 |
|
Jack Warner
|
Port of Spain: Former Fifa vice president Jack Warner said on Thursday that he was awarded World Cup television rights for as little as $1 in return for helping Sepp Blatter win elections for the presidency of world football’s ruling body.
Warner, who resigned from Fifa in June amid bribery allegations, said in a statement that the organisation awarded him the 1998 World Cup rights in his native Trinidad & Tobago for $1 after he helped Blatter win a “brutal” campaign to become Fifa president.
Warner also said he was sold the rights for the 2002 and 2006 World Cups after helping Blatter get re-elected in 2002, and later bought the 2010 and 2014 rights. The accusations are the latest twist to a saga of corruption accusations and infighting which has dogged Fifa throughout 2011.
Asked about Warner’s claims, Fifa said in a statement that “we are currently looking into the matter”.
Once a Blatter ally, Warner switched his allegiance to Qatar’s Mohammed bin Hammam during Fifa’s presidential election earlier this year. After being suspended by Fifa in May, Warner had threatened to unleash a “tsunami” of corruption allegations against the organisation.
On Thursday, Warner said that he and bin Hammam, a former Asian Football Confederation president, had helped Blatter in 2002 by playing “extremely critical roles in his re-election as well as in preventing several members of the then executive committee from instituting criminal charges against him”. Warner did not give details of the possible charges.
The TV rights for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups were “again sold to me personally however using the CFU as the vehicle”, Warner said, adding that they were subsequently resold. He said the profits, as with previous rights earnings, were used to fund football activities in the Caribbean.
Warner’s decision to quit Fifa meant that he avoided an investigation of his alleged role in arranging payments for Caribbean voters during bin Hammam’s presidential campaign — a bribery scandal, which subsequently led to a life ban from football for the Qatari challenger.
In his statement on Thursday, Warner claimed Fifa had vainly made him further lucrative offers if he would support Blatter, rather than bin Hammam, in the election.
“In 2011, in exchange for my support (and by extension the support of the CFU and the CONCACAF) in the Fifa presidential election, the Fifa again offered me the sale of the World Cup Rights for 2018 and 2022 as a ‘gift’ at a nominal fee, “ Warner said. Fifa also agreed to give Concacaf a combined total of $1 million for two football development projects, Warner claimed.
According to Warner, a 28-year veteran of Fifa’s executive committee, there are more revelations to come. He said that he would make further disclosures next week.
| 
