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 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 ...

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 Ze ...

. 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 th ...

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