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The Corruption in FIFA - The Jack Warner Story

In the first part of this series, we were introduced to the President of CONCACAF – the Trinidadian Jack Warner. Warner was the man who was involved in substituting a mysterious woman – the wife of the head of the Jamaican Football Federation – into the place of the absent Haitian delegate in the 1996 FIFA Congress.

He is one of Sepp Blatter’s closest friends and allies in football. “A wonderful and loyal friend. He is very competent and I just have to say that Jack is one of the top personalities in the world of football,” is how Blatter would describe the controversial Warner.


Jack Warner with Sepp Blatter
However, his popularity does not reach quite such heights in his own backyard. In Trinidad, he is described by many as a dictator, who has built his power at the expense of others and who has used his position within FIFA to serve his own financial goals. He has been called a ‘clown’ and a ‘disgrace’ by Roy Keane, and is deeply unpopular with the Trinidad and Tobago national team players for reasons we shall see later.

When meeting the Queen at Buckingham Palace, he complained to her that British companies were failing to spend their sponsorship money on football in Trinidad and Tobago. He has supported the corrupt former UNC government in the country, and estimates suggest that through his FIFA connections, he has amassed a fortune of almost £20m.

His first role in football came as the general secretary of the Trinidad Football Association. He immediately entrenched his power by setting up numerous organisations filled with his people, who could exercise voting rights should he come under threat from a competitor. He rapidly spotted a chance for further promotion when he ran for the presidency of the Caribbean Football Union, which came with the added prize of a seat on the FIFA Executive Committee.

One of the first instances where Warner came in for criticism over his seemingly insatiable desire to profit from football was back in 1989. Trinidad & Tobago were one result away from their first ever appearance in the World Cup. They needed only a point against the mighty Americans in Port of Spain to reach the global showpiece.

Jack Warner announced that extra tickets would be printed for the game and that alcohol restrictions within the ground would be lifted. The capacity of the stadium was 28,500. The local paper accused Warner of printing over 45,000 tickets.

Due to the crush of people, the ground was opened early. People crowded into the ground, filling every seat and aisle, whilst the bars served a roaring trade. Jack Warner relaxed in the VIP lounge with his pre-match drink, oblivious to the chaos outside.

Thousands of angry fans, who had spent their money on tickets to Trinidad’s biggest match in living memory, were stuck outside, unable to get into the ground. Opinion turned against Warner, who became the target of the crowd’s anger. The minibus carrying the Trinidad players was unable to get through the crowd, and in the end, the players had to be carried over the heads of the masses and into the stadium.

In the days following the chaos, Jack Warner had to backtrack on his original report to FIFA where he claimed that he had sold 43k tickets for the match. In a press briefing later, he claimed that they had only sold the 28,500 tickets that the stadium could cope with, and the turnstile figures of 34,834 were clearly wrong.

Soon, the government became involved, appointing an independent commission to look into the events. The words of the head of the commission speak strongly about Warner:

“Did Warner believe he was God or merely think he was running the country?”

Following the incident, Jack Warner resigned as head of the country’s football association, but had ambitions of a far greater nature. He was in negotiations with Chuck Blazer, commissioner of the American Soccer League, to challenge for the presidency of CONCACAF and become one of the most powerful men in world football.

He eventually won the election with 16 votes compared with 10 against him. Despite the fact that the other candidates had all withdrawn, he was still only able to get just over 60% of the vote.

We now fast forward twelve years to 2001. Jack Warner had managed to manipulate FIFA into awarding the U17 World Cup to Trinidad & Tobago. He named himself chairman of the tournament organising committee, an appointment that was approved by FIFA’s six-man finance committee (of which Jack Warner was a senior member) and the executive committee (of which Jack Warner was a vice-president). So, in other words, he appointed and then approved himself to organise a tournament that he had awarded to his home country.


Jack Warner with his son, Daryan, who conveniently won many of the contracts for the U17 World Cup controlled by his father

Five new stadia were built by companies linked to associates of Jack Warner. When technical staff from the broadcasting companies visited the new stadia, they discovered that roof beams and cables would obstruct the cameras views of the pitch. When they tried to question Warner and FIFA over this, they were sidelined.

All the food and beverage contracts for the new stadia were awarded to a local restaurant business. Seems legitimate at first glances. However, if we look at the owner of the local business, we find the name Daryan Warner. Jack Warner awarded these lucrative contracts to his son.

The fifteen teams that were travelling in to compete in the tournament needed a travel agency to arrange their flights and accommodation. On the recommendation of Warner, Simpaul’s Travel service, a family-owned travel agency, was awarded the deal. And which family was it owned by? You guessed it, the Warner family.

