There will be no eye-catching promises and no dangling of carrots in Larry Mussenden’s campaign to become the next president of Concacaf.

Rather, the Bermuda Football Association president is offering the prospect of hard work and rejuvenation for a governing body whose reputation had been badly damaged over the past 18 months.

Nor will Mussenden even contemplate standing aside to allow his main rival, Victor Montagliani, the president of the Canadian Soccer Association, a clear run at the top job in the region.

Montagliani announced his candidacy at the beginning of this week and his supporters have already voiced their belief that Mussenden should remove himself from the race and throw his weight behind their man. The pair are considered the early favourites to be elected in May, with Gordon Derrick the Caribbean Football Union president, and Mark Rodrigues of Guyana also running.

“I’m in the race to elected president of Concacaf and maybe they [Montagliani’s supporters] see me as the biggest threat to him,” Mussenden said. “I’m looking forward to having a good election campaign where the candidates can come under the scrutiny of the member associations. I think that is a good thing because over the past few years we have had presidents who have run unopposed and you can see where that has gotten us.”

Mussenden will rely heavily on the support of the Caribbean nations in his bid to become next Concacaf president, but that will not stop him trying to persuade the Central American Football Union [Uncaf], which has already voiced its support for Montagliani, to switch sides.

“I have already told Uncaf that it is my aim to persuade half of them [the member nations] to vote for me,” Mussenden said. “I don’t think I can persuade Canada, but it’s not beyond me to ask Victor [Montagliani] to vote for me.”

Whatever happens, Mussenden welcomes the prospect of a healthy debate within the region about where Concacaf wants to go, and how it gets there. And at the heart of his campaign will be a focus on governance and reform with a view to restoring the region’s battered reputation.

The past three Concacaf presidents, Jack Warner, Jeffrey Webb, and Alfredo Hawit have all been arrested as part of the United States investigation into corruption in football, while Chuck Blazer, a former Concacaf general secretary, has been banned from the game for life after pleading guilty to racketeering and tax evasion.

Diluting the power of the president and general secretary is part of the reforms that Mussenden believes are essential to reforming the region, that, and proper financial oversight, audited accounts, regular budget statements, term limits, and independent members of the soon-to-be-formed Concacaf Council.

Those reforms were being discussed in Miami yesterday and again today at a Concacaf meeting, they will be voted on at a Concacaf Extraordinary Congress on February 25, the day before the election for a new Fifa president is held. Concacaf’s member nations will vote for their new president on May 12 at a meeting in Mexico City.

“There has to be governance, there can’t be a president and a general secretary running off on a frolic of their own, signing off on contracts that the executive council don’t know about,” Mussenden said.

“To be quite frank, if we put the right organisation and structure in place, and staff in place that can get on with doing their jobs ... if the president changes in four years it won’t matter because the organisation will be stable.

“Policies might change but organisation itself will remain sound, not falling to the whim of a president or general secretary.”

Ultimately, Mussenden wants to see the governing body in a position where in five years the confidence has been restored and that all those connected with Concacaf can walk around with their heads held high.

“I don’t think anything I have said is eye-catching, it’s pure football, it’s about what the realities of what we have to do,” Mussenden said. “Concacaf right now is in a difficult situation, we need a candidate who is going to bring us out of that position and help to restore our credibility in the eyes of the world.

“If everyone actually did what they were supposed to do then Concacaf could quite easily get back to the reputation that all our countries deserve.

“I’m not promising every member association millions of dollars to do that, I’m promising that we will sit down and do some hard work, because there is hard work to be done.”