The man elected to rebuild CONCACAF "after decades of misconduct by officials believes it may take years to change a culture of corruption across the region," according to Matthew Hall of the London GUARDIAN. New CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani said that "rebuilding a shattered confederation" that is the center of investigations by both FIFA and the U.S. Department of Justice was "similar to recovering from a death." He added that players and fans, rather than top-level execs, "had saved the sport." Montagliani said, "It is like anything in your life that has had a negative affect or is a tragedy. Moving on doesn’t happen overnight. It is daily, day-out and day-in. Eventually, you do come out of it but what we need to remember is that we don’t forget our history." Montagliani is "something of a poster boy for reform within the sport." While other federations supported a FIFA "status quo even amid the worldwide scandal" that unraveled in '15, Montagliani led Canada Soccer to announce "it would vote against Blatter in his bid for reelection that year." Montagliani: "I totally get the skepticism from the public about reform and I think everyone at FIFA gets it. We are starting to see a bit of humbleness from the sport's leaders and that is a good thing. The one thing that people have to realize is that as much as there has been a bit of a shitstorm here in the past few years, the game itself is in good shape. That's for two reasons: the players and the fans" (GUARDIAN, 9/5).