That is not all. FIFA were experimenting with introducing kiosks in hotel lobbies to enable fans to access instant reports and breaking news. The contract was with a company called Semtor, and with the help of Blatter, Warner forced through the deal worth around US$2m. The catch? The project manager for Semtor was none other than Daryan Warner, who picked up a check for US$60k as ‘management liaison between all web initiative consultants.’

We now head forward in time again to late 2005. Trinidad & Tobago have just qualified for the World Cup for the first time after Dennis Lawrence’s header beat Bahrain to send them to Germany. The only way that Trinidadians can get tickets for their team’s first round matches? Simpaul Travel Services. The company owned by Jack Warner.

For a hefty fee of £2,730.53, fans would get tickets for the three group stage games and shared accommodation. According to a Trinidad journalist, Simpaul Travel were making a profit of over £1,700 on each package sold. Indeed, the Independent newspaper in England suggested that Warner could make a profit of over £10m on his country’s ticket allocation.

A privately appointed committee was responsible for handling the sponsorship and merchandising for the team. Following a request from a London-based business, they requested a fee of US$80k, plus 5% of gross sales of the proposed merchandise. And who could the representative of this mysterious private committee be? Daryll Warner – another of Jack’s sons. How convenient.

Indeed, FIFA regulations even stated that packaging tickets with other services is not permitted. So, Warner’s own company was completely ignoring FIFA’s own rules, whilst he was accused selling FIFA tickets for his own personal profit.


The Trinidad & Tobago team that made it to the World Cup in 2006 - they still haven't received their payments from that tournament
And what of the players? They had been promised 50% of the commercial profit revenues during their qualifying matches and their World Cup matches in Germany. Warner’s own accountant drew up the accounts, but had mysteriously lost the copies of the hotel bills amongst others. No problem. They simply estimated the cost (higher of course), and moved on. He also decided that a third of the sponsorship money was really intended for the 2010 World Cup campaign, thus reducing the total pot by over £360k.

Overall, in excess of TT$173m (£17.4m) flowed into the coffers of the Trinidad & Tobago accounts from that campaign, with 50% of the revenues going to the players involved. So, how much did each player receive? A whopping £492.86. Shaka Hislop wrote to Warner complaining that “you have continually proven yourself heavily biased and opinionated in this matter.” Each player should have received in the region of £260k each. Significantly higher than the almost £500 they were actually offered.

A judgement in the courts concerning that case is expected in the coming hours or days, but it begs the question as to what happened to all the money that seems to have disappeared. Unseen costs? Lost in transit? Or possibly lining the pockets of various officials?

So while Jack Warner has controlled Caribbean football and CONCACAF with his almost dictator-like reign, he and his sons and friends have all been doing very nicely out of the money that should have been invested in football in Trinidad and the local fans. Is this really the type of man that we want in a senior position of power in the beautiful game?




This is the second in a series of articles looking at various stories of corruption, bribery, vote rigging and various other scandals that involve some of the most senior members of FIFA. The next part should be up tomorrow, so check back for that...
(first part available at http://sportdw.blogspot.com/2010/11/corruption-in-fifa-part-1.html)

Corruption in FIFA - Part 1

The issue of corruption within FIFA has become a hot topic in recent months, following the Sunday Times sting operation that caught out two members of the executive committee and the Panorama programme by Andrew Jennings that accused a further three members of accepting bribes from ISL back in the nineties. Sepp Blatter and FIFA have resisted calls for a thorough investigation for years, but the pressure on them is becoming almost too much to resist.

The FIFA executive committee is the main decision-making of the organisation and, amongst other things, is responsible for deciding the hosts of the World Cup. It consists of the President of FIFA, eight vice-presidents and a further fifteen members, appointed by the various confederations and associations.


Sepp Blatter, President of FIFA

Sepp Blatter is the President of FIFA, and has been since 1998 when he succeeded former President and mentor, Joao Havelange, who was named honorary life President. The vice-presidents include senior vice-president, Julio Grondona, who is head of the Argentine Football Federation, the head of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Issa Hayatou, Jack Warner, the President of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) and Reynaud Temarii, the President of the Oceania Football Confederation amongst others.

Amongst the other members of the committee, we find the likes of Ricardo Teixeira, the President of the Brazilian Football Confederation, Nicolas Leoz, the President of the South American Football Federation (CONMEBOL), Mohamed Bin Hammam, the President of the Asian Football Confederation and Nigerian Amos Adamu.

There are a number of other characters from outside of the executive committee that play a part in the story. We have former head of marketing at FIFA and current General Secretary, Jerome Valcke. Captain Horace Burrell, the President of the Jamaican Football Association, and Chet Greene, the former General Secretary of the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association are two more individuals that will play a prominent part. One final character that will appear on several occasions in a slightly different role is Jean-Marie Kyss, the head of the Haitian Football Association.

