Caribbean ambitions.
By Ian Prescott (Express).
By this Saturday, David John-Williams hopes to add the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) president portfolio to his current role of Trinidad and Tobago Football Association president which he has held for just nine months.
It will be a meteoric rise for John-Williams, former chairman of four-time Caribbean champions Directv W Connection. On Saturday, John-Williams challenges incumbent, Gordon Derrick, of the Antigua-Barbuda Football Association and Hillaren Frederick, president of the United States Virgin Islands Football Association for the presidency at the XXXIX Caribbean Football Union Congress.
The CFU will hold its ordinary congress at the Pan Am Ballroom of the Sheraton Miami Airport Hotel, in Miami, Florida, where delegates will vote for an executive committee to lead the organisation for the next four years.
Other contested positions will see Cheney Joseph (Grenada, incumbent) and Osiris Guzman (Dominican Republic) vying for the first vice-president position. Rignaal Francisca (Curacao, incumbent) and Anton Sealy (Bahamas) are vying for the second vice-president position.
Fabrice Baly (St. Martin) and Lyndon Cooper (St. Lucia, incumbent) are vying for the third vice-president position. Raymond Anderson (Jamaica), Richard Dijkhoff (Aruba) and Hillaren Frederick (USVI) are also vying for the fourth vice-president position.
Nine individuals are in the race for the four spots as executive committee member. They are Bruce Blake (Cayman Islands); Vernold Coombs (St. Vincent and the Grenadines); Hillaren Frederick (USVI); Randolph Harris (Barbados); Eric Labrador (Puerto Rico); Alain Mijdt (French Guiana); Maurice Victoire (Martinique); Jeaninne Wong Loi Sing (Bonaire) and Wayne Forde (Guyana).
John-Williams recently launched his manifesto and has proposed a new structure to the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), which will include a Board of Directors as policy makers, but implementation coming through its elected president. He also proposes improving the image and reputation of the CFU at the CONCACAF and FIFA levels, following charges brought against the last two CFU presidents, Trinidadian Jack Warner and Cayman Island’s Jeffrey Webb.
“Under my leadership, I am committed to undertaking this task and it will be one of my major objectives, if elected into office,” Williams said in his manifesto.
John-Williams has spent 34 years in the construction industry, but is primarily known for his role as head of the 17-year-old W Connection team. Among his objectives, John-Williams lists providing platforms for the ongoing development of Caribbean football; improving the standard of the game on the pitch and the administration; facility improvement and growing the sport’s fan base.
He also hopes to increase opportunities in the region to play professionally by the implementation of the Caribbean Professional Football League in the shortest possible time. John-Williams also proposes to rotate the Caribbean Cup, the national premier competition for national teams, “so as to ensure that member associations are allowed the opportunity to host this event.”
John-Williams is looking to set up a permanent home for Caribbean Football and secure on a four-year renewable basis, four gold sponsors, ten silver sponsors and 10 bronze sponsors to secure the income needed to support and sustain the CFU operations and programmes.
“The CFU already has a building purchased in Jamaica for this purpose which has been sitting idly for some three years. I plan to review this current situation to complete this project in the shortest possible time. The recruitment of additional qualified and competent staff is also required to be done by the CFU,” he has said.