After years of power struggles and many months at the centre of a sprawling corruption scandal, members of Concacaf, the governing body for soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean, head to the voting booths in Mexico City this week for a crucial presidential election that will define the future of their embattled confederation.



With Gordon Derrick, president of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), having been removed from the running for Concacaf’s top job after failing a Fifa integrity check, just two candidates - Canada’s Victor Montagliani and Bermuda’s Larry Mussenden - will stand for election at the confederation’s 31st ordinary congress on Thursday.



Not surprisingly, both men are positioning themselves as reformist candidates capable of restoring trust and credibility to one of the most tainted offices in world soccer. With the past three officials to hold the post on a permanent basis - Jack Warner, Alfredo Hawit and Jeffrey Webb - having all been indicted and charged on counts of corruption, the winner of Thursday’s vote will begin his four-year term at Concacaf's Miami Beach headquarters knowing that the reputation of soccer in the Americas is on the line.



Montagliani’s manifesto, based on what he calls his ’One Concacaf’ vision, is predicated on aligning the footballing interests of nations across the Concacaf region through four key pillars: good governance, strategic planning, invest in football first, and strong leadership.



The current head of Canada Soccer, who is bidding to become the first Canadian president of Concacaf, claims to have the support of several Central American associations, including Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Cuba. Crucially, the Vancouver native also reportedly has the backing of Mexico and the United States, Concacaf’s two most powerful nations, but the big question is whether he can garner enough support among Caribbean nations, who together possess 31 of the 41 ballots and have traditionally voted en bloc for the Concacaf presidency.



The 50-year-old Montagliani, who has been credited with playing a leading role in helping to rescue this summer’s Copa América Centenario from the brink of collapse, says his ambition is to increase the popularity and profile of the Gold Cup, Concacaf’s preeminent national team competition, by expanding that tournament from 12 to 16 teams in a bid to “spread the wealth” and “develop other markets”. He has also mooted the notion of staging the biennial event across two countries, specifically citing those in Central America and the Caribbean as potential hosts.



“We need to treat the product not just as a revenue generator, but as an opportunity to grow other markets, which will bode well for the future of the region,” Montagliani said in a recent interview with goal.com.

Canada's Victor Montagliani (centre right) is one of two men vying to replace the disgraced Jeffrey Webb (centre left) as Concacaf president.



Montagliani, a self-professed ‘servant of the game’ who speaks four languages fluently, also plans to overhaul the structure of the club system in the Concacaf region. He is said to be considering the possibility of rescheduling the Concacaf Champions League, the region’s leading club competition, to fit within the annual calendar, while he says he would also evaluate the potential for the kind of two-tiered club competition structure seen in Europe.



Other key elements of Montagliani’s manifesto include aggregating the commercial assets of all 41 member associations ‘to increase value and brand’; instigating a ‘collaborative strategy’ to bring the 2026 Fifa World Cup to the Concacaf region; creating centres of excellence for coaches and match officials; building a turf pitch with floodlights in every Caribbean and Central American nation; and initiating a detailed review of all competitions, including youth and female, ‘to enhance efficiencies, commercial enterprise, development and inclusiveness’.

Mussenden, meanwhile, is seeking to become the third straight Caribbean president of Concacaf, following in the footsteps of Warner and Webb. Like Montagliani, he is intent on bringing about wholesale reforms and building bridges between Concacaf’s three member unions - the North American Football Union (NAFU), the Central American Football Union (UNCAF) and the CFU.

A former attorney general and justice minister in Bermuda, the current president of his country’s national soccer association says he will attempt to recover “a significant share” of the US$190 million seized by the US Department of Justice as part of its ongoing investigation and distribute it among each of the region’s member associations. He has also promised to begin legal proceedings against a centre of excellence in Trinidad and Tobago that was established and reportedly owned by the disgraced Warner.



Additionally, Mussenden’s manifesto - which uses the strap line, ‘It’s our time to move forward together’ - calls for greater transparency, a new process for ‘reporting of abuse by establishing official whistleblower mechanisms’, and tighter budgeting and auditing controls. There are also plans to ensure every Concacaf association is made a full voting member of Fifa - Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana do not currently have a say on global governing body matters - while Mussenden has said he would create a committee charged with exploring the feasibility of a new Caribbean Professional League.

Bermuda FA president Larry Mussenden is believed to be the favoured candidate among Concacaf's powerful Caribbean contingent.



“I am not afraid of the fact that the previous presidents have been arrested,” said Mussenden, who has been chairman of Fifa’s appeals committee since 2007. “What I am looking at is that Concacaf needs to have a good, steady hand and I think they need someone with the background that I have in law enforcement, as well as an ability to lead an organisation.”



An immediate priority for whoever wins Thursday’s election will be to oversee final preparations for Concacaf's co-staging of this summer’s Copa América Centenario, the special centenary edition of South America’s showpiece event that is due to take place in the US for the first time but has been dogged by delays and uncertainty due to the US Department of Justice's ongoing corruption.

Beyond that, the new president will be tasked with implementing a comprehensive package of reforms and revised statutes passed by the confederation’s members in February. The package includes a host of new measures to bring about greater accountability and transparency throughout the confederation, including the introduction of term limits, independent members, governance reforms, and new compliance processes.

This week's Concacaf vote is due to take place during a busy week for world soccer's decision makers in Mexico City, with representatives from each of Fifa's 209 member associations convening in the Mexican capital. New Fifa president Gianni Infantino is set to preside over his first Fifa Congress on Friday, while Concacaf's African, Asian, Oceanic and South American counterparts will also host important meetings of their own throughout the week.