I have to be honest with myself here and admit that this is the first time I agree with this Jack Warner fella.
In response, Warner said: “It is passing strange that the issue in the air now is about a drug bust and the Integrity Commission sees it fit to use this as a diversion, no doubt, under instructions, to come up with an
investigation in an issue where neither FIFA nor Concacaf has shown an interest. It makes me wonder why. They, CONCACAF, CFU and the TTFF/TTFA, clearly have things to hide themselves. Why no law suit to recover some, if not all, of that missing funds?
The ambition of former CONCACAF and Caribbean Football Union (CFU) president Jack Warner
knew no bounds. His sycophants, spread across most of the 25 CFU member nations, bought
into Warner’s swagger and the suggestion that he and FIFA were the same.
Trinidad and Tobago comes within a point of the 1990 World Cup and then goes a step
further in 2006, Jamaica qualifies in 1998 while St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts
and Nevis and Barbados enjoy periods of relative success in between. In almost every
case, the financial rewards for their positive showings was not administered in a way
that would benefit the island’s football structure or never makes it into the coffers of
the respective associations at all. Islands pocket millions from FIFA grants and developmental
programs without properly accounting for its use.
Nearly half the member associations charged with improper conduct in relation to the
Bin Hammam bribery scandal had not played a single international game in that calendar
year. And yet there they were with hands out for oil money as they mused over the possible
identity of the next FIFA President.
Warner is suspected of using funds from the CFU, CONCACAF and TTFF accounts as though
it was his private account.
In a total meltdown at a CONCACAF meeting in the Marriott Hotel in Zurich, CFU countries - who
received the $40,000 cash for votes, could be heard arguing loudly amongst themselves over
whether to follow the example of Puerto Rico and return the money.
In a report given by Angenie Kanhai, she states:
"I was directed to coordinate the special meeting of the CFU by Mr. Jack Warner, who was
at that time, president of the CFU. Mr. Warner initially requested the meeting be held by
April 18, 2011, but the May date was ultimately agreed. The purpose of the special meeting
was to provide Mr. Bin Hammam with the opportunity to address the delegates from the CFU.
On May 10, 2011, Mr. Warner advised me that he had gifts, which were to be distributed to the
delegates. Mr. Warner did not tell me what the gifts were, but advised that they were to be
distributed from the Hotel that afternoon. After consulting with my staff, Jason Sylvester
and Debbie Minguell, I suggested to Mr. Warner that the gifts be distributed between 3PM and 5PM
that day. During the morning session on May 10, Mr. Warner made an announcement to the attendees
about picking up the abovementioned gift. I was told that I should come to his office to
collect the gifts that were to be distributed. I arrived at Mr. Warner's office at approximately
2:30PM on May 10 and collected a locked bag with the key in the front pocket. The bag contained
26 envelopes, these envelopes were unmarked and were folded and sealed. I did not see any
envelopes opened and left Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester to distribute the envelopes.
The next day I met Debbie and Jason for breakfast at the hotel and they advised me that
the envelopes had contained cash"
The report goes on to say:
"In speaking with the representative from the Bahamas I was advised that he had returned the
envelope. The representative from the Turks and Caicos returned the envelope to Ms Minguell
on the morning of May 11, 2011. After the meeting I was contacted by Mr. Warner who asked that
the bag and any remaining gifts be returned to him." Most of the federations who attended the
infamous meeting on May 10 and 11,organised by Warner - where the money was allegedly paid -
came forward and handed it back.
Efforts to remove Chuck Blazer from his post by Warner supporters fails in what appears to
be another attempt to bring him down. Complaints are made about remarks Blazer is
alleged to have made in a meeting in Zurich in May.
The official complaint is made in a letter to the Ethics Committee signed by 11 heads of
Caribbean Federations: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, The Cayman Islands, Dominica, Guyana,
Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & The Grenadines and Trinidad & Tobago,
but does not refer in any way to the bribery issues. The letter said Blazer made "statements
of contempt and slander that served to impugn the integrity, discriminate against and
infringe upon the personal rights" of CONCACAF members. "The statement of Mr Blazer flouts
the principle of a person being innocent before being proven guilty," it adds.
Jeffrey Webb, who took charge of Concacaf in 2012, launches an integrity report and audit into
the activities of his predecessor Jack Warner. It concludes there had been serious managerial
failings and that millions of dollars of funding had been misused.
John Collins, legal counsel for the body, which goes by the acronym CONCACAF, testifies to
the 40-nation body that after a five-month investigation, he found, among other things, that
former general secretary Chuck Blazer failed to correctly report taxes for at least four years,
and that ex-president Jack Warner registered a $22.5 million soccer center in his own name.
Webb, the only candidate to run for Warner’s old job, said he was “shell-shocked, dismayed and
upset,” according to a Bloomberg report. “This should not happen in this day and age. We must
decide that it does not happen again.”
