Historic CONCACAF Sports Summit opens today in Cayman Islands

Oct 22, 2013 Sports

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‘Transformation Through Partnership’; Regions Ministers of Sports attend

By Franklin Wilson in the Cayman Islands
The continued rise and transformation of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) will attain new heights today when the confederation begins its historic Sports Summit being convened under the theme, “Transformation Through Sports”.
CONCACAF President, Jeffrey Webb will be joined by FIFA President Joseph Sepp Blatter for the opening this morning at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Georgetown, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. Not only will the President’s, General Secretaries and Technical Directors of CONCACAF’s 41-Member Associations attend, but for the first time in the Region’s football history, the Sports Ministers of each territory have been invited to participate.
Webb, also a FIFA Vice President and Blatter yesterday hosted a press conference to update the local and International media on the event at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

Webb described the event as a “Landmark” in the region’s history with the aims and objectives being to build bridges; create dialogue; examine and highlight some of the best practices throughout the region; analyze strengths and to set goals and objectives to improve shortcomings.
“We look forward to an outstanding two days, we believe of course that the representatives of government, for the first time in our history along with the representatives and delegations from football authorities together in the same room will create synergies and dialogue that we believe will help to foster the development of the game for the future.”
The confederation has chosen a high class level of presenters that will be sharing their own knowledge and experiences on the carefully selected topics during the course of the Summit.
President Blatter in his remarks noted that it is a great pleasure and honour to be part of history in the confederation while congratulating Webb for the initiative.
“I am very happy to be here and I have to congratulate this president and the membership of CONCACAF for what you have done under your new leadership.”
The FIFA boss, who was the first Development Officer appointed by FIFA, some 38 years ago, noted that this summit is well timed and necessary for the continued progress of the game in this region.
Blatter’s presentation today centers on ‘The Power of Football’ and is the keynote address. The Welcome will be done by Premier of the Cayman Islands, The Honorable Alden McLaughlin.
Former National Players, Cobi Jones (USA, Forward), Bernard Lama (France, GK) and Dwight Yorke (T&T, Forward) will share their personal experiences on how Football changed their lives.
Football’s Positive Impact in Society (success stories of programmes utilising football as a tool for positive change) will be done by Dr. Djibril Diallo – UNAIDS Senior Adviser to the Executive Director, Professor Jiri’ Dvorak MD – FIFA Chief Medical Officer and Mike Geddes – Managing Director of Street Football World USA.
Some of the other areas that will be focused on include Football Attracting Business, Women’s World Cup Central, Football as an Influential Agent for Positive Change, Football in your Economy, Creating Successful Partnerships for the Development of Football and Sport and Country which will be a special address that will be presented by the Most Honorable Portia Simpson-Miller, Prime Minister of Jamaica.
Sharing his vision for this Summit, Webb said that his travels throughout the region made him realize the level of disconnect between government authorities and the sporting authorities which is reflective in the lack of infrastructure throughout the region.
“When you look and realize that FIFA is spending two billion dollars on development, 260 million in our region, 800 million in this financial cycle, it seems in many cases instead of being progressive, sometimes it has allowed us to regress”.
Based on these facts, Webb stated that they wanted to bring together the relevant authorities to see how best bridges of collaboration and understanding can be built as well as establishing dialogue.
“If FIFA is investing millions in our region, we as a people and Diaspora throughout the Confederation, governments must play their roles also. Governments must also provide the infrastructure to allow us to play.”
Reference was made to the fact that in the history of the Caribbean, two world championships were hosted, both in the Twin Island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
“Do we have the necessary infrastructure in any territory at this time to host another one? Unfortunately, I don’t think so,” Webb posited.
The aims of this summit includes establishing strategic plans with governments as well as partnering and creating long term strategies for infrastructure development that will help foster development of the game in the future.
An intense day of deliberations and sharing of experiences is set to unfold in an historic atmosphere.

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