CAPTAIN Horace Burrell is back on the job after serving a three-month suspension imposed by FIFA’s Ethics Committee last October for unspecified violations related to the cash-for-votes scandal that threatened to topple regional football.

The suspension officially expired at midnight Saturday and Burrell hit the ground running the following day by attending the draw of the CONCACAF Under-20 Women’s Championship that took place in Miami Beach, Florida.

Burrell, who along with a number of high-ranking Caribbean Football Union (CFU) officials received suspensions in a sweeping move by FIFA, will have his first major assignment on home soil today when he meets with the board of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) in an afternoon session.

Immediately following that, Burrell will host a press conference at the JFF offices at 5:00 pm where he’s expected to address journalists about a wide range of issues, including his suspension and general announcements about the football programme.

During the life of the ban and its resulting expiration, Burrell has refused to speak with journalists, and is expected to do so for the first time this evening.

While serving his three months of a six-month suspension — three deferred to probation — Burrell was appointed by FIFA to a what has been called a Normalisation Committee to steer Caribbean football until a voting congress can be held to elect a new CFU president and executive.

Other members of the committee are Yves Jean-Bart (Haiti), Luis Hernandez (Cuba), Victor Daniel (Grenada), Jeffrey Webb (Cayman Islands), Larry Mussenden (Bermuda), Ronald Jones (Barbados), Everton Gonsalves (Antigua and Barbuda) and Rignaal Francisca (Curacao).

The JFF president was a candidate for the top CFU post prior to his suspension in the heat of campaigning, but those elections slated for Montego Bay in November were postponed due to what was deemed “a lack of funding”.

Burrell, who was acting in the position of CFU president after the resignation of long-serving Austin ‘Jack’ Warner, has been reinstated to all positions held prior to the FIFA sanction, except for that CFU portfolio.

As mandated by FIFA, he should resume his duties as president of the JFF, a member on CONCACAF’s executive committee and a member of FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee.

Caribbean football was thrown in a tailspin when some officials of the member territories were found liable for their roles in a vote-buying scandal that took place in the Trinidad and Tobago capital, Port-of-Spain last May.

It all started when then FIFA presidential candidate Mohammed bin Hammam met with the CFU membership and was accused of offering US$40,000, plus other gifts to each association to support him against the incumbent Joseph ‘Sepp’ Blatter in the June elections.

In the face of the ugly scandal, Bin Hammam later withdrew from the race, thus paving the way for Blatter to return for a fourth term unopposed.

Bin Hammam was later found guilty by the FIFA Ethics Committee and banned for life from all football-related activities. He is appealing the decision through the international arbiter, the Court of Arbitration for Sports.

A central figure in the drama, Trinidadian Warner, resigned all his posts in football to escape FIFA’s far-reaching probes and possible sanctions. Apart from being the CFU president, Warner also served as president of CONCACAF and a FIFA vice-president.

The former football strongman is now a senior government minister in his homeland of the twin-island republic.