FIFA Club World Cup 2011 Final Ceremony...

Happy Halloween, Ho, Ho, Ho...

Statement from Petrus Damaseb

Reacting to allegations from Jack A. Warner against him, Petrus Damaseb has issued the following statement :

"The only thing I remember is an invitation to dinner at the palatial residence of Mr Bin Hammam while I was attending a FIFA Congress in Qatar in 2003, together with other FA presidents, and receiving a watch from Bin Hammam (a customary gift in football) which I still have and treasure and which I accepted to be a gift to me as Namibian FA president and a token and expression of his hospitality and friendship. As NFA president I received many watches as gifts either from host Associations or their functionaries or from FIFA. I was not the president of the NFA when Blatter was first elected in 1998 and had never met Blatter, Warner and Bin Hammam while they were on a ‘worldwide crusade’ (as Warner puts it) for Blatter’s election or re-election as the case may be. It is a pity that Warner has chosen to engage in a smear campaign founded on falsehoods and to cast aspersions on my character for doing my job as a volunteer to World football."

PT Damaseb
Deputy Chairman
FIFA ETHICS COMMITTEE
19 October 2011

Happy Birthday Shep...

Shep Messing (born October 9, 1949 in The Bronx, New York) is a former American soccer goalkeeper and current broadcaster. He played seven seasons in the North American Soccer League and six in the Major Indoor Soccer League. He was also a member of the U.S. soccer team at the 1972 Summer Olympics. He is a really good guy; he knows the sport and is a great friend. Enjoy this birthday. You and this day are both special.

Welcome Miss Universe to New York...

50th High School Reunion...

It seemed quite impossible, but here it was, my 50th High School Reunion. Last night at the Edison Ballroom in New York City, the Class of 61 joined together in a celebration of a half century of memories and accomplishment. For me, it was my first class reunion. While I have had very little contact with my fellow high school graduates, it was a refreshing opportunity to relive memories and hear the stories of the roads people have taken to the present. It was a really nice evening and an extraordinary experience.

A very cool young lady...

Irene in New York... All rain. No pain!

Since my Birthday...

Since my birthday in April, I have only made posts on my blog a couple of times. Once to show a video interview of me on the way into FIFA for the meeting of the Executive Committee in May following the initial suspensions of the Warner/Bin Hammam case brought by me to the Ethics Committee; and the other set of videos coming from the CONCACAF website dealing with the magic of this year's Gold Cup competition.

I considered both of those very important and broke my self imposed silence on the blog to see that I memorialized those two watershed events.

Once the issue of the Elections and the Trinidad meeting became news, my blog became the source of pictures of a lifestyle that many bloggers found objectionable. I was proud to know and happy to share those moments with you the readers of this blog. Instead, others used them to poke fun at me and my family and the pictures gave them a wealth of material to draw whatever fanciful conclusions they wished to make about many of the people found on these pages.

As a consequence, at least during the period from when the cases were initiated on May 29th, I chose to avoid doing my normal writing and posting of pictures to allow the legal process the greatest latitude of working independently of any influence or noise from me. I had done my part. The Ethics Code required me in Article 14.1 as follows: Officials shall report any evidence of violations of conduct to the FIFA Secretary General, who shall report it to the competent body.

The cases brought on May 29th are closed. No longer am I inhibited by those open issues. There are new issues on the table daily and new things that I am learning. CONCACAF has been inhibited in expressing its position due to the action taken in the Bahamas Court by Lisle Austin and therefore has not been able to respond to many of the issues which are being faced by the organization.

I expect, in my role as a member of FIFA's Executive Committee, I will be able to continue to express myself on important topics which face our region and plan to do so over the coming days and weeks. I look forward to filling the vacuum with real information.

Gold Cup Final Highlights...

A Taste of Gold Cup 2011...

Celebrating Gold Cup 2011...

May 31st... prior to Exco Meeting in Zurich

Birthday Celebration at the Office...

Thanks for all the good wishes received by email, phone, fax and facebook.

First MLS team in the Champions League Finals...

Marci's birthday at Red Bull Arena...

Mary Lynn decorated the room at Red Bull Arena for a kids birthday. Balloons, streamers, birthday signs, red table clothes and party cups and napkins. Brought in special cup cakes and a few presents. Everyone was certain it was for one of the little guys running around in the suite. Nope!!!

It was their Mom's birthday. Marci was 43. It is important to remember that you are never too old for a kid's birthday party.

As a special treat, Luke Rodgers nailed two into the back of the net in the first fifteen minutes and then pressed the rest of the game until he fed a perfect ball to Thierry Henry who ended his scoring drought with a well taken header to round out a 3-0 win over the San Jose Earthquakes.

Good friend and wonderful man...

Blazer still backing FIFA despite his criticism...

