The Antiguan was elected as President of the newly reconstituted Caribbean Football Union (CFU) at the body’s 35th Ordinary Congress held in Budapest, Hungary on Tuesday.
Two other Antiguans in former national player, Neto Baptiste, who was chosen as a member of the CFU Appeals Committee and Dr Reverend Oral Thomas, who was elected as a member of the Ethics Committee also found favour with the voters during the elections.
A fourth Antiguan nominee, Everton Coates, missed being elected to the Disciplinary Committee by a single vote.
Derrick, who is part owner of Antigua’s lone professional outfit, the Antigua Barracuda FC, replaces Trinidad and Tobago’s Austin “Jack” Warner, who resigned from all his football positions in June last year, following his suspension by the world football governing body, FIFA.
Derrick got the voters’ nod ahead of Cuba’s Luis Hernandez, Barbados’ Ronald Jones and Trinidad’s Harold Taylor.
The Antiguan, who has been employed by the ABFA for over eight years, said he was confident going into the much talked about elections.
Grenada’s Cheney Joseph was elected first vice president and Bermuda’s Larry Mussenden is second vice president while St Lucia’s Lyndon Cooper was chosen as third vice president.
The executive committee includes Sonia Bien-Aime of the Turks & Caicos Islands, Anthony Johnson of St Kitts & Nevis, Hillaren Frederick of the USVI and Maurice Victoire of Martinique.
The CFU was thrown into controversy in June of 2011 when it was rocked by bribery scandals involving then Asian football boss Mohamed bin Hammam.
Bin Hammam was banned for life by FIFA after he was found guilty of bribing presidential election voters, just months after he helped secure the 2022 World Cup for his tiny Gulf homeland.
The scandal forced him to abandon his campaign to unseat FIFA President Sepp Blatter and ultimately led to him becoming the most senior official convicted of corruption in the governing body’s 107-year history.
A FIFA ethics panel ruled after a two-day hearing that the executive committee member conspired to pay Caribbean officials $40,000 cash bribes in May 2011 for their support in the election.