An apparent mix-up and/or misunderstanding between Concacaf and the Central Football Club (CFC) caused the regional governing body for football to deposit some US$39,000 into the personal US account of Sport Minister Brent Sancho.
Contacted on the issue yesterday, after it was raised by People’s National Movement (PNM) leader Dr Keith Rowley during a meeting in Point Fortin on Wednesday, Sancho, not wanting to comment much but leaving it up to his former club to clear the air, told the T&T Guardian the funds went into his account by error.
Sancho’s special adviser in the Ministry of Sport, Kevin Harrison, who also worked with him while the two were at Central FC, described it as “a storm in a teacup.” He said when Sancho realised the funds were transferred to his account, he (Sancho) immediately went to the bank and had a cheque made out for US$39,000 to be paid to CFC.
“Mr Sancho did nothing wrong. There was an error and he immediately rectified it,” Harrison said.
In a release late yesterday, CFC said due to changes in management and administration staff at the end of last season, club staff were under pressure to meet various Concacaf Champions League deadlines, one of which was to submit the club’s bank details to receive Concacaf funds.
“As the funds to be received from Concacaf were to be despatched as US dollars and CFC would be travelling to Los Angeles and Guatemala, it was decided that a US dollar account would be financially beneficial.
“However, CFC had not opened the required US dollar account in time to adhere to the required Concacaf deadline,” the release said.
Harrison explained that the club decided that info of Sancho’s account provided in December to the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) would be submitted to Concacaf and the CFC’s own bank account details would be submitted later.
In an email on July 27, 2015, which was obtained by the T&T Guardian, CFC notified Concacaf that they would be submitting new bank details the next day (July 28, 2015). The club’s new US dollar bank account details were sent via email on July 28 to Concacaf. This email was prepared by club manager (administration) Jamie Aleong-Charles. Confirmation was made by Gino Rullo, Concacaf’s manager of club competitions.
“During this busy period for Concacaf, the payment instructions were not altered and Concacaf despatched the funds to Sancho’s account in error. CFC were expecting to receive funds into their account and it was several days before they realised that the funds were deposited into Sancho’s account.
“Sancho immediately arranged to withdraw these funds and US$39,000 was paid by cheque to CFC,” the CFC release said.
“Because this transaction would need to be declared, Sancho had to determine the exact charges to be deducted before returning any balance to the club. Contrary to what was being reported, this transfer of funds did not hamper CFC’s preparations in any way. Further, there was an ongoing dialogue throughout this period so that all parties were aware of the situation.”
CFC said it also believed highlighting the issue was nothing less than “malicious gossip designed to tarnish the reputation of CFC and Minister of Sport Brent Sancho.”