Charles John Dempsey (4 March 1921 – 24 June 2008) was a Scottish-born New Zealand
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
administrator.
Early life
Dempsey was a builder and emigrated with his wife to New Zealand in 1952.
Career
Dempsey was President of the
Oceania Football Confederation
The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is one of the six continental confederations of international association football. The OFC has 13 members, 11 of which are full members and two which are associate members not affiliated with FIFA. It ...
(OFC) from 1982 to 2000 and continued as Honorary OFC President until the beginning of 2004.
He served on the executive committee of FIFA from 1996 to 2000 but left his position two years early following the vote for the hosting of the 2006 World Cup. He was appointed to the
FIFA Order of Merit
The FIFA Order of Merit is the highest honour awarded by FIFA. The award is presented at the annual FIFA congress. It is normally awarded to people who are considered to have made a significant contribution to :association football.
At FIFA's ce ...
in 2004.
Dempsey was appointed a
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
in the
1982 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to association football and in February 1990 he was awarded the
New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal
The New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal was a commemorative medal awarded in New Zealand in 1990 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, and was awarded to approximately 3,000 people.
Background
The New Zea ...
.
In July 2000, Dempsey abstained from
FIFA
FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
's final round of voting for the
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...
in a move that eventually saw the competition being awarded to Germany rather than South Africa.
Dempsey said that he did not vote because of the "intolerable pressure" from supporters of the German and South African bids, and of the attempts that had been made to bribe him.
FIFA rejected calls for a new vote and opened an internal inquiry into the allegations of corruption. Dempsey stood down from his role in September 2000 as he was unable to accept what had taken place over the days after the vote.
Death
Dempsey died on 24 June 2008 aged 87,
although some sources reported it as 86.
He was survived by his wife and two daughters,
[Obituary: "Popularising the Beautiful Game" in ''Dominion Post'', 3 July 2008 page B7] one of whom, Josephine, served as General-Secretary of the OFC.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dempsey, Charles
1921 births
2008 deaths
Scottish emigrants to New Zealand
Association football executives
New Zealand referees and umpires
New Zealand Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
2006 FIFA World Cup
Sportspeople from Glasgow
Presidents of OFC