Jeffrey D. Webb (born 24 September 1964) is the former president of
CONCACAF
The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch language, Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CON ...
,
Cayman Islands Football Association
The Cayman Islands Football Association is the governing body of football in the Cayman Islands. The Cayman Islands Football Association governs all National Team programs, youth development leagues, Women's league and the Cayman Islands Men's P ...
(CIFA), and
FIFA vice president.
Webb was
arrested for corruption charges on 27 May 2015 by
Swiss police acting at the request of the
U.S. Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
on charges of
racketeering,
wire fraud
Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical or electronic mail system to defraud another, and are federal crimes there. Jurisdiction is claimed by the federal government if the illegal activity ...
and
money laundering conspiracy.
He pleaded guilty in November 2015. In May 2015, he was banned by
FIFA Ethics Committee
The FIFA Ethics Committee is one of FIFA's three judicial bodies. It is organized in two chambers, the ''Investigatory Chamber'' and the ''Adjudicatory Chamber''. Its duties are regulated by several official documents, most importantly the ''FIF ...
.
Career
Webb was educated at King High School and
Hillsborough Community College
Hillsborough Community College (HCC) is a public community college in Hillsborough County, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System.
History
HCC was one of the last community colleges to be created in Florida, founded in 1968. Only P ...
, Tampa, Florida, in the United States.
His career in football spans almost three decades. He was appointed as President of the Cayman Islands Football Association in 1991.
Webb was a Business Development Manager at
Western Union
The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado.
Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company cha ...
agent belonging to Fidelity Bank (Cayman) Limited, a subsidiary of Fidelity Bank & Trust International Limited, which is involved in retail banking, investment banking, corporate finance and asset management. Outside of banking, Webb co-owns a franchise of Burrell's bakery chain "Captain's Bakery" in the Cayman Islands.
Football
In 1994, he was co-opted as a member of the
Caribbean Football Union Executive Committee, and member of FIFA’s Protocol Committee in 1995. Prior to his appointment to CIFA, Webb served as President of the local football club Strikers FC.
Within FIFA’s governing body, in 2002 Webb became Deputy Chairman of the FIFA Internal Audit Committee and subsequently Chairman in 2011. He is a former member of FIFA’s Transparency and Compliance Committee and, most recently, was appointed as member of FIFA’s Strategic, Finance, Organizing World Cup and Emergency Committees.
Webb also took part of FIFA’s delegations to the World Cup including
France (1998),
U.S. Women’s World Cup (1999)
The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup was the third edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national soccer teams. It was hosted as well as won by the United States and took place from June 19 to July 10, 1999, a ...
,
Korea/Japan (2002),
Germany (2006), and
South Africa (2010)
, image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg
, size = 200px
, caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...
.
During Webb's time as CIFA President, it was reported that British players were being offered up to £70k to represent Cayman Islands at international football. It was wrongly thought that anyone with a British passport was eligible for the Cayman Islands national team. In March 2000, FIFA intervened and prevented several English players playing for the Cayman Islands.
CONCACAF
Webb was unanimously elected to lead the Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean Football Association (CONCACAF) on May 23, 2012, in Budapest, Hungary. He became the fourth President in the Confederation’s history, and the youngest leader of any regional association within FIFA to reach this position.
As President of CONCACAF, Webb also became FIFA Vice President and an official member of the governing body’s Executive Committee. Moreover, in March 2013 Webb was appointed by FIFA President
Joseph Blatter
Joseph "Sepp" Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former football administrator who served as the eighth President of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participating in FIFA activities since 2015 as a result o ...
as Chairman of the FIFA anti-discrimination task force, which was to oversee all matters related to discrimination within global football.
At the time of his appointment, in 2012, Webb was President of the Cayman Islands Football Association (CIFA).
Webb appointed a new
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
-based General Secretary,
Enrique Sanz de Santamaría
Enrique Sanz de Santamaría (born 1974) is a Colombian-American sports executive. He was appointed as General Secretary of CONCACAF in July 2012.
Education
Sanz de Santamaría has a B.S. degree in Marketing and Advertising from the Universi ...
, enabling the CONCACAF head office to relocate to Miami.
Corruption
In September 2014 Webb was one of several FIFA officials to call for the publication of the
Garcia Report
The Garcia Report was an investigation produced by Michael J. Garcia into allegations of corruption in world football. Garcia was appointed in July 2012 to investigate ethical breaches at the FIFA, football's world governing body. A month late ...
into allegations of corruption surrounding Russia and Qatar's bids for the
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...
and
2022 FIFA World Cups.
On 27 May 2015, Webb was arrested for corruption charges. The indictment, which named fourteen other individuals related to FIFA, included racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. In addition to senior soccer officials, the indictment also named sports-marketing executives from the United States and South America who are accused of paying more than
$150 million in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for media deals associated with major soccer tournaments. Other soccer officials charged are
Eduardo Li
Eduardo Li Sánchez (, born 11 November 1958) is a Costa Rican football administrator, FIFA executive committee member-elect, CONCACAF executive committee member, and former Costa Rican Football Federation (FEDEFUT) president. He co-founded Pun ...
,
Eugenio Figueredo,
Jack Warner,
Julio Rocha Lopez,
Costas Takkas,
Rafael Esquivel and
Nicolás Leoz
Nicolás Leoz Almirón (10 September 1928 – 28 August 2019) was President of CONMEBOL (''South American Football Confederation'') from 1986 to 2013. Leoz assumed the presidency in 1986 (succeeding Teófilo Salinas Fuller) and in February 200 ...
.
Charges were also made against the sports-marketing executives
Alejandro Burzaco,
Aaron Davidson
Aaron Davidson (born 1970/1971) is an American lawyer, businessman, and convicted fraudster.
Davidson is the former chairman of the board of governors of the North American Soccer League, and former president of Traffic Sports USA. The Brazili ...
,
Hugo Jinkis and Mariano Jinkis. Authorities also charged
José Margulies José Lázaro Margulies (born 12 August 1939), is a Brazilian businessman who was convicted of organized crime, money laundering and fraud charges relating to the 2015 FIFA corruption case.
Early life
José Margulies was born in Buenos Aires, Arg ...
as an intermediary who facilitated illegal payments.
In November 2015 Webb pleaded guilty and agreed to forfeit more than US$6.7 million.
Following his suspension, he was replaced by
Alfredo Hawit at CONCACAF and Bruce Blake at CIFA.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Webb, Jeffrey
Presidents of CONCACAF
Living people
1964 births
Caymanian businesspeople
Football people in the Cayman Islands
Hillsborough Community College alumni
FIFA officials
People from Loganville, Georgia