By Duncan Mackay
February 25 – Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner claims he plans to sue a Trinidad newspaper and journalist that he accuses of libel and defamation regarding stories involving funds slated for Haiti reconstruction efforts following the earthquake there.
Warner’s lawyers sent a letter last night to the Trinidad Express and Lasana Liburd stating that he gave Haitian officials the full $750,000 (£475,000/€572,000) pledged by FIFA and South Korean Chung Mong-joon, a former member of the world governing body’s Executive Committee, for rebuilding projects following the earthquake more than two years ago that killed over 300,000 people.
In the letter sent by leading Trinidad law firm KR Lalla & Company, and seen by insideworldfootball, they claim that the allegations have caused Warner “serious distress and embarrassment”.
Among the things he is seeking is a “full and unequivocal public retraction” and the “payment of substantial damages…to demonstrate the baselessness of the allegation and compensation for the injury to his reputation and the distress caused to him”.
Haitian officials had told British newspaper The Sunday Times earlier this month that they received only $60,000 (£38,000/€45,000).
FIFA has frozen all funding to Trinidad and Tobago while the matter is investigated.
Warner’s lawyers claim that he has accounted for all funds involved.
“The imputations that our client took and misappropriated monies due to Haiti is false, malicious and misleading and calculated to damage our client’s reputation,” the letter states.
Last week, the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) said it planned to sue Warner to recover millions of dollars in funds including those slated for Haiti.
The TTFF said it had turned over management of its accounts to Warner and is seeking an audit of them.
Warner resigned last year to avoid a bribery probe after overseeing football’s North and Central American and Caribbean governing body for almost 30 years.
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