Warner to be allowed to continue as FIFA vice-president

By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year

June 17 – Jack Warner (pictured) will be allowed to continue as Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Works and Transport while serving as FIFA vice-president, the country’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has announced.

Attorney General Anand Ramlogan said that, after consulting a group of legal experts, including Britain’s Michael Beloff QC, that Warner can legally hold both of these key posts and it is solely up to Persad-Bissessar to determine whether he or any other member of her Cabinet was fit to serve in the positions to which she appointed them.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley wrote a letter to the Integrity Commission earlier this month. questioning whether Warner could be a Government Minister in the new coalition and hold such a high-profile post with FIFA.

Sir Fenton Ramsahoye SC, the former Attorney General of Guyana, who was among the legal experts consulted by the Trinidad and Tobago Government, claimed in his report that Warner’s postion with FIFA was likely to benefit the country.

He said: ”[Warner’s] connections in the promotion of football are likely to benefit the entire country.

“It is not easy to see anything adverse to Trinidad and Tobago or any compromise of public life of any kind by his holding the vice president position.”

Beloff too reported that it was difficult to see where Warner’s Ministerial position could “be used to advance FIFA’s interests improperly”.

Beloff concluded that there was nothing in this country’s laws or the Code of Ethics for Parliamentarians “to require Mr Warner to resign from his unpaid, part-time role in FIFA with whom he has been involved since 1983, consequent upon his appointment to Cabinet.”

Ramlogan said: ”Having received these opinions, I have advised the Honourable Prime Minister in writing, that Minister Warner can remain a member of the Cabinet and he can simultaneously retain his position as vice-president of FIFA.

“It is a matter for [Persad-Bissessar’s] discretion and personal judgment if Mr Warner’s duties as FIFA vice-president significantly adversely affect his ability to perform his duties as Minister of Works and to take such appropriate action as she sees fit in her own judgement and discretion.”

Persad-Bissessar said: ”In law, there is obviously nothing wrong with it.

“In terms of the ethics, if it has to do with work ethic and if it is that, Mr Warner is capable of performing his functions as Minister of Works and those are not impaired in terms of work.

“I see no reason why Mr Warner should be called upon to choose or whether myself in my capacity as Prime Minister should ask him to step down as Minister or Works.

“So he will remain our Minister of Works.”

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