Derrick Consults Legal Team Following FIFA Ban

President of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) and general secretary of the Antigua & Barbuda Football Association (ABFA), Gordon “Banks” Derrick, has refused to speak publicly on the FIFA ethics committee six-year ban he received this week, at least until he has consulted his legal team.
Derrick, when contacted by The Daily Observer on Wednesday, said a decision will be made on the way forward once he has made contact with his legal team but refused to elaborate.
The administrator has been found guilty of six different breaches of FIFA’s code of ethics, including offering and accepting bribes, mismanaging funds and abusing his position.
Derrick replaced the notorious Jack Warner as CFU boss in 2012 and was favoured to follow Warner’s path to the presidency of CONCACAF until he was blocked from standing in the 2016 election.
Despite that setback, he defeated Trinidad and Tobago’s FA boss David John-Williams when his position as CFU president was challenged in July 2016.
President of the ABFA, Everton “Batow” Gonsalves, said he too will be reserving comment until after Derrick has made a decision on the way forward.
“The matter is still sub judice because of the appeals process and as such, I await word as to whether the actions by Mr Derrick and I await further word from FIFA because they haven’t informed me of anything as yet,” he said. 
CFU general secretary, Neil Cochrane, defended his childhood friend, questioning the FIFA investigation process.
“’An investigation was done by FIFA, with FIFA investigators, they then took it to the FIFA court and so everything is FIFA so that’s what the man is saying, put everything into context. There is a three-day window, in which Mr Derrick has to make an appeal, if he doesn’t make an appeal then the process is over and complete and they can release whatever information they want to release. Instead of having all the speculations, wait until the information is released and then you can go forward,” he said.
In a statement, FIFA’s ethics committee said the ban comes into force “upon notification of the decision” and he has also been fined 30,000 Swiss francs.