The most recent scandal was that involving the Sunday Times investigation. Undercover reporters recorded footage of senior FIFA members seemingly accepting money in exchange for their vote in the bidding for the World Cup. Vice-president, Reynaud Temarii, and executive committee member, Amos Adamu, were both subsequently investigated by FIFA’s ethics committee. Adamu was fined £6,341 and suspended from all football activities for three years, while Reynaud Temarii was fined £3,170 and suspended for one year for their parts in the scandal.

Four other former members of the executive committee was also indicted in the investigation. Botswana’s Ismael Bhamjee was banned from football for four years, Mali’s Amadou Diakite and Tonga’s Ahongalu Fusimalohi were banned for three years and Tunisia’s Slim Aloulou was banned for two years.

For virtually the first time, allegations of corruption had been investigated properly and punishments handed out. The public pressure from the allegations had been too great for FIFA to resist. However, this is by no means the first time that supposed incidents of corruption have taken place within the hallowed halls of FIFA.

The first short story we shall look at involves a predominantly Caribbean cast. In July 1996, FIFA were meeting in Zurich for their bi-annual conference with a particularly important item on the agenda – a proposal to increase the size of the executive committee. Jack Warner was hoping to push through the reform as he hoped it would give him and his allies greater power and seats on the committee.

Dr Jean-Marie Kyss was the head of the Haitian Football Association. His invitation to the event was delayed in the post and his federation was short of funds, so he informed CONCACAF that he would not be attending the conference.

FIFA’s head of credentials then received a call informing them that Dr Kyss had dropped out a while ago and that Haiti had sent a replacement by the name of Vincy Jalal. The new Haitian delegate took their seat next to Grenada’s representative, Colin Klass, and near to Jamaica’s Horace Burrell. This all seems relatively straight-forward.

Until we look a little more closely as to the identity of Haiti’s new delegate. Vincy Jalal was actually the wife of Captain Horace Burrell. Despite being surrounded by CONCACAF delegates who must have known the identity of Dr Kyss and some of whom who must have known Ms Jalal, no objections were raised by Jack Warner’s loyal representatives. When the roll call was carried out, Ms Jalal used the only word she knew in French, the language of Haiti, to respond – ‘Oui.’ Fortunately for her, she did not need anything further. She submitted her vote under Haiti’s name as she was instructed to by her husband, Burrell.


Captain Horace Burell with Sepp Blatter

Shockingly, this was not the only time that Jack Warner and his pals inserted an imposter in the place of Dr Kyss. Two years after Vincy Jalal had taken his place, a similar incident occurred. At the 1998 Congress, Dr Kyss tried to fly to Paris to take part in the vote to elect the President of FIFA. The two candidates were former General Secretary, Sepp Blatter, and Lennart Johansson.

However, Dr Kyss was unpopular with the Haitian government, having stood up against them to protect football in the country. As he arrived at the airport to fly to Paris, representatives from the Secretary of Sport in Haiti appeared informing him that he was banned from leaving the country. He contacted CONCACAF President, Jack Warner, and explained that he would not be there. He explained that he wanted Haiti’s empty seat at the Congress to symbolise the interference of the government in sport in Haiti.

The 1998 Presidential elections between Blatter and Johansson were expected to be very close. Each representative voted one-by-one, all the way down to country number 191, Zimbabwe, represented by Leo Mugabe. Therefore, with Haiti’s absence, there should be a total of 190 votes to be counted. When the first round results were announced, Sepp Blatter had beaten Lennart Johansson by 111 votes to 80. A total of 191 votes were cast. So what happened to the empty seat that was meant to be left for Haiti?

When Haiti’s name had been called out in the roll call, a response of a ‘present’ was heard in unmistakably Caribbean-accented English. No matter that they speak French in Haiti, not English. So who was taking the place of Dr Kyss?

The man was Neville Ferguson, a personal assistant to Jack Warner and General Secretary of the Caribbean Football Union. Again, not a single Caribbean delegate raised any comment about how the white, greying, spectacle-wearing Dr Kyss had seemingly morphed into a black man for the conference.


Dr Kyss, whose seat was twice taken by imposters arranged by Jack Warner and Horace Burrell

Dr Kyss did not find out that his empty seat protest had not occurred until 2002 – four years later. He was shocked to find out what had really happened, and through Lennart Johansson, requested FIFA set up an enquiry to look into what happened. In February 2003, Sepp Blatter announced that there would indeed be an enquiry into the events.

It was finally revealed in 2005 that there had been a secret hearing way back in June 2003 that FIFA had tried to keep secret. It found that Neville Ferguson received only a reprimand and would have to share in covering the costs of the proceedings with FIFA. It begs the question, if Ferguson was guilty as FIFA supposedly found, why should FIFA help cover the costs of the inquiry?

