Jack Warner ally tries to fire FIFA whistleblower

By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich

May 31 – Chuck Blazer, the prominent FIFA official who blew the whistle on the biggest bribery scandal in its history, faced a battle to keep his position as general secretary of the CONCACAF Confederation tonight as the crisis at the heart of the world governing body took a farcical turn.

Blazer was apparently sacked by the acting President of CONCACAF, Lisle Austin, who took over from Jack Warner, suspended by FIFA on Sunday (May 29) for his alleged role in the bribes-for-votes scandal.

“I cannot comment on this,” said Blazer as insideworldfootball tried to contact him at his room in a downtown Zurich hotel.

“We are dealing with the matter as we speak.

“It’s not a conversation I can have right now.”

Shortly afterwards CONCACAF’s head office in New York claimed that Blazer’s dismissal was unconstititional, adding even more confusion to the shock move.

“Today an unauthorized declaration was made by Lisle Austin attempting to remove Chuck Blazer as General Secretary of CONCACAF,” a statement on the organisation’s website said.

“This attempted action was taken without any authority.

“Under the CONCACAF Statutes, jurisdiction over the general secretary rests solely with the CONCACAF Executive Committee which has taken no action.

“Further a majority of the Executive Committee Members have advised Mr Austin that he does not have the authority to take such action.

“Chuck Blazer continues as CONCACAF seneral secretary and with the full authority of his office.

“The Confederation continues its normal operations including the Gold Cup commencing on June 5 at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas.”

Austin, the head of the Barbados Football Association and a key Warner ally, was catapulted into the Presidency on a temporary basis though it is not clear whether he was acting on the specifiic instructions of Warner who has remained here despite being forced to miss tomorrow’s FIFA election.

It was not immediately clear either whether if he was successful in sacking Blazer, which Austin claimed was with immediate effect, meant he was also no longer a member of FIFA’s Executive Committee, whose members are selected by individual Congresses.

CONCACA’s Congress, at which Warner was automatically re-elected as President, took place on May 3 in Miami.

After 21 years working together at the top of CONCACAF, Blazer and Warner fell out spectacularly following the bribery scandal in which Warner allegedly played a pivotal role in offering huge cash inducements to Caribbean federations, at a meeting in Trinidad May 10-11, to vote for Mohamed Bin Hammam instead of Blatter at tomorrow’s election.

Both Warner and Bin Hammam were suspended on Sunday by FIFA’s Ethics Committee from all football-related activities and Warner was again reported by Blazer earlier today for having allegedly breached the terms of his suspension by unlawfully holding clandestine meetings with his supporters on the eve of the FIFA Congress.

Austin claimed that Blazer’s conduct was “inexcusable and a gross misconduct of duty and judgment,” and that the American was no longer fit to be CONCACAF’s secretary general.

The rift came to a head when Blazer refused to cut ties with the Collins and Collins, the law firm that investigated the bribery allegations, putting him at loggerheads with Warner and Austin.

Austin’s first act in replacing Warner, who had specifically asked him to fly to Zurich from the United States where he was attending a refereeing conference, was to issue Blazer with a written demand to stop working with the Collins and Collins who presented evidence against Warner to FIFA’s Ethics Committee.

But Blazer told insideworldfootball yesterday that as general secretary of CONCACAF, he had every right to employ the firm which, he said, had been routinely used used by the Confederation for any misdemeanours involving the secretariat of the organisation, Warner being one of them.

In what appears to be a spiteful game of one-upmanship and an attempt by Warner’s camp to bring his accusers down with him, Blazer now finds himself the fall-guy having reported what he believed to be a serious case of bribery.

It was Blazer’s report to FIFA’s Ethics Committee that led to this week’s spate of claims and counter-claims that now appears to have led to the removal, albeit for vastly different reasons, of CONCACAF’s two most senior officials.

Warner’s camp will doubtless have a different interpretation of the rules and will believe that they can engineer his removal as general secretary.

The veteran Trinidadian was still holed up at his hotel, the same one being used by Austin, his Caribbean colleague, and a mere five minutes’ walk from where Blazer has been staying.

Contact the writer of this story at zib.l1732409607labto1732409607ofdlr1732409607owedi1732409607sni@w1732409607ahsra1732409607w.wer1732409607dna1732409607