Reuters - 3/7/11

FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer criticised his colleagues on world soocer's governing body last week but still believes its decision-making process is sound and reflects a worldwide consensus.

The portly 65-year-old American with the Santa Claus beard, a member of the powerful exco for the last 15 years, joined FIFA's critics after his colleagues refused to give his CONCACAF confederation an extra place at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Nevertheless, he told Reuters in an interview that while no major organisation can please everyone all the time, FIFA's "representative democracy" cannot be bettered.

Blazer was not slow to complain when he thought the exco got last week's decision wrong and quickly informed followers on his Twitter account of his chagrin at the outcome.

He was upset that the North and Central American and Caribbean countries will only have three finalists -- and possibly a fourth through the playoffs.

While CONCACAF are stuck with the same 3.5 places they had for last year's World Cup in South Africa, there will possibly be six South American countries at Brazil 2014, out of the 10 vying for places in the qualifiers, and five from Africa.

Last week Blazer described the exco decision not to change the allocation of slots "completely ludicrous," adding a criticism people often level at FIFA: "Everyone was protecting their own interests rather than doing what was right".

But he defended the world governing body to Reuters when he said: "In any group where you have different points of view, you will always have dissatisfaction with decisions that are taken.

"FIFA has to deal with the passions and interests of people... When it comes to football, your feeling is always based on passion. That's a great thing, but it also happens to make us the target of criticism when it comes down to it.

"Even my own criticism last week regarding CONCACAF's number of teams in the 2014 World Cup came from passion. But we are a representative democracy.

"There are 24 people from all around the world on the FIFA exco and we represent a lot of different points of view. But, as far as I am concerned, you cannot get better than a representative democracy."

IFAB STRUCTURE

Blazer was talking after the annual meeting of the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the body responsible for formulating the laws of the game.

Formed in 1886, for many years it was a little known offshoot comprising the British associations and FIFA that quietly tinkered around with the laws.

It now attracts lots of media attention especially when debating issues like goal-line technology or five-man refereeing systems. Blazer, naturally, has an interesting view of IFAB.

"It is not an anachronism, but the problem with IFAB from my perspective is that there are times when all eight members are from Europe -- we had that a couple of years ago.

"There are four statutory members from the British associations. We had the president and the general secretary of FIFA, the president of UEFA and the president of the referees' committee and that gave us all eight from Europe.

"That was not very good for the rest of the world.

"For example, IFAB this year has sanctioned the further testing of the five-man referee system for Euro 2012 with the additional assistant referees behind the goal but it's a different environment in Europe than it is elsewhere.

"How do we train extra referees? How do we recruit them in the rest of the world?

"I think, in some ways, IFAB is too narrow a group but, as long as they don't assume any responsibility for the way the game is played but are responsible as the custodians of the laws of the game, then it's not the worst thing in the world."

Blazer, though, is pleased the experiment with goal-line technology is continuing for another year.

"I know the debate was closed and then reopened but we need to do whatever we can to make the World Cup and the major events the best we can.

"As we live in a technological world, the more time you give for technology to prove itself, the more opportunities there are for the right answer to come along, so I am not concerned about the fact there is another year of experiments.

"If we can find something to make the game better, so be it."

125th Annual IFAB Meeting in Wales...

Blazer blasts World Cup decision...

Reprinted from ESPNSoccernet

FIFA's decision to allow South America a possible six slots at the 2014 World Cup has been blasted as "completely ludicrous'' by Chuck Blazer, the FIFA executive committee member from the USA and secretary general of CONCACAF.

FIFA will retain the same number of World Cup places for each confederation for the 2014 tournament but Brazil will take the hosts' spot given to South Africa for 2010.

South America has just 10 countries in its confederation CONMEBOL and already had four definite places without the hosts' spot, and the chance of another via a play-off.

Blazer also questioned why Africa should have five spots compared to CONCACAF's 3.5 given their relatively poor showing in the World Cup.

Blazer said: "It is completely ludicrous. I'm a great supporter of South American football but for them to have a possible six countries out of 10 is absurd. People say the hosts have always qualified as an extra but that is not true. The last two times we hosted the World Cup, in Mexico in 1986 and USA in 1994, we didn't get an extra spot - we only had two. Why should South America get an extra one? Everyone is protecting their own interests rather than doing what's right.''

CONCACAF had argued that with 40 member nations, one fifth of FIFA's total, they should have four automatic slots rather three with one possible via a play-off.

Blazer also pointed out that the success of Mexico and the USA in qualifying from the group stage of the 2010 finals contrasted with Africa, where Ghana was the only country from that continent to advance.

He added: "We had a 67% success rate, Africa had a 16% success. If Africa can go from two places to five in the last 14 years, why can we not go from two to four. This decision also means we will have to completely re-do our whole qualifying system.''

