CSA board member to propose motion that Canada pull out of FIFA, CONCACAF By Steven Sandor Posted on June 4, 2015 8 0 3,643 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Canadian Soccer Association board member Amelia Salehabadi-Fouques will submit a motion that the organization pull out of FIFA and CONCACAF. In a statement made public on her website (CLICK HERE), the Quebec board member pledges to make a motion at Saturday’s CSA board meeting that would initiate a temporary separation between the CSA and FIFA. Of course, her motion calls for the separation to come only after the completion of the Women’s World Cup. The board meeting will be held in Edmonton, where the WWC opener is being held on the same day. The first three points of her motion (translated from French): 1. FIFA: suspend CSA membership at the end of the World Cup of Women Canada until the time that full light and TOTAL cleaning are done in this organization. 2. CONCACAF: suspend CSA membership at the end of the World Cup of Women Canada, the time that light and cleaning are done in this organization. 3. Direct consequence of 1 and 2: the President of the CSA Board of Directors and all other persons (employees, officers, consultants, board of directors, etc.) of the CSA to immediately withdraw from setting on any committees of FIFA and/or CONCACAF especially as CSA is very busy with the World Cup for women in Canada and the establishment of even better practices in governance and transparency within our own association. Salehabadi-Fouques, a Quebec based lawyer with expertise in international disputes, was appointed to the CSA board in 2013. Her motion comes in the wake of the arrest of several key FIFA and CONCACAF figures by Swiss officials. Interpol has issued notification of arrest warrants. And the United States Department of Justice is expecting those charged, including disgraced former CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb, to stand trial in the United States. Traffic Sports, the Brazil-based superagency and soccer marketing firm, has already pleaded guilty to charges involving wire fraud. FIFA president Sepp Blatter announced his intention to step down just four days after winning a fifth term and declaring “I am the president of everybody” to the FIFA congress. Salehabadi-Fouques’s motion also calls for the CSA to publicize all gifts it has received from FIFA or CONCACAF in the last five years. The proposal would also limit the members of the board to only a single term; if passed without amendment, it would mean that CSA President Victor Montagliani would have to leave his post after his term is served. If Canada pulled out of FIFA, it would likely mean an end to this country’s bid to host the 2026 World Cup. In 2005, Salehabadi-Fouques was a subject of parliamentary debate. Then-Bloc Quebecois MP Johanne Deschamps asked why Salehabadi-Fouques was removed from the Canadian Commercial Corporation board. From Hansard: “Mr. Speaker, Amelia Salehabadi, formerly on the board of directors of the Canadian Commercial Corporation, claims she was the victim of intimidation by board chair Alan Curleigh. She says that her term was not renewed because she had asked too many questions and had opposed a partisan appointment to the corporation.” In 2011, after NHL enforcer Wade Belak took his own life, Salehabadi-Fouques issued a press release likening professional sport to the gladiators of Rome, saying that the “killing following sporting events” should have disappeared with the empires of the past.
