PORT OF SPAIN – Jack Warner has launched another stinging rebuke of FIFA.
It followed the decision of the world governing body to charge 16 Caribbean Football Union officials over the cash-for-votes scandal that rocked the sport – leading to his ouster – and terminate a multimillion-dollar TV rights deal with the Caribbean Football Union.
Warner bored holes in FIFA’s continued effort to clean up their image, after he resigned as FIFA vice-president, as well as CONCACAF and CFU president.
He was suspended from football activity, following allegations that he and FIFA presidential challenger Mohamed bin Hammam had offered financial incentives to members of the CFU.
“When I resigned from the FIFA of my own volition, it was because I was prepared to pay the ultimate price, and become the sacrificial lamb for alleged wrongdoings prior to the FIFA elections,” said Warner.
“I was led to believe that that would have been the end of the matter as far as I was concerned.”
He added: “Never did I believe that the FIFA would have engaged in such an acrimonious battle with the CFU, an organization, which for 33 years has served the FIFA well, and had demonstrated its loyalty not only to the FIFA, but its president [Sepp Blatter].
“Such ignoble pursuit has nothing to do with the cleansing of corruption within the FIFA, but rather to offer the perception of an aura of cleansing within the FIFA.”
Warner said: “In their pursuit, they have devastated the lives of many persons, destroyed many golden friendships which were forged over the years, and sadly affected generations of footballers to come within the region of the Caribbean.
“All this has been perpetuated by the men of the FIFA’s gentry who were once viewed as friends of the CFU. This is done in the name of seeking to cleanse the FIFA of all corruption.”
Warner also railed against FIFA for not investigating CONCACAF General Secretary Chuck Blazer.
The American was responsible for providing FIFA with information on cash payments to CFU delegates that allegedly took place at a meeting last July in Trinidad.
“To maintain their whiteness, their whistleblower must never be tainted, and so their [FIFA’s] bias, their prejudice and their partiality continue unabated favouring a certain kind of people and damning another,” said Warner.
FIFA terminated a 2014 World Cup TV deal with the CFU after discovering the rights had been sub-licensed to a company owned by Warner.
The CFU were told in a letter from FIFA they had not approved the sub-licensing deal with Warner’s company, JD International. (CMC)
