President Randy Harris, weak but strong

President of Barbados Football Association (BFA) Randy Harris has occupied the office although the performance of Barbados football has slipped to an embarrassing level during his tenure.

BFA President Randy Harris and FIFA President Gianni Infantino 

It helps us to stay healthy, fit, and active. It teaches us the value of teamwork and encourages us to work hard and never give up. Sports also help us develop discipline, dedication, and commitment, which are essential values for success in life. It is also a great way for people to socialize and make new friends.

EDUCBA

It must be obvious sports is not only everything EDUCBA describes, it is also a trillion dollar global business. Where there are big business decisions being made expect to find political factors at play and corruption.

The world’s most popular sport is football (soccer). In recent weeks a controversy triggered by suspended president of the Spanish Football Federation Luis Rubiales planting a kiss on a female player in his exuberance at Spain winning the women’s World Cup, and the ensuing debate amplifies the importance placed on holding on to executive positions in sports, especially soccer. In the face of global condemnation he refuses to resign.

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Jack Warner Arrested

Jack Warner will be recorded as one of the most enigmatic politicians of our time. His popularity as a politician in Trinidad belies the underhand dealings he has been associated with through the years in his capacity as Vice President of FIFA and Czar of the football operations in Trinidad.

The David Simmons report logged on BU blog World Cup 2014: Mohamed Bin Hammam, Jack Warner and Corruption @FIFA exposed Warner for who he is,  corrupt to the very core. BU unsuccessfully requested from Warner’s staff a copy of the Affidavit he (Warner) Continue reading

World Cup Soccer – The Organized Criminal Religion, That It Is!

Submitted by Pachamama

... favelas that housed the poor were destroyed to make room for new construction ...

… favelas that housed the poor were destroyed to make room for new construction …

As the World Cup of Soccer enters the knock out phase we are closer to a declared winner, on the field. But regardless of the nation state that will hoist the trophy, FIFA will always be the real winner. The Fédération Internationale de Football Association, as founded in 1904, has grown up to be a leading beneficiary of the generalized misguidance of the vast majority of human beings wanting to believe in something. For the structure of FIFA represents God-like powers which are not unlike those of the Holy See, in particular, and religion more generally.

That structure makes sure that any country hosting the games are guaranteed to do this on the backs of the poor, the dispossessed, the national treasury. These games have never, financially, benefited any country but FIFA has more than a billion dollars in the Bank and has an ability to tax nations without representation. While stadia all over the world remain underutilized, empty and decaying as a result of these very world games. Ask the South Africans! That bank balance will increase from the series of religious revivals now going on in Brazilian cities. And this business model under the rubric of a false social formation remains as persistent as ever, if not more so. Its simple, they privatize  incomes and publicize the debt. This is corporate welfare.

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World Cup 2014: Mohamed Bin Hammam, Jack Warner and Corruption @FIFA

Jack Warner (l) Mohamed Bin Hammam (r)

Jack Warner (l) Mohamed Bin Hammam (r)

There is the saying if you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. Mohamed Bin Hammam, the former FIFA Vice President is back in the news. Unlike Caribbean media international journalists take the business of investigative reporting seriously. The Sunday Times has gone public with a report Hammam  used slush funds to make dozens of payments to senior football officials which resulted in the decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar – Sunday Times report: Qatar 2022 World Cup bid faces fresh corruption claims.

Many in the Caribbean in and out of government will again have to hold their collective breath at the thought, if there is smoke there must be fire. Enter Jack Warner bosom buddy of Hammam. The Sunday Times report accuses Hammam of funneling more than $1.6 million directly into bank accounts controlled by Warner, including $450,000 before the vote. Warner resigned from football duties, including his 28-year membership of FIFA’s committee, in June 2011 to avoid investigation in a bribery scandal linked to Bin Hammam’s campaign for FIFA president.

Jack Warner is no stranger to controversy and he is definitely no stranger to staving off accusations of corruption from all quarters. Many have forgotten the findings of Sir David Simmons’ CONCACAF Integrity Committee report which was damning it its conclusion that Warner engaged in nefarious activity while he was Vice President of FIFA.

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Removing the Funding Veil at the Barbados Football Association

Submitted by St. George’s Dragon

Randall Harris, President of theBarbados Football Association

Randall Harris, President of the Barbados Football Association

Interesting article on FIFA’s activities in the Caribbean here: http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21573977-another-fifa-scandal-bonus-money.

No mention of Barbados but under the Barbados FIFA section here: http://www.fifa.com/associations/association=brb/development-activities/goal/index.html it lists a new headquarters in Bridgetown costing $600,000 (presumably US$).

I remember reading something about the pitch and how it was not installed right. Can anyone update us on the new headquarters? Does it prove Barbados to be an exception among football associations in the Caribbean? Are we actually spending the money as we should?

Jack Warner Matter: Another Blog Being Given the Squeeze

Jack Warner BEFORE he resigned from FIFA

Jack Warner BEFORE he resigned from FIFA

BU stated in its recent blog when attacked by Ontario counsel for Barbados resident, Eugene Melnyk:

“BU will unhesitatingly side with any blog on which bully boy tactics are attempted, even if it is Barbados Free Press (BFP) – indeed, on the sole occasion that BU did take up cudgels on this issue – it was on behalf of BFP, believe it or not. Reciprocation is, of course, not anticipated.”

