Sanz seeks to boost promotion of CONCACAF football
01 Aug 2012
The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) is set to launch a search for a partner to market its global broadcast rights as part of reform efforts under its new administration.
Enrique Sanz was last month announced as the body’s new general secretary, following on from Jeffrey Webb’s appointment as president. Sanz succeeds acting general secretary, Ted Howard, who had been in the interim role since January, following the resignation of Chuck Blazer. Blazer had served in the post since 1990 and announced his intention to step down in October after his bribery accusations against former CONCACAF president Jack Warner and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Mohamed bin Hammam triggered FIFA’s anti-corruption crusade.
Colombian-born Sanz came to CONCACAF from the position of vice-president of leading sports marketing company Traffic Sports USA, where he headed the CONCACAF region since 2005. He has said one of the main goals in his new position is to improve the promotion of the region’s football. Sanz told Goal.com: “I think it’s very important that we promote our tournaments. We’re going to look for a partner to sell our transmission rights outside of the continent. We must support the growth of smaller leagues and domestic tournaments so that we have more players go out and become well-known in Europe. We’ve grown a lot recently, but it’s necessary to keep growing.”
Following a turbulent year which involved corruption allegations against senior CONCACAF officials, Sanz said the organisation’s new regime is determined to make changes to improve its reputation. He added: “Our main topic is reform. We’ll implement a complete reform in CONCACAF. No one decision will be taken by one person. We’ll create committees on ethics, integrity and transparency that will be above us all. Businesses (negotiating with CONCACAF) will be recommended by them to the Executive Committee which will then make the decisions. There will be more ample processes in which the region’s Congress can have an open participation on all levels of decision making.”
