SENIOR Caribbean football official Captain Horace Burrell was yesterday banned for six months by FIFA for his alleged role in a bribery case involving former FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hammam, plunging the region’s football authorities deeper into chaos.

Burrell, a long time ally of former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner and a member of FIFA’s disciplinary committee, must now withdraw his candidacy in the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) presidential election scheduled for next month.

FIFA’s Ethics Committee ruled that three months of Burrell’s ban will be deferred for a probationary period of two years.

Yesterday, Burrell, the president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), said he would not be appealing the FIFA Ethics Committee’s decision and that he understood the reason behind it.

“Even if some of the sanctions are very severe, I understand that FIFA needs to put an end to individual wrongdoing and bad practice if the evidence proves that individuals have engaged in reprehensible conduct,” Burrell said in a statement.

The JFF president was remorseful as he said his initial decision not to co-operate with the foreign investigators was an error on his part.

“Those of us who live the Caribbean reality will understand my reluctance, while people who are unfamiliar with our Caribbean history will take offence, which is what happened, and for which I now suffer the consequences.”

“A majority of the Caribbean football officials who had participated at the CFU meeting in Port of Spain had objected to the initial interviews being conducted outside of the Caribbean. This was consequent to the many statements emanating from the different sides and the lack of clarity on how the investigations were to be conducted.

“The outcry against that original procedure was such that the venue was eventually changed and hearings were set for the Caribbean, in Nassau, Bahamas. Looking back, I have tried to see the reasoning behind the original approach, as it was put forward to us by CONCACAF and FIFA; and despite the fact that I have now suffered the consequences for my original assessment, I maintain that it was the right thing to do to protest against the fact that CFU members were ordered to a territory outside of the Caribbean to be questioned and testify. I accept that I possibly decided to co-operate with the investigation too late, but that was my decision at the time and I stand by it while, accepting the sanction which resulted from my lack of cooperation in the initial phase of the investigation,” Burrell said.

Burrell, who will have to relinquish his positions as JFF boss and vice-president of the CFU for the next three months, said that if it was the local body’s decision that he step down from the presidency altogether then he would oblige, adding that he had no reason to doubt that he would be readmitted at the end of the three-month suspension.

Meanwhile, the JFF announced in a release late last evening that its first vice-president Dale Spencer would immediately assume responsibility as acting president in keeping with Clause 13 of the JFF bye-laws.

The release went on to say that Spencer would consult with the JFF’s Executive Committee regarding further action as a consequence of this development and that the country would be subsequently advised.

Since the bribery scandal broke in May, the CONCACAF continental body has seen its top three elected Caribbean officials — Warner, Burrell and Lisle Austin — either resign while under investigation or be banned by FIFA.

Three other Caribbean officials also received bans.

Franka Pickering, president of the British Virgin Islands federation and one of the most senior women in world football, was suspended for 18 months.

FIFA issued 30-day bans to Osiris Guzman, president of the Dominican Republic Football Federation, and St Vincent and the Grenadines general secretary Ian Hypolite. Fifteen days of their sanctions were deferred for six months.

The ethics panel met for three days this week to weigh evidence of CFU members allegedly accepting US$40,000 cash payments from bin Hammam in May.

The Qatari official made a campaign visit to Trinidad, the home island of then-CFU leader Warner, to woo voters during his challenge to FIFA President Sepp Blatter. Bin Hammam was banned for life by FIFA in July.

Yesterday’s verdicts extend a trail of damage across Caribbean football, with Burrell having been favoured to win a four-candidate poll in Jamaica on November 20 to succeed Warner as CFU leader. Burrell’s bid was ultimately ended by his own voters.

Whistle-blowers from four Caribbean countries sparked the probe by telling CONCACAF’s American general secretary Chuck Blazer that brown envelopes stuffed with US$100 bills were being offered in a Port of Spain hotel.

Blazer’s alert to FIFA led the football body to hire former FBI director Louis Freeh’s investigation agency to interview Caribbean officials and gather evidence for the ethics panel.

Burrell and Pickering both featured in a video leaked this week of Warner addressing officials on May 11, the day after they listened to bin Hammam’s pitch and were offered money.

When Warner is filmed telling his members they can refuse the cash gift and give it to a fellow member in need, Pickering smiles, raises her hand and is acknowledged by Warner.

FIFA’s ethics panel reprimanded three other officials yesterday: St Kitts and Nevis football president Anthony Johnson, US Virgin Islands president Hillaren Frederick and Aubrey Liburd, vicepresident of the British Virgin Islands football body.

Five others received warnings, including FIFA committee members Yves Jean-Bart, the Haiti football president, and Richard Groden, Trinidad and Tobago’s general secretary.

Former international referee Mark Bob Forde was also warned, along with his fellow Barbados official David Hinds and JFF general secretary Horace Reid.

FIFA said it dropped cases against David Fredericks of the Cayman Islands and Joseph Delves of St Vincent and the Grenadines because they had left the sport.

“Should they return to football official positions, their cases would be examined again by the Ethics Committee,” FIFA said in a statement.

FIFA did not give the officials the same “presumption of innocence” it accorded Warner in June when the 28-year Executive Committee veteran resigned rather than face sanctions.

However, the reputation of Warner’s Caribbean football empire lies shattered after the sanctions announced yesterday.

Another of Warner’s long-standing allies, Colin Klass of Guyana, received a 26-month ban from FIFA’s ethics panel last month.

FIFA banned Barbados official Austin for one year after he used a civil court in The Bahamas to pursue his bid, as interim president of CONCACAF, to fire Blazer in what was seen as an act of revenge on Warner’s behalf.

Also yesterday, FIFA said a hearing into the case of Guyana official Noel Adonis was postponed and a case left open into the conduct of St Lucia official Patrick Mathurin.

FIFA cleared Felix Ledesma of the Dominican Republic of committing any violation.

After the scandal emerged, bin Hammam withdrew his election bid three days before the FIFA vote in June. He denies bribery and is appealing his life ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Blatter ran unopposed and won a fourth four-year presidential term. He was endorsed by 186 FIFA members, including most Caribbean islands.

FIFA’s Executive Committee meets next week for the first time since the election, and will probably do so without a Caribbean delegate because the process of replacing Warner was stalled by Austin’s legal action.

Blatter is scheduled to provide the first details of his promised anti-corruption project to clean up world football and its damaged image next Friday.