News Americas, LONDON, England, Thurs. June 4, 2015: Former FIFA vice and former Trinidad & Tobago national security minister, Jack Warner, is threatening to expose an alleged link between FIFA funding and the current Kamla Persad-Bissessar government, hours after he made it on to the INTERPOL Red Notice or an alert of international wanted persons.
Warner along with six other former soccer executive members indicted by the U.S. government last week made the list. But on Wednesday night, the man who rose to fame from humble beginnings as a school teacher in Trinidad said he has “no intention of allowing” anyone to deprive him of his freedom.
In a pre-recorded, paid broadcast televised broadcast to the nation of T&T that was aired on TV6 on Wednesday evening, Warner, the current head of the Independent Labor Party in Trinidad & Tobago, said that he has compiled a series of documents that show “a link between FIFA, its funding and me, … and the United National Congress and The People’s Partnership Government in General Election 2010.”
These documents, Warner added “also deals with my knowledge of international transactions at FIFA, including its president Mr. Sepp Blatter and, lastly, other matters involving the nation’s current Prime Minister.”
Warner’s threat came a day after FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced his resignation after 17 years at the helm and just days after his May 29th re-election and as Interpol placed the former T&T minister and football exec. on its global alert.
Nicolas Leoz a Paraguayan national, former FIFA executive committee member and CONMEBOL president, also made the list as well as Argentinians Alejandro Burzaco and Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, who together are accused of paying more than $100 million in bribes for media and commercial rights to soccer tournaments through Torneos y Competencias S.A., a sports marketing business based in Argentina, and its affiliates; and Jose Margulies, a Brazilian broadcast executive of Valente Corp. and Somerton Ltd., broadcasting businesses.
Warner has been released in T&T and Leoz is under house arrest. He is accused of accepting a US $10 million bribe in exchange for helping South Africa secure the right to host the 2010 World Cup. Officials in South Africa have denied that the money was a bribe.
He appeared in court last week in Port-of-Spain, after the US began extradition proceedings seeking to have him brought to the US to face trial. Warner, who is out on $2.5 million bail, has denied wrong-doing and claimed that the charges are part of a US “witch-hunt” meant to punish him for his support of Qatar’s 2022 World Cup.
The INTERPOL Red Notices are one of the ways in which the body informs its member countries that an arrest warrant has been issued for an individual by a judicial authority and seeks the location and arrest of wanted persons with a view to extradition or similar lawful action. The Interpol “red notice” means they risk arrest anywhere they travel.
Meanwhile, CONCACAF’s new President Alfredo Hawit issued a statement noting: “We are at an important moment for the game, a moment that we must not squander. CONCACAF stands ready to assist in the process of rebuilding FIFA in a way that strengthens the game for many years to come.”
