Suppose Antigua/Barbuda doesn't pay up on Jan 17, this Thursday, and gets kicked out of FIFA.
Does that mean their scheduled opponent, Aruba, will win by default, or will they bring in the next country on the rankings list to fill the spot?
Edit: just found ABFA's response to CFU's threat to suspend them:
Richards: CFU has no jurisdiction
by Neto Baptiste (Antigua Sun)
Friday January 11 2008
Naming the threats by the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) to suspend the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association (ABFA) as “inappropriate and unprofessional,” President of the ABFA, Mervyn “MR” Richards said that they would not be paying the $513,000, reportedly owed to former general-secretary, Paul “Chet” Greene by the specified 17 Jan deadline.
Richards made the disclosure during a press conference yesterday, in which he questioned the jurisdiction of the CFU on the matter, stating that the next step would be for Greene to take up the issue with the FIFA arbitration court.
“The posture, which has now been adopted by the CFU, cannot be accepted by the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association. The ABFA has genuine doubts as to whether the executive of the CFU has the right to threaten the ABFA with suspension in these circumstances. The ABFA has not acted in breach of any rules of the CFU and more importantly, the CFU has no jurisdiction in the dispute with Mr. Greene. The ABFA now, therefore considers that the actions of the executive of the CFU to be inappropriate and unprofessional and the ABFA would not be complying with the directives of the CFU on this matter,” Richards said.
The ABFA had been given until 17 Jan., to pay the full amount owed to Greene or face suspension from all CFU sanctioned activities – the second in a line of threats from President of the organisation, Jack Warner, to the ABFA regarding the issue.
Greene’s claim reportedly includes unpaid salaries and other miscellaneous expenditures. But according to the FA, although Greene did submit some receipts, there was never any authority by the then executive to reimburse him.
Richards further reported that his executive, on receiving legal advice, have also come to question the legitimacy of Greene’s former contract with the ABFA – he however refused to go into any details.
“We have written to the CFU to appeal the issue and have also written to the FIFA asking them to step in on our behalf. We have always had an issue with the legitimacy of the contract entered into by Greene and the then executive as well,” Richards said.
In outlining the conditions leading up to the current situation, Richards said that the ABFA had never agreed to adhere to the findings of a report put together by President of the Barbados Association, Ronald Jones, who was asked, by CFU, to act as a mediator in the matter.
“By letter dated 25 February 2005, the president of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) informed the ABFA that Mr. Ronald Jones had been appointed by the CFU to act as a mediator in the dispute. Now on 7 March of 2005, the ABFA received communication from the said Mr. Jones, confirming that he was indeed selected to act as mediator in the issue.
"We did not protest against the process and participated in the process with Mr. Jones. He visited Antigua in the first quarter of 2005 and held meeting with all persons involved including Mr. Greene and after his initial visit, Jones issued an interim report in which he determined that the dispute was soluble and he made recommendations for further discussions between the parties,” he said.
Richards went on to state that via another letter in June of 2006, that ABFA was informed by Jones, that there would have been some pre-conditions to the resolution of the matter that would have been addressed – but were never addressed.
“None of the stated pre-conditions have been satisfied to date and further, Mr. Jones, have not to the knowledge of the Association conducted any further meetings in Antigua since issuing his interim report in 2005,” he said.
“By e-mail correspondence dated on the 16 Oct 2006, the President of CFU (Jack Warner) wrote to the ABFA and indicated that having consulted FIFA, that it was accepted that the Jones report was the product of mediation and not arbitration and further recommended to Mr. Greene that he initiate the arbitration process in accordance with his purported contract,” the ABFA president said.
The conference was also attended by General-Secretary of the ABFA, Gordon “Banks” Derrick and attorney at law for the ABFA Kenny Kentish.