THE HANGING OF JACK WARNER
Just about everyone in the entire world is familiar with the terrible scandal that has engulfed FIFA, the controlling body of world football and the accusations against arguably the most powerful of FIFA's vice-presidents, Jack Warner. Very briefly, the facts that are in the public domain are as follows:
1) The United States and England were extremely upset when they lost their
respective bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals in favour of Russia and
Qattar.
2) The English were so upset that the head of the English football delegation some
months after the decision that Qattar was the successful applicant for the 2022
finals accused Jack Warner of asking for a bribe.
3) This accusation was made even more explosive as Lord Triesman (the English
football head) made these accusations before a House of Commons Committee
that was looking into why the English did not get the 2022 World Cup.
4) Mr. Warner was finally completely cleared of Treisman's allegations.
5) In the meantime, the election of a President for FIFA was coming up on June 1st.
6) Mr. Mohammed Bin Hammam, from Qattar, a vice president of FIFA, had thrown
his hat in the ring and was challenging the incumbent Sepp Blatter for the
Presidency.
7) Bin Hammam was prevented from attending a Concacaf meeting in Miami in
April because he was denied a visa by USA authorities.
8) In order that he could meet with Concacaf dlegates and make his pitch to them as
to why they should vote for him instead of Mr. Blatter he asked Mr. Warner to
organise a meeting with Concacaf delegates in Trinidad in early May. Mr. Warner
obliged.
9) After the meeting Mr. Warner was quoted in the press as saying that he would
not divulge whether or not he would support Mr. Blatter.
10) At that stage all hell broke loose. The General Secreatary of Concacaf, one Chuck
Blazer, reported to Mr. Blatter that Messrs. Warner and Bin Hammam had had a
meeting with Concacaf delegates in teh Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain and
had given each of the delegates an envelope containing US$40,000 in cash. The
delegates from Puerto Rico and the Bahamas backed Blazer's accusations. But,
interestingly no other delegates did. In fact, the delegate from Grenada has been
reported as saying that if this was true he was clearly being discriminated
against as he received nothing at all.
11) The FIFA Ethics Committee summoned Messrs. Bin Hammam and Warner to a
meeting on Sunday 29th May, some 3 days before the Presidential election, and
decided, without giving either Warner or Bin Hammam a chance to defend
themselves properly, that there was a prima facie case to answer. Accordingly,
both men were summarily suspended from all FIFA duties and positions until
there could be a full hearing ... which would be (very conveniently for Blatter)
after the election. Bin Hammam withdrew from the race and Blatter was elected
unopposed.
12) Then Lyle Austin, who became the acting President for Concacaf in place of the
suspended Jack Warner, fired Chuck Blazer for hiring a big time American law
firm without the approval of the executive committee of Concacaf.
13) Then it is announced that Blazer is not fired but that Austin is now
suspended for purporting to fire Blazer without proper authority.
14) But it is noticable that the committee purporting to suspend Austin is made
up of only 4 delegates!
I apologise for the rather lengthy list above, but it is important to keep all of the above in mind when listening to all of the sound and fury that is going on. Clearly there is a lot more behind the scenes and anything that anybody says right now (including yours truly) can end up being so much hot air. But having said that, I think that it is possible to come to the tentative conclusion that the old Jack Warner simply ain't gonna get a fair hearing from the Ethics Committee whose behaviour on Sunday 29th May showed quite clearly that they weren't at all bothered by fair play and ethics, but that the most inportant thing was to get Jack and Bin Hammam out of the way at all costs.
One of the things to notice, and one of the reasons that I say this is because I find it strange to say the least how Blazer could hire a law firm without apparent authority and be backed up by Blatter for so doing. But Mr. Austin is suspended for trying to put the American in his place! There is something that simply isn't right here. That there are many who would like to see Jack hanged (not literally, of course) but to all the right thinking members of that group I would say that by all means go ahead and hang him. But make sure you do so only after he gets a fair trial. And quite frankly, while I will readily concede that I could be wrong, the truth is that I genuinely believe that Blatter is out to "kill" Jack and will do so at the earliest possible opportunity ... and truth, justice and fair play be damned!!
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Dear Robin,
ReplyDeleteGreetings. If I may, my views on your blog.
An aura of corruption overhangs all in FIFA...this is a given. It would be better that the organization modifies its name to 'MAFIFA' so as to be more closely linked to that other infamous organization and their alleged illicit activities, but staying closer to home and our very own JW, recent events have served only to strengthen my belief that the goodly gentleman must choose....football or T & T.
Given my short association with the Arab psyche, there is little doubt in my mind that the challenger for the presidential seat of FIFA may have tried to influence voting in the run up to the elections. It appeared to be overt rather than surreptitious and 'sombody' was caught with their pants down! That the incident occurred in TT played right into the hands of the incumbent SB, who will use it as ammunition to rid the executive of the two accused, but he should think again.
Certainly in the case of JW, who remains a politician par excellence, SB should tread carefully. JW's revelation of email correspondence had the American Valche scampering for cover and stuttering to offer feeble explanations for using the word 'bought'. Is it not likely that JW also has records and information relating to SB that he is 'holding' until the ethics committee releases its report on their investigation?
In an ironic twist, the ethics committee is investigating someone whose ethics have always been questionable. Further, and not unlike the Prime Minister, there is an increasing deficit of trust in his utterances. Speaking under the UNC banner, he claimed to have the names of several Gov't MP's who stated their intention to cross the floor. When the day of reckoning arrived and no one moved and he was asked to state who expressed their intention to cross, his retort was..."did you really believe I had six names"? In a more recent threat to divulge a footballing tsunami, he recanted saying he had was under legal advice to 'hold'.....no doubt a veiled warning to SB and the ethics committee.
I believe that JW will emerge unscathed!!!...not so with the Arab whom I predict will lose his seat on the FIFA executive!
Just my view,
A lot of this brouhaha was created by the Anglo/American contingent in FIFA. My question is do you think that any of this would have happened if say the USA had been given the 2018 World Cup instead of Russia and England had been given the 2022 World Cup? And if the same bribery allegations had arisen but this time against the English and/or the Americans?
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