Even though many of the top brass of the Cayman Islands Football Association (CIFA) are away this is no excuse from not issuing any statement at all concerning their president Jeffery Webb. There is such a thing called “the Internet”.

What is more disturbing is the silence is being reported in the World Press very unfavourably, as if we need anymore. And the World’s Press are here.

We published a small part today of an excellent story from the New York Times and I urge you to read all of it by going to the weblink at the bottom of the article.

The article goes on to also point out the silence:

“The possibility that Mr. Webb might go to prison stunned many here.

“He was popular, a native of George Town, where many people are tourists and expatriates. He moved in circles with the political elite and brought an estimated $30 million to the local economy by drawing soccer tournaments to the Caymans.”

“Mr. Webb was said to have devoted himself so fully to developing soccer in the Caymans that he once mowed fields and scrubbed toilets, even working in an office that had no phones.”

““I’m surprised; it seemed like he was honest and upright,” said Violet Wilson, a Red Cross volunteer who met Mr. Webb several times. “It’s really embarrassing. It hurts a small island for him to hold such a big job and mess it up.”’

“In this insular place, news of Mr. Webb’s indictment brought silence as well as disbelief. Government and soccer officials said little or nothing Friday. Osbourne Bodden, the Cayman Islands sports minister, did not mention Mr. Webb’s name in a brief statement, saying only that his ministry was not involved in the soccer investigation. A spokeswoman for the Cayman soccer federation removed all of her contact information from the website.”

‘“I’ve been asked to have no comment,” said James Rich, the administrator of the Cayman Islands Premier League. Asked if he was shocked, Mr. Rich said: “I don’t think shock is the right word. I don’t know the right word. Let the appropriate means take place and see what happens.”’

Webb’s associate, the ‘mysterious’ Costas Takkas has also found infamy with the World’s Press. I was contacted by an overseas reporter asking me if I could throw some light on Mr. Takkas. I told the reporter he played a very good Manuel in a Cayman Drama Society production of Fawlty Towers”.
It didn’t help the Reporter at all but he did remark, “so he’s a good actor?”

The New York Times Reporter did some digging as did Christian Gysin from The Daily Mail – see iNews Cayman story today “British-born accountant seized in FIFA dawn raids ‘recruited British players to play for the Cayman Islands in 2022 World Cup qualifiers’”.

“Accountant Costas Takkas persuaded a number of English and Scottish footballers to play for the islands in friendly matches, hoping that because the Caymans were a British dependent territory they could represent the Caribbean side,” the Daily Mail article says. “They played in friendly matches, but the plan was scuppered by FIFA, which said only those with island roots could be in World Cup qualifiers.”’

Back to the New York Times article:

‘“Mr. Takkas, a Greek Cypriot who lives in Britain, seemed to be a protector of Mr. Webb’s and was “friendly but probing,” said Mr. Sigmund, the public affairs consultant [for Traffic Sports USA].

‘“He struck me as a type I’ve seen in politics, who attach themselves to a politician and rise and fall with that person,” Mr. Sigmund said.”

The silence that is deafening from the sporting authorities here may be due to not wanting to upset FIFA’s newly elected president of FIFA (for the umpteenth time] Sepp Blatter.

‘“Under FIFA’s system, even the smallest country has the same voting power as the biggest, and payments from FIFA for fields and other projects — perfectly legal and documented — help to ensure allegiance to Mr. Blatter, even as he faces withering criticism in the face of accusations of rampant corruption in international soccer,” the New York Times article rightly states.

‘“Yet even in scandal, the Caymans remain in some aspects as powerful as Germany, Argentina, Brazil or any other world soccer power. Like the other 208 national soccer federations in FIFA, the Cayman Islands gets one vote in the quadrennial election for FIFA’s president.

“Mr. Blatter’s strategy of democratizing soccer and building up its popularity around the world — he steered the 2010 World Cup to Africa, where the Olympics have never been held — has also included a shrewd political component.

‘He has helped build his base and assured support by earmarking payments of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to each of FIFA’s member federations. FIFA also makes separate grants for construction of fields and bestows other financial assistance — money that is indispensable to small, less wealthy nations that are almost entirely dependent on FIFA for funding.

“The Cayman Islands Football Association offices, built with part of the $2.2 million FIFA has provided the association since 2002.

‘“Mr. Blatter has played a very smart game,” said David Larkin, a Washington-based lawyer who specializes in international sports and is a director of an organization called ChangeFIFA. “The Cayman Islands represents how that financial assistance program keeps the lights on. That means these small soccer associations are beholden to the leaders of FIFA.”

“Since 2008, FIFA has sent grants worth $1.8 million to the Cayman Islands to build two soccer fields. Seven years later, though, the first field remains weeks away from completion. Plans for a dormitory and a gym have not materialized. A final grant, for $500,000 in March 2014, was for the installation of artificial turf, FIFA noted on its website, because “the current grass field cannot survive in the low-level saltwater environment.”

“The project was part of a plan by Mr. Webb to invigorate soccer in the Cayman Islands with a state-of-the-art training center. And Mr. Blatter could hardly afford to ignore Mr. Webb, especially when Mr. Webb became the president of Concacaf in May 2012. In that position, Mr. Webb presided over a group of 35 FIFA member nations — about 17 percent of the total votes in FIFA’s presidential election.

“In order to run voting blocs, you need someone to whip up your votes and keep everyone in line,” Mr. Larkin said. “It’s classic pork-barrel politics.”’

– from New York Times

Why is there silence from Cayman’s Football authorities?

Haven’t I just answered it, myself?