BU understands that such an attack has been made on BFP in relation to the FIFA and other issues involving Jack Warner and that BFP has been ordered to remove its reporting on Jack Warner by WordPress.

BU has also carried reporting on Jack Warner and therefore considers the instruction to BFP to remove its reporting to be completely out of order and has no problem with BFP providing the link to this blog to WordPress as being BU’s condemnation of their instructions and its support for BFP in these circumstances only.

Related Link: Eugene Melnyk Puts the Squeeze On Barbados Underground

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Minister Ronald Jones Sagging Under The Weight Of Two Hats – What Human Development Strategy What!?!

Minister of Education and Human Resource, Ronald Jones

… AND WHEREAS this Human Resource Development strategy is aimed at empowering citizens to actively contribute to sustainable growth and development in a dynamic, global and competitive economy’…

Human Resource Development Strategy 2011-2016

We live in what is described as an increasingly global competitive economy which makes a tiny country like Barbados – with scare natural resources – very vulnerable to what economists delight in describing as exogenous shocks. To maintain our standard of living which strives on consumption expenditure, there is consensus we will have to rely on services for the foreseeable future; until Barbados is able to discover black gold or other eureka finds to reduce reliance on tourism and international business.

Singapore is held up as the model for service-based economies. The efficiency of its civil and private sectors along with the ancillary services is a key attribute to the competitive advantage Singapore has built over time. We must be honest and recognize that the discipline which exist for Singapore to achieve what it has is derived from a command and control approach operating in a ‘dictatorship-like’ system. If Barbados is to be able to compete draconian changes will be required both in the public and private sectors to improve efficiencies.

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Jack Warner ‘Whistled’ In Bribing CONCACAF Officials Scandal

Jack Warner (left) and Mohamed Bin Hammam Photo: AP

Of course BU respects the legal principle embraced by our justice system which says that a man is innocent until proved guilty but…. It is difficult to fathom that a man whose fame and fortune has been defined by his leadership role on the regional and international soccer stage for the last 27 years, would resign from the position ‘sudden so’. The fact Jack Warner has done so three days after reading the Fifa Ethics Report investigating bribery charges leveled against him and Bin Hammam leads one to believe Warner’s attempt to call Fifi’a bluff using intimidatatory  ‘speak’ was called and he was found to be offside. BU also suspects Warner will be used by Sepp Blatter and Fifa as the poster boy for all the evil deals which Fifa has been accused of transacting through the years .

Now that Warner has been ‘whistled’, one wonders how Barbadian Lisle Austin must be feeling after garnering Warner’s unreserved support to replace him. BU suggests it is a support which the Barbadian could have done without. If Austin is successful in his election bid to fill the position, a horrible stink will always permeate the atmosphere everywhere he conducts Fifa business. He is a Barbadian and normally his countrymen would feel pride were he to be successful in his bid to become one of the most powerful men in world sport but ….

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Jack Warner Embroiled In FIFA Bribe Scandal Over England's 2018 World Cup Bid

Lord Triesman's allegations has fingered Minister of Transportation Jack Warner

The allegation by English officials that four FIFA members acted inappropriately is beginning to gain some traction in the United Kingdom. A Lord no less has been leading the charge. To be fair to Jack Warner and the other three, Lord Triesman has issued his claim using the cloak of parliamentary privilege. “The Football Association has commissioned an independent review by a leading barrister [James Dingemans QC] of claims of misconduct by four Fifa members during England’s 2018 World Cup bid campaign.” There is talk in the UK this morning that there was a witness to Lord Triesman’s chat which means this issue is on a path to being a major scandal.

For many years many stories which alleged corrupt behaviour by Jack Warner have surfaced only to blow away with the strong backing he received from FIFA; a very influential body. The English are known to be bulldogs when seeking out corrupt behaviour, has Jack bitten off more than he can munch on this one?

Follow the story of Sky News

Crooks, Tax Dodgers & Scurrilous Sporting Soccer Officials: How Are FIFA Executives Able To Get Away With Highway Robbery While Petty Criminals Do Hard Time?

Submitted by Terence Blackett

 

On the eve of Britain’s FIFA World Cup Bid 2018 in Zurich, a Panorama documentary again highlights and exposes the sheer cesspit of corruption endemic within this monolithic, monopolistic organization controlled by Sepp Blater (who for all intents and purposes is the proverbial “fox” guarding a multibillion dollar hen house).

The three FIFA bosses in the news piece are being cited for dodgy insider dealings with ISL (a Swiss consortium) accused of paying huge sums of money for commissions when in actuality they were nothing more than bribes, kick-backs and dubiously secretive payments for God knows what – routed, deposited and shrouded in the murky offshore tax-haven world of Liechtenstein.

But what is remarkable in this film and from the reports was the historical track record surrounding Trinidad “don” and CONCACAF football cartel BOSS* as well as Sepp Blater’s Gestapo Lieutenant – Jack Warner, who as a West Indian and a Caribbean power-broker is portrayed as nothing more than a miserable ingrate, a chauvinistic swine, a nasty piece of work and a pathetic excuse for a human being.

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