Gordon Barlow

There are bound to be many BE members with a close interest in this scandal. All followers of football ("soccer" to North Americans and Australians) will surely be interested to follow developments, and this could be a very long-lasting thread!

As you'd expect, there's a huge hoo-hah here, which finds expats and native-born Caymanians on opposite sides of the fence. Not only was the Vice President of FIFA - a born-and-bred "bloodline" Caymanian, at that - one of the seven officials arrested and now languishing in a Swiss jail, but one of our half-dozen commercial banks is strongly suspected of processing some of the FIFA bribes money. Also, the head of our Monetary Authority is married to one of the attendees at the fiasco in Switzerland. It could hardly be worse - or so you might think...

The Editor of our daily newspaper (he an immigrant expat of long standing) took the opportunity to lambast Cayman and Caymanians in general for tolerating a culture of corruption. At this, our less-than-sophisticated Premier (another bloodline Caymanian, and leader of the generally acknowledged anti-expat political party) went bananas. Rejecting the accusation as an insult to all Caymanians and residents, he labelled the paper's Editorial "treasonous", and persuaded the local legislators to resolve to pull all government advertising from the paper forever more. Cripes!

The radio talk-programs ran hot with so much hostility that the Editor and his wife feared for their personal safety and fled to Florida in a chartered plane. Where they remain to this day.

We are all agog, here, and don't know what will happen next. The Editor was unwise to flee, the Premier was a fool to lose his rag, and his cronies were silly to go nuclear on the newspaper. It's a majorly divisive issue, you can be sure.

I have blogged about the issue, but don't want to clog up this present comment with too much detail.

Gordon Barlow

There seems to be complete silence on this story now. Does anybody know what's happening?

Gordon Barlow

For those wanting to keep up... http://www.compassdatadesk.com/

The Editor of the paper returned to the Island just last Friday, and was photographed driving around in a convertible with the hood down, accompanied by a security guard. He's probably wise to have the guard; there's a lot of hostility towards him from among the native-Caymanian community. Our Premier is reported as saying he will not revoke the ban on government advertising until the Editor apologises for his editorial of 3rd June. Unfortunately, that's a true indicator of how childish our political class is.

Orangepants

Thanks, very interesting. My OH used to work for in CI Soccer and was not a great fan of Mr.W even then.

Gordon Barlow

Hi Orange. It's always good to see you posting. Your OH didn't partake of any of the freebie trips to Geneva, then, I gather...!

Orangepants

No he didn't get any freebies at all as they siphoned off all the money for their own benefits. He barely ever got paid. Most restaurants wouldn't allow them to host dinners because they never paid their bills.

We had Mr W as a reference for our green card application which Me thinks now is not a good idea!

Gordon Barlow

I don't suppose Orangepants is the only BE member who will be interested in these two items in today's newspaper.
https://www.caymancompass.com/2016/0...ns-were-graft/
https://www.caymancompass.com/2016/0...ving-sentence/

I've been appointed to a new and independent (...) committee to review FIFA's program in Cayman, but we haven't met yet. There's always the possibility that my appointment will be vetoed, since I have "form" as someone who is rather too independent for politicians' comfort. Watch this space.

Orangepants

Very interesting Gordon.. Good luck with the committee.

uk_grenada

Mark my words, next its going to be cricket... South African cricket braced for huge match-fixing scandal after evidence of corruption in Ram Slam T20 - Telegraph

Gordon Barlow

Well, I am indeed on the four-member Independent Review Committee, which was set up at the instigation of the Executive Committee of CIFA, our local football association and a voting member of FIFA. Our advertised purpose is to clear the CIFA Executive of any blame for the misapplication (if any) of the US$2 1/2 million paid by FIFA to local contractors to build offices and a football pitch in the years since 2002. Once we have satisfied ourselves of the truth, of course.

The local Executive Committee didn't do themselves any favours by requiring us to sign a confidentiality agreement before they gave us any relevant information. Naturally enough, the four of us decided not to sign, and that's where things stand at the moment. Some of the CIFA chaps have been off in Zurich mixing with the great and the good this weekend, so we don't know what their reaction will be to our early rebellion. The whole thing may fizzle out with nothing accomplished.

dfjordan

keep at it Gordon! There's not many of us old folks left who believe in such things as ethics, and cant be bought. Please keep us posted. Knowing the kind of person you are, I dont understand how you got onto tne commitee but it's great that you are.

Gordon Barlow

Thanks, dfj, but it's in the nature of a public service. The local football program is very good at keeping kids off the streets who might otherwise mess up their lives. It's be a pity if they were discouraged because of any local corruption. (I don't even like football, particularly, being a Rugby League fan from way back!)

Orangepants

Cant believe they are off on a jolly in Switzerland when this story is unfolding daily. Confidentiality agreement - that is hilarious!!

Gordon Barlow

The latest from The Guardian:
UK offshore tax havens at heart of US investigation into World Cup corruption | Football | The Guardian

No developments locally. Our little Committee is on the verge of retiring from the field. We're holding out for an all-expenses-paid trip to Zurich, Orange! (No, I'm joking... I think.)

Orangepants

And now the Panama Papers - wonder what other scandals will be brought forth.

I bet there are many people around the world thinking - If only we had given the US the World Cup then so much of this FIFA laundry would have remained buried.

Kudos to the yanks for getting pissed!