PAUL CLARKE, STAR Writer

Some of western Jamaica's most respected football voices are suspicious of the timing of the arrests of some of FIFA's top officials a few days before the presidential election take splace in Zurich, Switzerland.

Linnel McLean, chairman of the Western Confederation, said he was not too delighted with aspects of the investigation (led by the FBI), as it seems to him that it was mainly targeting CONCACAF and South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL).

Corruption

"Corruption at any level must be dealt with and, in FIFA, it can be no different," said McLean.

The long-time football administrator said the string of arrests and indictments can only be a good thing over the long term for FIFA, but questioned the timing, with Friday slated for the organisation's internal elections.

"This is twofold: on one hand it can only be good, as, for once, it will clean up perceived corruption, while on the other hand, the timing is way off given how important the elections will be for the governance of world football," he said.

Unfolding saga

Meanwhile, former Jamaica Football Federation vice-president George Evans said the still-unfolding saga has left football with a black eye.

He said the massive scandal involving money laundering, racketeering and fraud is not a good sign for football, but noted something like this was a long time coming given FIFA's inability to fix its own problems.

"This ... is not looking good from the outside looking in, but I suspect that it was a long time coming as FIFA was unable to clean up its mess. Sadly it seems that an outside force was needed to come in to fix things," said Evans.

"Jeff Webb was elected to lead CONCACAF from an embattled Jack Warner and he, too, is now indicted, but he remains innocent until proven guilty. At this time though, it's not encouraging. This is just not pretty at all. In fact, it is an ugly situation and a really bad day for FIFA," said Evans.