Warner renews Blatter hostilities

Jack Warner_in_Port_of_Spain

By David Gold

December 26 – Former CONCACAF chief Jack Warner has launched a new attack on Sepp Blatter, in which he accuses the FIFA President of “megalomania, covert racism and discrimination”.

Warner was forced out of FIFA earlier this year in the aftermath of the organisation’s Presidential election.

He was found guilty of colluding with former Presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam to bribe members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU).

Warner resigned in exchange for an investigation into his conduct being dropped, though Bin Hammam was banned for life from football activities as a result and a number of Caribbean officials have faced censure since.

In a statement, Warner accuses FIFA of undermining the CFU and by extension CONCACAF, before going on to launch a bitter tirade against Blatter.

“The FIFA President must not be allowed to continue the demeaning of people of colour without someone raising a voice to tell him enough is enough,” he said.

“The FIFA President cannot continue faux pas after faux pas with impunity especially when all his wrongdoings are along the same vector of megalomania, covert racism and discrimination.

“The time has come to break the silence.

“One must no longer accept silence as affirming the wrong being perpetuated by the FIFA.

“In this regard I have decided to break my silence.”

Back in October, Warner made a similar attack on FIFA, accusing it of racism, and suggesting that Zionism was the reason behind bin Hammam’s departure from the organisation.

As a result of the controversy that has surrounded FIFA in the last year, with a number of executive committee members being investigated during the last 12 months and the controversial awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in December 2010, Blatter has laid out a ‘road map’ for reform.

An Independent Governance Committee has been set up, and is to be chaired by Swiss professor Mark Pieth, whilst another part of the road map is the publication of papers relating to the collapse of FIFA’s former marketing partner ISL.

The release of the documents was planned for earlier this month but has been held up, and they are believed to implicate three members of FIFA’s Executive Committee as well as former President João Havelange, who has already resigned from the International Olympic Committee under pressure over an investigation into his involvement with the company.

Contact the writer of this story at zib.l1733894829labto1733894829ofdlr1733894829owedi1733894829sni@d1733894829log.d1733894829ivad1733894829

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October 2011: Warner sets off on road to revenge against FIFA as he insists he will never be silenced