Prince Ali bin Al Hussein visits New York...

I had the pleasure of being the host for the visit to CONCACAF of FIFA's new Vice President Elect from Asia. Prince Ali is also the President of the Jordanian Football Federation. I really enjoyed his visit. He is an intelligent young man dedicated to improving football in his region. I am happy to support him in those goals and objectives.

Doing Disney...

It has been more than 30 years since I cruised the parks of Disney World in Orlando. What my visit on Sunday proved is you never get too old for Disney to be fun.

Musically speaking...

Rudy Perez and his wife Betsy enjoy a breakfast meeting with Chuck Blazer to talk about musical plans for the many CONCACAF projects that are in the works.



(From Wikipedia: Rudy Perez is a Cuban American composer, producer and Sound engineer, whose songs have been very successful. He is considered one of the most outstanding creators in the field of international pop music. His facility to write and produce hits makes him one of the top most sought after producer /songwriters in the music industry. To have a Rudy Perez song in your repertoire usually guarantees immediate success. Numerous top ten hits that his compositions have achieved during the last 20 years and any of them have remained in the top 1 for many consecutive weeks (between 9 and 11 weeks). He has composed over 600 songs written and produced hits for international artists such as Julio Iglesias, Raul di Blasio, Jaci Velasquez, Christian Castro, Christina Aguilera, Luis Fonsi, Marc Anthony, Jennifer López, Luis Miguel and Jose Feliciano among others.[1] His songs have been very successful as he won the Hot Latin Songs, being also the first composer and producer Hispanic win. He was chosen as producer of the year for four consecutive years. Also, the success of the songs he has composed and produced what has earned 30 gold records and 50 platinum and his work has been nominated also for 19 Latin Grammy,of which he got 5. He has been voted the most important Latin composer. He also won the title of Producer of the Decade in 2010, awarded by Billboard the most successful producer who had over ten years in the public's preference lists. He was elected the first president of the Florida branch (now a full chapter) of NARAS, and was instrumental in the establishment of the first Latin Grammy Awards, which premiered in 2000.)

Officials and Secretariat following UNCAF Congress in Panama...

Sunday night at the Stadium... Copa Centroamericana

CONCACAF Executive Committee in Panama...

I receive a service recognition award from new Panama directors...

Haiti U17 Awarded FIFA Fair Play Award...

I am very proud that FIFA accepted our nomination of the Haitian U17 Women's Team this year's FIFA Fair Play Award. The story was best told by ESPN E60 report aired on their network. Watch it below to gain an appreciation of the heart and courage of these young women. Congratulations to all of you.


Haiti’s standard bearers show the way
(FIFA.com) Monday 10 January 2011

This year’s FIFA Fair Play award went to Haiti’s U-17 women’s national team, who carried on bravely despite the worst kind of suffering, loss and pain following the devastating earthquake of January 2010.

Young members of the national team played on while the world crumbled around them. When the massive 7.0 earthquake of January 2010 ravaged the Caribbean nation, the team were training at the national stadium in the capital of Port au Prince, just 15 miles from the epicentre. The scenes surrounding the training session were nothing short of apocalyptic, with team members screaming out and crying in the noise and devastation of one of the largest earthquakes in the region’s turbulent and troubled history.

While the fear-stricken players were all sparred, their coach Jean-Yves Labaze - described as “like a father” to most of the team - was pinned down and killed by falling rubble while attending meetings in the nearby FA headquarters.

Losing not only a father figure in Labaze, nearly all members of the team lost actual family members and friends in the quake. Goalkeeper Alexandra Coby suffered the agony of losing her entire immediate family in the chaos that ensued. No one would have faulted them for pulling out of the CONCACAF qualifiers for the 2010 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup which were scheduled for Costa Rica a little over two months after the earthquake. But the girls summoned their strength and carried on, training in the Dominican Republic and Panama - who both welcomed the team to their facilities with open arms - while the national stadium in Port au Prince was used as a makeshift tent city.

“If there was no football, we would be nothing,” captain Hayana Jean Francois said, stunned by the after-effects of the earthquake that killed more than 230,000 of her fellow Haitians and left nearly one million homeless. Desperate to reach the first women’s world finals for Haiti, the girls came up short, losing 9-0 to the USA and 2-0 to hosts Costa Rica.

For their courage and strength, the Haitian girls were congratulated as heroes, for theirs was a triumph that transcended any football pitch. They are all worthy winners of the 2010 FIFA Fair Play award. I would like to thank FIFA for this prize. I want to share it with all the youngsters, especially the ones who are suffering. Haiti will get better." said Hayana Jean Francois after picking up the award on her team's behalf.

RAP Meeting in New York...