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« on: January 03, 2006, 07:51:20 PM »
'I'm no hatchet man'
By: Lasana Liburd (Express).
FIFA vice-president Jack Warner had an unusual response to a series done by myself in the Daily Express which looked critically at the ethics of Warner's joint role as football administrator for FIFA and the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) and businessman that appeared to have overlapped in the case of Trinidad and Tobago's World Cup match tickets.
Warner began by saying that I (Lasana Liburd) attended Arima Government Secondary where the principal and vice-principal were both Warners, while his son, Daryan, suggested that I was actually being educated by a third Warner.
His opening set the tone of his press conference yesterday.
I never attended Arima Government Secondary nor was I ever taught by a Warner. For the record, I did O-Levels at St Mary's College before writing A-Levels at Arima Senior Comprehensive.
Not that I understand what my schooling has to do with Simpaul Travel and its deal for World Cup tickets, which will cost Trinidad and Tobago fans $30,000 each.
Warner also suggested that I was in the service of the ruling PNM party as "a hatchet man" and made a baseless accusation that I had co-authored and am billed to serialise for the Daily Express a book with English writer Andrew Jennings.
More importantly, however, it had nothing to do with the issue at hand.
Warner, who offered just over five minutes for questions by reporters, was not as unambiguous when he spoke about the allocation of World Cup tickets meant for Trinidad and Tobago and his dual role within Simpaul and the TTFF.
Warner admitted that he owned Simpaul Travel, which he bought in 1992, and that they purchased the rights to act as the TTFF's official and "exclusive" travel agent.
However, Warner saw no conflict of interest despite his role within both organisations and even claimed that it was a bonus to both parties.
After confirming that Simpaul had exclusive rights to TTFF's ticket allotment, though, Warner and his son and company director, Daryan, then said other companies were free to "mirror" their packages if they chose.
The catch was that these tickets must be bought from Simpaul rather than the TTFF as Anthony Harford of All Sport Promotions and Dr Nigel Camacho of the Trini Posse told the Daily Express.
The question about how many tickets were allocated to the T&TFF was another ticklish issue.
The Australian Football Federation announced to its football fans that it received 8,500 tickets from FIFA and those were sold on December 20 from TT$287 for an individual ticket to TT$2,443 for a package of three Category One tickets.
FIFA's website states that each football association "will receive eight per cent of all purchasable tickets in the stadium", while a TTFF release on December 14 said that "close to 4,500 tickets will be made available to the T&T Football Federation".
Yesterday, though, Warner said he had no idea how many tickets the country would receive and that the local body had not even applied for its allocation yet.
He claimed that the tickets Simpaul was offering at present were purchased from an unnamed "European tour operator".
Warner and his son refused to say how many tickets his company had acquired.
"I cannot see how that is anybody's business," said Warner. "Simpaul is a private company."
"Simpaul is not the TTFF and does not have to respond to you," Daryan added.
Warner also said that KPMG, and not Kenny Rampersad, was the TTFF's auditors.
He did not say whether Rampersad, whose company sold and accounted for match tickets among other tasks, was recently terminated or was never in their hire.
He criticised the Daily Express series for suggesting that "Kenny Rampersad is a director of Simpaul Travel", but the three-part series said no such thing.
Rather, the Daily Express article revealed that Rampersad was authorised to act on behalf of Simpaul on at least one matter and wondered if it were ethical for the accountant, like Warner, to have a dual role.
The connection between Warner's role as administrator and businessman and the price that Trinidad and Tobago fans must pay because of it was the point of my series. Pity he felt that my imaginary links with the PNM and Arima Government Secondary were more relevant.
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