Derrick, Montagliani launch bids to lead CONCACAF

By Simon Evans MIAMI (Reuters) - Caribbean Football Union president Gordon Derrick and Canadian Soccer Association president Victor Montagliani announced on Monday they will stand as candidates for the presidency of the troubled CONCACAF regional confederation. CONCACAF, which governs soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean, has had its last three presidents all indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as part of the wide-ranging investigation of world governing body FIFA. The body has been without a leader since December and will vote for a new president in May. Mark Rodriguez of Guyana and Larry Mussenden of Bermuda have already said they will run for the post. Montagliani announced his candidature in a press release while Antiguan Derrick told Reuters by telephone that he would be standing before issuing his own statement later on Monday. "Recovering from the crisis that has cast a long shadow over football will require important efforts on various fronts," Montagliani said in a statement. "For CONCACAF, an important step towards repairing broken trust - with players, clubs, commercial partners and most importantly supporters - will be to reform the way the organization governs itself "Critically these reforms must go beyond just tinkering at the margins: they must address the serious flaws and shortcomings that have allowed unacceptable commercial practices to occur," he added. Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago, who was CONCACAF president from 1990 to 2011, and his successor Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands were both indicted in May while Honduran Alfredo Hawit was arrested in December. CONCACAF's commercial deals with Miami based Brazilian-owned Traffic Sports were part of the FBI/DOJ investigation along with several other deals involving Webb, Warner and American former general secretary Chuck Blazer, who has also been indicted. A vote on a series of reform plans will be held at a meeting in Zurich on Feb. 25 - a day before world governing body FIFA votes on their own reform plans and for a new president. The election for the new leader of CONCACAF will take place at a congress on May 12 and candidates have until 60 days before that meeting to declare their candidacy. CONCACAF has 41 member associations with 27 of them from the Caribbean. (Reporting By Simon Evans, editing by Pritha Sarkar/Nick Mulvenney)