CON­CA­CAF gen­er­al sec­re­tary Chuck Blaz­er has re­fused to cut ties with lawyers look­ing in­to bribery al­le­ga­tions, putting him at log­ger­heads with the trou­bled soc­cer con­fed­er­a­tion's new in­ter­im pres­i­dent.

Bar­ba­di­an Lisle Austin was ap­point­ed in­ter­im pres­i­dent of the North and Cen­tral Amer­i­ca and Caribbean re­gion­al gov­ern­ing body Mon­day in place of the sus­pend­ed FI­FA vice-pres­i­dent Jack Warn­er.

Austin's first act was to is­sue Blaz­er with a writ­ten de­mand to stop work­ing with the US lawyers, Collins and Collins, who pre­sent­ed ev­i­dence against Warn­er.

But Blaz­er, al­so a FI­FA ex­ec­u­tive com­mit­tee mem­ber, told Reuters Tues­day that he had no in­ten­tion of end­ing the re­la­tion­ship with the Chica­go-based firm. It was Blaz­er's re­port to FI­FA's Ethics Com­mit­tee, which in­clud­ed al­le­ga­tions of bribery against Warn­er and Asian soc­cer chief Mo­hammed Bin Ham­mam of Qatar, that led to this week's ex­plo­sion of ac­cu­sa­tions and counter-ac­cu­sa­tions at world soc­cer's gov­ern­ing body in Zurich. Austin gave the Amer­i­can 48 hours to ex­plain by what au­thor­i­ty he ap­point­ed Chica­go-based Collins and Collins to con­duct in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the mem­bers of CON­CA­CAF.

Blaz­er said it was with­in his rights to work with the le­gal firm. "It clear­ly falls un­der my ju­ris­dic­tion as gen­er­al sec­re­tary of CON­CA­CAF," said Blaz­er. The clash comes just days be­fore CON­CA­CAF's pre­mier tour­na­ment - the Gold Cup - kicks off in Dal­las Sun­day with the re­gion's top na­tion­al teams in ac­tion.

As well as the rift over the lawyers, Blaz­er moved on Tues­day to re­port his for­mer long-time al­ly Warn­er to FI­FA for breach of his sus­pen­sion which bars him from all foot­ball-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ties.