Bizarrely, FIFA also decided that Dr Kyss had breached article 12 of the FIFA statute. Article 12 regards members’ rights and states:

Members have the following rights:
a) To take part in the Congress;
b) To draw up proposals for inclusion in the agenda of the Congress;
c) To nominate candidates for the FIFA Presidency;
d) To take part in competitions organised by FIFA;
e) To take part in FIFA’s assistance and development programmes;
f) To exercise all other rights arising from these Statutes and other regulations

Quite which of these parts Dr Kyss supposedly breached when he was illegally prevented from leaving Haiti by a corrupt government is questionable. However, if he had still been in his position as Haiti’s delegate at the time of the inquiry, FIFA would have imposed punishments on him.

So, how have the men who appear to have been involved in the vote rigging scandal fared since the true version of events were made public?

Neville Ferguson continued as an official of various football organisations in the Caribbean under the control of Jack Warner, as well as earning fees as an international match commissioner. Captain Horace Burrell was awarded the FIFA Order of Merit in 2000, in 2002 he was made a member of the disciplinary commission overseeing the 2002 World Cup, and in 2004 he was given a role travelling the world giving advice to various football officials.

And Jack Warner remains one of the most powerful men in FIFA in his role as CONCACAF President and vice-president of the executive committee. However, we shall see more of Warner in the upcoming parts of this collection of articles.



This is the first in a series of articles looking at various stories of corruption, bribery, vote rigging and various other scandals that involve some of the most senior members of FIFA. The next part should be up tomorrow, so check back for that...

Irresponsible Newspapers and Corruption in FIFA

The Mail on Sunday has faced a huge backlash in recent days over its decision to publish the allegations of former head of the FA and key member of the 2018 World Cup bid, Lord Triesman. Quite rightly so in my opinion. The press in general are beginning to come under pressure from fans, who are sick of them constantly undermining the national team, simply to sell copies of their newspapers. Admittedly, newspaper editors’ primary mandate is the success of their newspaper, and so they will claim that they are simply acting in their best interests. And maybe they are. But this does not quell the growing feeling that they should take some responsibility for their actions.


Whilst it is not clear yet, the actions of the Mail on Sunday may have dealt a fatal blow to England’s hopes of hosting the World Cup in 2018. The crushing disappointment to millions of fans nationwide, simply for the success of increasing their sales by a couple of thousand copies on one single Sunday. Indeed, it may backfire with a growing number of fans talking of boycotting the paper as a result of their actions.

With the World Cup itself starting in just over 3 weeks time, the press seem to be going into overload in trying to target and undermine England’s chances. This year alone, there has been the exposure of the John Terry affair, the completely irrelevant criticisms of the Capello Index, and now this sting operation on the chairman of the FA. The England captain, the England coach and the chairman of the FA in less than six months – will they be targeting Wayne Rooney next? What Lord Triesman said was not illegal, it was not libellous – it was a simple comment made in private to a person that he regarded as a friend. If every private remark were to be published as a truth, the world would collapse into chaos within hours. Yes, it was not a smart thing to have said, but surely a responsible press would have got in touch with him, told him about what they had, and told him to be more careful in the future.


This has been a situation where somebody in a position of trust with Lord Triesman has been recruited, sends her to meet him with a tape recorder in her bag, simply to induce him into saying something that they can then publish on the front page of their newspaper. For me, this is a hideous way of operating and obtaining a story.

The other interesting thing to note is that, despite all of what has been happening, Lord Triesman has not withdrawn his allegation. That seems to have been swept under the carpet with all the attempted mending bridges that has been going on. Head of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, has called the FIFA Ethics Committee to investigate this matter. However, they are investigating whether England has broken the regulations over bidding for the World Cup. There has been no investigation either by FIFA, or by anybody in Moscow or Madrid, over whether there is any truth behind these allegations.

Chances are, there is no truth behind what Lord Triesman has claimed. But what if there was, even if only an ounce of truth? It has not been the first rumour concerning corruption that has surrounded FIFA in recent times. And conveniently, these have been hidden away as well. Lord Triesman claimed earlier in the year that one FIFA executive committee member requested an honorary knighthood in exchange for a vote in the ballot. If there is any truth to this, surely this is a form of corruption? And yet FIFA have not even asked Lord Triesman for the name of the individual involved, let alone launch any form of investigation.


Last year, the British FIFA vice-president, John McBeth, was forced to resign after he accused CONCACAF President and FIFA executive committee member, Jack Warner, of corruption. Rather than launch any form of investigation, Jack Warner accused McBeth of racism, and FIFA forced him to resign his commission.


Now, I am not for a moment suggesting that there is any truth to the accusations made by Lord Triesman over the agreement between Spain and Russia. However, can we take the risk that there could be something behind the rumours. Often there is no smoke without fire. And FIFA hardly have a strong prior record on investigating allegations of corruption. So whilst it was irresponsible by Lord Triesman to have made these comments, they are surely worthy of at least a cursory glance by the Ethics Committee.