Mortgage deeds show Jack Warner's Centre of Excellence ownership denials to be false

By Andrew Warshaw

June 3 – Disgraced former FIFA powerbroker Jack Warner’s fierce denial that he had anything to do with secretly owning a Centre of Excellence in his native Trinidad and Tobago that was supposed to belong to entirely to CONCACAF has been exploded by the local media in Port of Spain.

Two weeks ago at the CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) Congress in Budapest, it was sensationally revealed by lawyers that the $22.5 million (£15.5 million/€19 million) FIFA-funded Centre of Excellence was not the property of the Confederation, as all its members had assumed, but was, in fact, owned by two of Warner’s companies.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter reacted by saying it was a problem “that we are going to tackle”.

But Warner, who was President of CONCACAF and FIFA senior vice-president before resigning in the wake of last year’s cash-for-votes scandal, vehemently denied the ownership claims, suggesting there was a vendetta against him.

Now, however, documents obtained by the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian have shed new light on the so-called Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence at Macoya, showing that the giant site, built on just over seven acres of land, is indeed jointly owned by two companies – CCAM and Co Ltd and Renraw Investments Ltd.

Renraw is “Warner” spelt backwards.

The company’s annual return for 2011 lists Warner, his wife, Maureen and son Daryan as directors of Renraw Investments Ltd.

The Trinidad &Tobago Guardian obtained a copy of a registered mortgage document, dated July 2007, that shows Warner was one of the borrowers.

Renraw Investments Ltd is also listed, and Warner signed the statement as a director of Renraw.

The property was mortgaged three times according to the official documents, firstly on August 10, 1998, for $2 million (£1.3 million/€1.6 million), then on September 18 for $475,000 (£309,000/€382,000)and thirdly, in 2007 for $11 million (£7 million/€9 million).

Warner is alleged to have signed the first and third mortgages on the centre, named after former FIFA president Dr Joao Havelange and opened in 1998.

It includes a swimming pool, a “garden sanctuary”, a fitness centre, a hotel, an 800-capacity theatre, a banquet and reception hall and several other meeting halls.

The new development keeps Warner firmly in the spotlight despite continual denials that he has done anything wrong.

Last week, Trinidad and Tobago’s chief prosecutor said further investigations may be needed into how around $1 million (£652,000/€811,000) was brought into the country and paid to Caribbean football officials in last year’s cash-for-votes bribery scandal.

Ever since the infamous meeting in a Trinidad hotel in May 2011, questions have been raised about how the money entered the country before being handed over in brown envelopes in one of the most disgraceful episodes in FIFA’s history.

The scandal brought FIFA to its knees and led to Mohamed Bin Hammam, at the time Asian football’s most powerful official, being banned for life pending an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), and Warner resigning.

Contact the writer of this story at zib.l1734945535labto1734945535ofdlr1734945535owedi1734945535sni@w1734945535ahsra1734945535w.wer1734945535dna1734945535