Austin "Jack" Warner

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Austin "Jack" Warner (b. January 26, 1943), a Trinidad and Tobago football executive and businessman, is FIFA Vice-President and CONCACAF President. A former school teacher (history), he is the owner of Joe Public F.C., a professional football club based in Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago.[1]

Jack Warner has been a member of the FIFA Executive Committee since 1983, and CONCACAF President since 1990. His Presidential term will end in 2011.[2]

In October 2007 Warner was appointed United National Congress Alliance chairman and co-leader, to lead the party into Trinidad and Tobago's November 5 General Election.[3] Warner was elected as the Member of Parliament for Chaguanas West. The UNC-A won 15 of 41 seats.

Contents

[edit] Corruption

[edit] Black market ticket sales

Warner has been accused of corruption on BBC's Panorama for repeatedly taking advantage of his position for financial gain. FIFA's auditors, Ernst & Young, estimated that his family made a profit of at least $1 million from reselling 2006 World Cup tickets that Warner had ordered.[4][5]

Minutes of FIFA’s executive committee indicate that a fine of almost $1 million, equal to the expected profiteering, was imposed on the family.[6] Despite numerous reminders from FIFA, only $250,000 has been paid.[7]

[edit] Request for personal payments

After Trinidad and Tobago visited Scotland for the friendly match on May 30, 2004 at Easter Road, Jack Warner asked SFA President John McBeth for the cheque for the game to be made out to him personally and not the FA of Trinidad and Tobago. McBeth refused to issue the cheque to Warner. Warner also approached several members of staff at the Scottish Football Association in an attempt to get the money due to the T&T FA.[8] [9]

[edit] Controversy

[edit] Trinidad and Tobago 2006 World Cup bonuses

Before the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Warner, as special advisor to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation, brokered a deal between the Federation and the players on Trinidad and Tobago's 2006 World Cup team to share the proceeds from their participation in the World Cup. After the tournament the Federation declared revenue of TT$18.25 million, costs of TT$17.9 million and offered the players a split of TT$5,644.08 per player. The players rejected this figure, disputing the Federation's numbers. Warner criticized the players for refusing to accept the T&TFF's unaudited statement, saying “What Trinidad is suffering from is from a situation whereby 16 or 18 players are holding a country and a federation to ransom because of greed.”[10][11]

Shaka Hislop, the interim president of the Football Players Association of Trinidad and Tobago responded with a letter to Warner writing “You have continually proven yourself heavily biased and opinionated in this matter.”

The Trinidad and Tobago government later revealed that the Federation received in excess of TT$173 million for their part in the tournament in Germany. The dispute has been referred to the UK Sports Dispute Resolution Panel.

[edit] England World Cup bid

Warner once again caused controversy in an interview with the BBC about England's chances of holding the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He asserted that "England invented the sport but has never made any impact on world football" despite being one of only seven nations to ever lift the world cup, "England is an irritant", and that "Nobody in Europe likes England". Furthermore Warner proposed that, if the World Cup were to be held in Europe, it should be held in Italy, Spain, or France (countries that last hosted the competition in 1990, 1982 and 1998 respectively). He said that he would "battle to bring...the tournament to his region"[12] where the U.S. last hosted the finals in 1994. Mexico hosted in 1970 and 1986.[13][14]

However, on February 14, 2008, Warner appeared to retract this stance. He argued that, "The time has come. The fact is they invented this sport [...] They last held the World Cup 42 years ago. That is almost two to three generations. There are guys in England who have never seen a World Cup on English soil." Warner maintained that the choice of England would not be popular among mainland Europe though.[15]

[edit] References

  1. ^ James, Jennie. "Last Man Standing", Time Inc., 2002-05-19. Retrieved on 2007-05-31. 
  2. ^ "Jack Warner re-elected as CONCACAF President", CONCACAF, 2007-03-14. Retrieved on 2007-03-21. 
  3. ^ Chan Tack, Clint. "Panday, Warner lead UNC Alliance", Daily News Limited, 2007-10-05. Retrieved on 2007-10-19. 
  4. ^ Jennings, Andrew. "The Beautiful Bung: Corruption and the World Cup", BBC, 2006-06-11. Retrieved on 2006-12-10. 
  5. ^ Norman-Culp., Sheila. "Blatter denies involvement in graft probe", The Associated Press, 2007-03-23. Retrieved on 2007-03-28. 
  6. ^ Jennings, Andrew. "FIFA chief's son in $1m scam fine", Daily Mail, 2007-03-13. Retrieved on 2007-03-13. 
  7. ^ Jennings, Andrew. "FIFA chief's World Cup ticket scam", Daily Mail, 2006-09-12. Retrieved on 2006-12-12. 
  8. ^ Jennings, Andrew. "'Warner asked me to make a cheque out to his personal account. I said we don't do that'", The Sunday Herald, Gannett Co., Inc., 2007-10-21. Retrieved on 2008-01-19. 
  9. ^ BBC NEWS | Programmes | Panorama | Fifa and Coe
  10. ^ Herborn, Michael. "Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation said to understate World Cup earnings by USD 25 million", Play the Game, 2007-09-24. Retrieved on 2007-10-22. 
  11. ^ Liburd, Lasana. "T&TFF got more than $173m", The Trinidad Express, 2007-09-15. Retrieved on 2007-09-30. 
  12. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/6939170.stm Fifa man opposes England 2018 bid
  13. ^ - Potential CONCACAF hosts discussed
  14. ^ US touted as a possible for 2018
  15. ^ "Warner backs England 2018 Cup bid", BBC SPORT, 2008-02-14.  Retrieved February 14, 2008

[edit] External links