GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands (CNS) — FIFA has banned its former vice president, Cayman Islander Jeffrey Webb, from football for life and will be issuing a fine in excess of US$1 million to the former president of both CIFA and CONCACAF.In a statement on Friday from the scandal-rocked global football body, the adjudicatory chamber of its ethics committee announced the immediate life-long ban of Webb from all official football activities and said he was guilty of numerous violations of FIFA’s rules and code of ethics.

 Webb has already admitt

ed a catalogue of criminal offences relating to fraud during his time as a football boss and is still under house arrest in the US awaiting sentencing in November.

The FIFA Ethics Committee began its own investigation into Webb’s offences last May following his high-profile arrest in Zürich with a number of other officials. Headed by Dr Cornel Borbély, the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee found that Webb had breached article 13, relating to the general rules of conduct and code of ethics at FIFA, article 15, which, deals with loyalty; article 18, covering the duty of disclosure, cooperation and reporting; article 19, dealing with conflicts of interest; and article 21, relating to bribery and corruption.

“In consequence, Mr Webb has been banned for life from all football related activities, administrative, sports or any other on a national and international

and fined CHF 1,000,000,” FIFA stated.

The latest blow to the discredited former local football hero is one of a number of problems that 51-year-old Webb still faces. Aside from waiting to hear his fate in the United States after pleading guilty to corruption and conspiracy charges there, he is also wanted in Cayman in connection to his involvement in a local hospital corruption case, for which his business partner, Canover Watson, is currently serving a seven-year sentence.

It is understood that, once Webb has been sentenced in the US, local authorities will begin seeking his extradition to the Cayman Islands.

Meanwhile, significant questions remain unanswered locally about how Cayman Islands Football Association (CIFA) funds were impacted by Webb’s activities as well as deals and financial transactions with the local association’s cash involving him and Watson, the former CIFA treasurer, and other CIFA officials that were described by auditors as “financial irregularities”.

Both FIFA and the Cayman Islands police Anti-Corruption Unit were said to be investigating CIFA but no questions raised during Watson’s trial or by local auditors have been addressed.

Republished with permission of Cayman News Service