Collins further said that the $22.5 million Joao Havelange Center of Excellence, a soccer
center funded by FIFA and CONCACAF, was actually owned by two companies controlled by Warner,
not the body itself as it had thought. Delegates gasped at hearing this, a Reuters report said.
"Members are obviously very disappointed, some of them deeply disappointed, and they have a
right to be," CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb told The Associated Press at FIFA headquarters.
At a heated meeting in Budapest last May, members learned that Warner - not CONCACAF - legally
owned and had an unauthorized mortgage on a FIFA-funded $22.5 million training center in his
native Trinidad. Blazer's million-dollar payments from his 10 percent commissions, approved
by Warner, on commercial deals he helped negotiate also provoked outrage.
FIFA claims that most of the money they earn from selling football rights goes on
projects to help youngsters, tens of millions of dollars of FIFA money flows into
CONCACAF every year. But Mel Brennan, who worked for CONCACAF, discovered
that officials in the Federation's offices in Trinidad and New York were spending a lot of it
on themselves.
Today Warner lives in this opulent house in a well-to-do suburb. How did he make his money? There
was a CONCACAF office inside this modest building in downtown Port of Spain.
CONCACAF paid nearly a third of a million dollars a year for it. Why would Jack Warner's football
empire want to pay so much for offices in this building? Is it because the landlord is
Jack Warner? Mel Brennan leaves the Federation, he copies many incriminating
documents, including cheques of who was getting paid. Here you've got the CONCACAF
President's office. You've got 25,000 - 40,000 dollars a month of Jack making payments to Jack.
He's the landlord. CONCACAF pays him for his office. He had no problem paying himself.
And that was not all. Brennan stated: "We've got cheques here for paying people external to
CONCACAF, paying their taxes. We've got cheques here for thousands and thousands of dollars
worth of pens. We've got cheques here for CONCACAF staff members' mortgages.
Brennan also suggested that Sepp Blatter knew how Jack was spending CONCACAF'S money. Well don't
forget, he said, Jack Warner controls 35 votes. He's the swing man regarding votes
and voting politics in FIFA. President Blatter stays in power at FIFA because he
can count on Warner's votes, even if it requires a little vote rigging. This was the day when
a country's vote was hijacked by Jack Warner. The year is 1998, it's the FIFA presidential
election in Paris. This is the delegate who cast that vote for the Caribbean Island of Haiti
except he isn't a delegate and he isn't from Haiti. Neville Ferguson is one of Jack Warner's
officials from Trinidad. The Haiti delegate couldn't travel to the Congress so without his
knowledge and flagrantly breaking FIFA's rules, Mr Ferguson cast Haiti's vote for Sepp Blatter.
When the Soca Warriors qualified for the 2006 World Cup, one company was given exclusive allocation.
The company even came up with a catchy slogan: "Ticket or leave it". This is the company, Simpaul
Travel of Port of Spain. It's around the corner from Jack Warner's offices, which is convenient
for him because Jack Warner and his wife owned Simpaul Travel. When news of this cosy arrangement
broke, the cries of foul went to the top of Trinidad Sport. Roger Boynes, Minister of Sport at
the time, suggested that Mr Warner cannot be the Vice President of FIFA, the President of CONCACAF,
a Director on Simpaul and the public can only go through Simpaul. It does not look right. It looks
as though it's a conflict of interest.
Lasana Liburd exposed this ticket racket. He then suffered retribution from the football authorities
in Trinidad. Jack Warner banned him from the World Cup. Mr. Warner was angry enough to hold a
national press conference attacking Lasana personally, and angry enough to have him lose his
accreditation to the World Cup. But there was a huge international outcry after the articles had
gone global, and eventually FIFA stepped in, and accredited Liburd.
In 2001, Trinidad hosts FIFA's Under 17 World Championships, and there were juicy contracts to
be had. Mel Brennan, Head of Special Projects, CONCACAF 2001 - 2003, "There was a security contract
for the event. That went to a Warner Company, one of Jack Warner's sons. Another one of the Warner
sons got the fast food and drinks concessions contract for all five stadia for the event"
This was the first FIFA tournament where FIFA travel, the travel agency inside FIFA, didn't
organise travel for the event. Jack Warner's travel business, Simpaul Travel got it.
Roger Boynes, Minister of Sport, "I don't have any problem with the Warner family making a
dollar, I don't have a problem with them being entrepreneurs. What I do have a problem with, is
the manner in which it comes about, and as we see in several instants where no advertisement
have been taking place, and yet we find that the Warner's sons and Mr Warner for instance
benefited from contracts, and that is a concern that we, the people of Trinidad and Tobago and
the government, have.
Finally, Jeffrey Webb said he hoped Blazer and Warner would speak with the integrity panel and
give "the level of respect, and the membership the respect, that we deserve".
Yeah, go axe yuh mudda.
