By Andrew Warshaw
May 6 – Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, who resigned as a politician in his native Trinidad following explosive revelations about the way he ran football as head of CONCACAF, is refusing to go without a legal fight.
Reports in Trinidad say Warner has met with his English lawyers over the damning CONCACAF report into his conduct, leaving the former national security minister in an “upbeat” mood.
The meeting was held 15 days after the CONCACAF congress in Panama were presented with allegations of gross financial mismanagement by Warner.
“I remain very upbeat and believe me, I mean this literally, I am very upbeat.” Warner was quoted as saying. “One cannot understand how others could have come to any conclusion as they have come to.”
Warner resigned as National Security minister as well as an MP following publication of the CONCACAF report which found he was “fraudulent” in his management of the confederation which he controlled for the best part of a generation.
Warner, who stepped down from all footballing positions in 2011 in the wake of the infamous cash-for-votes scandal rather than face a FIFA ethics probe, had steadfastly clung to power in his own country despite a succession of further damaging allegations about his conduct. Time finally caught up with him when delegates heard how he had tricked the region, which represents football in North America, Central America and the Caribbean, out of ownership of the $26m Centre of Excellence in Port of Spain.
Warner, the audit said, had “deceived persons and organisations” into believing the facility was CONCACAF’s and not his. He was also accused of misappropriating at least $15m by compensating himself with CONCACAF funds without authorisation after his last contract expired in July 1998.
Warner responded by declaring he had never used politics “to enrich my wealth or fatten my bank accounts” and that his conduct was at all times honest. He claims he was personally given the money by former FIFA president Joao Havelange to build the centre of excellence in return for helping Sepp Blatter’s election in 1998, and provided evidence of the correspondence between himself and Havelange.
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