Antiguan Gordon Derrick said he was “disappointed and concerned” with a FIFA ruling that effectively rendered him ineligible to contest the position of CONCACAF president.

Derrick, who is president of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), had failed mandatory integrity checks conducted by the world governing body on all three candidates for the vacant position to head the sub-continental grouping.

In a widely circulated statement on Tuesday, chairman of the FIFA Audit and Compliance Committee, Domenico Scala, confirmed the decision to bar the Antiguan.

Although Scala’s statement did not give specific reasons for Derrick’s failure to meet the committee’s integrity and eligibility standards “for privacy reasons”, it is common knowledge that it resulted, in the main, from a reprimand related to the Mohamed Bin Hammam affair in 2011.

Back then, FIFA’s ethics committee gave Derrick a reprimand for ”apparent violations” of its ethics code that occurred at a CFU meeting in Trinidad and Tobago on May 10-11 that year.

Caribbean football officials were alleged to have been offered or have received US$40,000 payments in the now infamous cash-for-vote scandal which occurred during the FIFA presidential campaign of Qatar’s Bin Hammam.

“The letter from Chairman of the Audit and Compliance Committee Mr Domenico Scala cited a November 17, 2011 reprimand following the Bin Hammam matter, for which I was fined (300 Swiss Francs), and an ongoing investigation that began over a year ago, on March 6, 2015,” Derrick said in a statement yesterday.

“I cannot be admitted as a candidate for the election to the office of FIFA vice-president. This, by extension, bars me from being a candidate for the CONCACAF presidency,” the statement added.

Derrick, 48, said he finds “it curious” a number of factors that came into play, and which ultimately impacted the outcome of the integrity appraisal process.

“I find it curious that the reprimand of 2011 was too minute to warrant an appeal and further that the principal person in the matter was vindicated upon his appeal, yet this was deemed significant enough to derail my candidacy.

“It is equally interesting that the investigation opened against me by the FIFA Ethics Committee has been prolonged for over a year and was used as the second plank upon which I was disqualified,” Derrick noted.

He said while he was disappointed with the committee ruling, he was not altogether “surprised” by it.

“Given the series of events leading up to this announcement, I am not surprised, but I am nonetheless disappointed and concerned. This disappointment and concern is not just for myself, (but) extends to football in the region and the course our development agenda seems set to take,” Derrick said.

The CFU boss’s ineligibility to contest the election due for Mexico City on May 12, was confirmed by a statement from the office of FIFA Audit and Compliance Committee chairman Domenico Scala on Tuesday.

“The Audit and Compliance Committee has concluded that one candidate, Mr Gordon Derrick from Antigua & Barbuda, could not be admitted as a candidate for the office of CONCACAF President nor FIFA vice-president nor the FIFA Council. For privacy reasons we are not in a position to go into further details with regard to this decision. The person concerned has been informed,” the statement said in part.

“The Audit and Compliance Committee has conducted eligibility checks with regard to several candidates for the office of CONCACAF president and FIFA vice-president, respectively, as well as for candidates for the office of member of the FIFA Council (CONCACAF),” the statement added.

Derrick’s departure from the race leaves only Canadian Soccer Association President Victor Montagliani and Bermudan Football Asssociation head Larry Mussenden to challenge for the position, which has been vacant since a US-led corruption probe has led to to the indictments of former President Caymanian Jeffrey Webb and acting president Alfredo Hawit of Honduras.

CONCACAF, which governs football in North and Central America and the Caribbean, is being run in the interim by a group of Executive Committee members.

CONCACAF has been at the heart of a US Justice Department probe into widespread corruption in the sport, which has led to the arrests of some 40 former football and marketing officials starting back in May, 2015.

Former long-serving CONCACAF president and FIFA vice-president Austin ‘Jack’ was indicated by a US grand jury in New York City last May on charges of racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy and money laundering. The Trinidadian is fighting extradition to the USA.

Warner’s successor, Webb, who was among those arrested last May in a predawn raid by police on a luxury Zurich hotel, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy charges.

As part of a deal with US prosecutors, Webb agreed to forfeit more than $6.7 million.

Honduran Alfredo Hawit, who acted as president after Webb’s indictment, was himself arrested last November. On Monday, he pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud conspiracy and one count each of racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

– Sean Williams