Yorke, Corneal, Fuentes get FIFA appointments
By: Express.
Friday, June 29th 2007
Trinidad and Tobago have received three appointees on the latest standing committees announced by FIFA which will take effect from tomorrow.
As FIFA declared their new general secretary Jerome Valcke and deputy general secretary Markus Kattner, those appointed on committees from CONCACAF and coming from T&T include ex-national player and coach Alvin Corneal on the FIFA Technical Committee, T&T Football Federation media officer Shaun Fuentes on FIFA's Media Committee, and retired national captain Dwight Yorke on FIFA's Football Committee, which is chaired by Franz Beckenbauer.
Some of the other players on the FIFA football committee alongside Yorke include Cameroon's Roger Milla, Brazil's Pele, England's Sir Bobby Charlton, Mexico's Hugo Sanchez, Liberia's George Weah and Portugal's Eusebio.
Yorke, 35, is coming off arguably his most successful year on the international stage. He led the T&T team in remarkable fashion at the 2006 World Cup and was adjudged the best defensive player of the group phase. He is also set to make a return to the English Premiership after helping Sunderland to the English Championship Division title last season.
The 69-year-old Corneal, a past T&T national footballer and cricketer as well as head coach, is also a FIFA instructor and CONCACAF sports consultant. He was also a member of FIFA's technical study group at the 2006 World Cup
Among the others on the media committee of which Fuentes is now one of 15 members globally, are Tunisian Slim Chiboub, who is the chairman, Guatemala's Rafael Salguero (deputy chairman), CONCACAF's Jason Hughes, FIFA's Markus Siegler and Emmanuel Maradas, who served as the FIFA media officer for T&T's World Cup playoff with Bahrain in 2005.
Fuentes has served as media officer for the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation since 2000 and had a career in the media before that which was kick started at the Trinidad Guardian. Along with serving as the press officer for the national team at the 2006 World Cup, he also carries out similar responsibilities for the Caribbean Football Union.
The 26-year-old Fuentes was the youngest of the national teams' press officers at Germany 2006.
All three appointees, while based on recommendations, were duly considered and agreed upon by FIFA before final appointments were made. The announcements were also commended by CONCACAF president Jack Warner.
