AS the newspaper which exposed the conflict of interest engaged in by Jack Warner, FIFA vice president and special adviser to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation, in the business arrangements for selling tickets to the World Cup finals in Germany in June, we feel it is important to set the record straight.
Mr Warner has taken out paid advertisements in the newspapers celebrating the fact that he was "cleared'' by the FIFA Ethics and Fairplay Committee, after he was let off the hook last Friday. He said it was a "character assassination attempt'' which had failed.
He had been found guilty of a conflict of interest by this committee after it held that the company which had a principal role in the selling of tickets and tour packages to local fans wanting to travel to the games was in fact a company owned by him and other members of his family.
The fact that the world's football governing body forced him to sell his shares and those of his immediate family members is a powerful demonstration that there was indeed a conflict of interest in this matter.
It is true, however, that FIFA did not apply the full brunt of the law as laid down by its Ethics and Fairplay Committee against Mr Warner who is one of the organisation's highest ranking officials. But with a clear case of a violation of the rules which it has established, the world football body has exhibited in this case a classic example of cronyism at the highest level.
Not many people expected the decision to have been much different from what it was.
Mr Warner has sought to make much of the fact that it was he who voluntarily called in the committee to have a look at the issue. But the reality is that he did that only on the basis of the series of articles which set out the case in clear and unambiguous terms. This action of his was after the fact, plain and simple.
He has gone on to say that the articles were part of what he sees as an "Operation Get Jack Warner,'' of which he declares that there are other rounds to follow.
Shrewd and cunning politician that he is, Mr Warner must know that the case for an investigation into the construction of stadia for the 2001 youth football tournament held in Trinidad and Tobago in 2001 and raised by Government Minister Dr Keith Rowley will once again put the spotlight on him.
Indeed, that spotlight has been already so trained and therefore Mr Warner is making a political play because he feels more heat is coming his way in the days ahead.
Certainly, it will.