFA”) held an emergency Executive Committee meeting on Monday, 7 December 2015.

Following his guilty plea it has been determined that he is not fit for office of President of CIFA and as such his position as President of CIFA is officially vacated. Elections will be held at the earliest congress in 2016 for the President’s position, along with any other positions that are vacant.

Although not yet formally notified, CIFA expects that FIFA and CONCACAF will follow suit in due course.

CIFA is appalled by Minister Osbourne Bodden’s statements as published in the Cayman Compass issue of December 7, 2015 of not having received audited financial statements when in fact CIFA has consistently provided annual audited financial statements to his Ministry over the years. He has further indicated that “he wants to see a full audit of the association’s books to determine exactly how its money including FIFA grants have been spent.” We are again surprised by this comment when these audited financial statements are already in his Ministry’s possession and his statement is erroneous and misleading to the public and not in the best interest of football in the Cayman Islands. However, to assist the Minister with his “audit” CIFA will deliver on Tuesday December 8, 2015 copies of the Annual Reports which include audited financial statements from 2001 to present.

Additionally, the public should be aware that in order to receive government funding CIFA is required to submit annual audited financial statements outlining the application of government funding of its football operations. We are pleased to state that we have complied with this requirement annually over the years including a full report for 2014/2015. In fact we are still awaiting the remainder of the agreed funding for the 2014/2015 period despite having expended the funds towards our national team programs, domestic leagues and youth programs and provided an accounting to the Minister. These youth programs are now in jeopardy and the future is unsure.

We are also very concerned with respect to his statement that the government “would not provide any further support to the Cayman Islands Football Association until it demonstrated it had cleaned up its act, and elected new leadership.” Any interference with a democratic election process demonstrates a lack of understanding of constitutional law and is unwarranted. The Minister cannot dictate to any national association who should or should not serve on its executive committee by interfering in an election process which is determined by it’s membership.

CIFA is guided by its constitution, and individuals who have expressed strong opinions in the press who somehow feel aggrieved should accept that they did not have the constitutional support to run for office and are only damaging football in our country by their continued negative remarks of Cayman football.

It is important to note that we had requested a meeting with the Minister to address his concerns and outline the reforms we have put in place to address the requirements for Government to continue their annual grant and are awaiting his formal response. These reforms include initiatives implemented earlier in the year to increase transparency and good governance. Some of these include the forming of an independent internal audit and compliance committee as well as a finance committee. Also, we have outsourced the accounting and financial statement production process to add an additional level of independence supporting our initiatives of good governance.

CIFA also continues to be fully cooperative with local authorities.
Whilst CIFA has experience many challenges resulting from recent events and from limited funding from local government and the private sector we continue our efforts to develop youth football in the Cayman Islands due to our strong commitment to the youth of our country.