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Mussenden appointed to new FIFA committee

Bermuda Football Association president Larry Mussenden has been appointed to a committee tasked with repairing the tarnished reputation of the scandal-plagued Caribbean Football Union.Mussenden recently went to a two-day meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, attended by the 30 member nations of the CFU as well as FIFA president Sepp Blatter where the normalisation committee was formed.Made up of members from Haiti, Cuba, Grenada, Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Curacao and Jamaica, the committee will execute various tasks on behalf of the CFU.In essence it will act as the CFU’s executive committee until a new one is appointed at the ordinary congress, which will be held within the next six months.In the meantime, the committee will convene an extraordinary congress to approve new statutes for the CFU in the upcoming 90 days and appoint an interim general secretary, as well as a legal, finance and football committee.Angenie Kanhai resigned as CFU general secretary earlier this month due to “emotional, psychological and physical” pressure.Kanhai helped FIFA investigate a cash-for-votes scandal that led to 16 CFU officials receiving sanctions for their roles in the infamous Trinidad and Tobago meeting in May.Kanhai is understood to have provided crucial evidence that helped bring down former Concacaf chief Jack Warner and his ex-Asian Football Confederation counterpart Mohamed Bin Hammam.Warner has since resigned from all football related activities while Hammam was banned for life after being found guilty of attempting to buy votes in FIFA’s presidential electionThe BFA were one of the whistle-blowers that helped lift the lid on the worst corruption scandal to blight the sport’s world governing body.Mussenden admitted the normalisation committee had plenty of work to do but was confident they could reach their goals within their “tight time-frame”.“I have been appointed on to the committee because of legal background,” said Mussenden, who is chairman of the FIFA appeals committee.“FIFA president Sepp Blatter attended the meeting and encouraged all members to work hard resolving how to chart the way forward.“We have a tight time-frame but there are enough people on the committee to do what needs to be done and I’m looking forward to working with the other committee members.”Yves Jean-Bart (Haiti), Luis Hernandez (Cuba), Victor Daniel (Grenada), Jeffrey Webb (Cayman Islands), Ronald Jones (Barbados), Everton Gonsalves (Antigua and Barbuda), Rignaal Francisca (Curacao), and Captain Horace Burrell (Jamaica) who will assume his position on January 16 after completing his suspension, are the other members of the committee.Blatter, who invited the CFU representatives to FIFA, said: “I am very pleased that the representatives of the CFU have reached an agreement in order to move forward and to look into the future, for the good of the game in the region.”