Gordon Derrick is considering appealing Fifa’s decision not to allow him to run for the Concacaf presidency at the Court of Arbitration for Sports.

The Caribbean Football Union president was declared ineligible for next month’s election after failing an ethics test run by the Fifa audit and compliance committee.

According to the Antigua Observer, Derrick is preparing to appeal that ruling, and is hoping for a speedy resolution, one which would allow him to re-enter the fray.

However, given that there is little more than two weeks until the vote at the Concacaf Ordinary Congress, the chances that Derrick could be reinstated and campaign effectively seem slim.

At the moment the race for the region’s top job in football is between Larry Mussenden, the Bermuda Football Association president, and Victor Montagliani, his Canadian counterpart.

Derrick has served as CFU president for the last four years, after replacing Jack Warner in 2012, following the cash-for-votes scandal which rocked Caribbean football.

Warner has been charged as part of the sweeping United States Department of Justice investigation into corruption in football.

Part of the investigation centred on the $40,000 that some regional officials were accused of taking in return for voting for Mohamed bin Hammam in the Fifa presidential election.

Derrick, who is also the general secretary of the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association, was one of several officials reprimanded and fined over “apparent violations” of its ethics code.

Should Derrick be reinstated, then the path to the presidency would become a little more complicated.

With 31 of the 41 votes available held by Caribbean members, Mussenden is a firm favourite to defeat Montagliani at the election in Mexico City on May 12. A split in the Caribbean vote could change all that.

Not that Montagliani sees it that way.

The Canadian claims to have already secured the backing of regional powerhouses Mexico and the US, and says that he does not believe voting will split along traditional lines.

“The numbers dictate that you need to get a significant amount of the Caribbean votes,” Montagliani said.

“Yet, I think one of the things that I’ve found on a lot of my travels to our members is that this election is not being seen as a Caribbean versus Central American versus North American thing. A lot of those walls that were put up in the past are gone. Now, each member is looking for a leader.

“In fact, you saw two weeks ago, four Caribbean countries — Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Cuba — announce their support of me, which is something you might not have seen in the past.

“I know I have support of others as well, and we’ll see what happens on May 12.”

Mussenden has been equally confident when discussing his chances, and has travelled to the West Indies several times over the past month to drum up support for his bid to become the next Concacaf president.

Any candidate may find their hopes rest on a meeting of the CFU, which is reportedly being planned for May 11 in Mexico, the day before the election.

As one Mussenden supporter noted: “This looks like going right down to the wire.”