The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) is to go without a president until May next year after its past three leaders were indicted in a FIFA bribery case.
CONCACAF said its executive committee decided on Monday to have a collective leadership for five months and not appoint another interim president.
“In light of current events, it is critical that the confederation’s next president be determined by a public election,” CONCACAF said in a statement.
A vacancy opened when acting CONCACAF president Alfredo Hawit of Honduras was arrested in Zurich, Switzerland, on Thursday last week on a US Department of Justice request.
FIFA vice president Hawit was among seven senior CONCACAF region officials in the latest US Department of Justice indictment to rock soccer’s governing body and rip through its Latin American leaders.
Previous CONCACAF presidents Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands and Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago were charged in a first indictment published in May.
Webb’s guilty plea to racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering charges was also unsealed on Thursday last week. He agreed to forfeit US$6.7 million in bribes.
CONCACAF said its presidential election to formally replace Webb is scheduled for May 12 in Mexico City, before the FIFA Congress there.
The 41-member nation region on Monday opted not to follow its own statutes, which would have elevated CONCACAF senior vice president Justino Compean of Mexico to the top job.
The seven-member leadership panel also includes FIFA executive committee members Sunil Gulati of the US and Sonia Bien-Aime of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Hawit was named in the indictment for taking a US$250,000 bribe to exploit his position of influence when made acting CONCACAF president in 2011 after FIFA suspended Warner for bribery.
Hawit agreed to steer CONCACAF commercial rights toward Hugo Jinkis and son, Mariano, from Argentina, who ran the Full Play agency and were indicted in May.
He also was implicated in a separate bribery conspiracy with Miami-based agency Media World over broadcast rights for FIFA World Cup qualifying matches of the Honduras national team.
Hawit is currently detained in a Zurich-area jail and fighting extradition to the US.
Webb agreed to his extradition in July and has since been allowed to live at his Loganville, Georgia, home. He pleaded guilty to seven charges on Nov. 23.
Webb was elected to lead CONCACAF in May 2012, after Hawit had been an interim president for nearly a year.
Warner is contesting extradition to the US.
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