MIAMI, Florida — President of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), Gordon Derrick, says he is happy with the overall organisation of the ongoing Caribbean Championship in his native Antigua and Barbuda, but conceded that some things “could have been done differently”.

“I am very happy with how the organisation has gone; it has been very smooth and we have not had any complaints from any of the teams…

“The tournament was put together in short order and without a major sponsor, and that’s a testament of the organising committee here,” said the Antiguan, who was elected to lead the regional body in the aftermath of the cash-for-vote scandal that cast a shadow over the game.

“We have only had minor things and we are not perfect, but just a little thing here and there… but when all is said and done, the organisation has been firstclass,” Derrick told the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday, the day defending champions Jamaica were eliminated from the tournament.

With empty stadiums a feature of the 10-day competition that ends today, Gordon conceded that the timing of the tournament was perhaps not the best.

“Honestly, I thought it was a great idea to host the tournament on the holiday weekend (Heroes Day), but in retrospect, we should have had it a week before so it wouldn’t clash with the holiday, or a week after, but that would have been too close to Christmas,” he noted.

“If we could have our way, we would try to shift the tournament to June or July so that every team would be at full strength. We just came out of a turmoil (cash-forvote scandal)… we have to sit down at the CFU executive level to see how we can twist it around to see how we can get a better timing,” said Gordon, who is also the general secretary of the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association (ABFA).

Last weekend, the tournament “came up against a lot of competition”, with a local play featuring the popular Shebada in Town, a car racing competition and an international half-marathon.

The football executive, as he laments the financial loss accrued with the hosts and regional kingpins Jamaica eliminated at the preliminary stage of the championship, put a positive spin on it all: “It’s a disaster from a gate point of view for the Antigua and Barbuda FA, but from a CFU point of view, it’s excellent. In fact, it brings some parity, no longer do you have dominant Jamaica or dominant Trinidad… right now everybody is competing,” noted Derrick.

“For me, I think that is something that we should build on, something that we have to look at… As the president of the CFU, the aim is to become the dominant sub-confederation in CONCACAF. So by the 2018 World Cup, instead of two or three countries qualifying from Central America, it would be two or three coming from the Caribbean,” he added.

Derrick, who came to the fore of Caribbean football when he announced his candidacy for the CFU top job after the untimely resignation of the longserving Austin ‘Jack’ Warner, said the Caribbean Cup is being run without a title sponsor.

“The ball must roll and not because we are coming out of our turmoil with some issues with FIFA and the Bin Hamamam and Jack Warner situation, we could as a union cancel the Caribbean Cup, that’s not going to happen,” he outlined.

“So we did what we had to do (and) begged CONCACAF a bit. The Antiguan Government was happy to have the tournament here, so they put in a little thing.

“The local organisation put in a little thing and minor local sponsors did theirs,” Derrick added. The budget to host the tournament, he disclosed, is “around US$500,000 (J$45-m) ball park”.

Cuba from Jamaica’s Group B were due to meet Trinidad and Tobago from the other zone in the final at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium last evening. Martinique and Haiti were scheduled to play for third spot.

Cuba clipped Haiti, 1-0, to book their spot to the final in their semi-final play-offs on Friday, while Trinidad defeated Martinique 5-4 on penalties after being locked at 1-1 after regulation and extra time. The winners will pocket US$120,000 (J$10.8 million).