Former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner tarnished his own credibility as well as that of football’s world governing body when he claimed last week that he was allowed to purchase World Cup television rights at a nominal cost in return for helping Sepp Blatter’s presidential election campaigns, the Trinidad Express, a newspaper from Warner’s home nation of Trinidad and Tobago, said yesterday.
The paper said there was little evidence that the money Warner made selling the rights on had been used, as Warner claimed, primarily “to assist in the development of football in Trinidad and Tobago.”
“Despite Warner’s disclosure that the rights were used for development of football in T&T, the Caribbean and Concacaf, it is ironic that the impoverished Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation still does not have a home of its own and is now almost bankrupt,” the paper said.
Warner said he was allowed to purchase multiple World Cup rights for $1 (€0.77) for Trinidad and Tobago after helping Blatter to secure the presidency of football’s world governing body.
He said he acquired the rights for $1 through Mexican company OTI for the 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 World Cups. Warner said the first deal to acquire rights in 1998 was secured just after Blatter had won a “brutal campaign” against Lennart Johansson, “a campaign in which [former Fifa vice-president Mohamed] Bin Hammam and I played critical roles in support of Mr Blatter.”
Warner said he was allowed to purchase rights in Trinidad and Tobago for the 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 World Cups for a total of $1 (€0.77) after helping Blatter. Warner said the first deal to acquire rights in 1998 was secured just after Blatter had won a “brutal [Fifa presidential election] campaign” against Lennart Johansson, “a campaign in which Bin Hammam and I played critical roles in support of Mr Blatter.”
Warner, who was president of the Caribbean Football Union and president of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football, had considerable influence over a large section of the Fifa electorate. Blatter retained the Fifa presidency last June after his only rival candidate, Bin Hammam, was barred from standing following allegations of corruption.
Warner also said he was offered the rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups for a nominal fee before resigning from Fifa in June, after being investigated for alleged bribery by the governing body.
“In 2011, in exchange for my support (and, by extension, the support of the CFU and Concacaf) in the Fifa presidential election, Fifa again offered me the sale of the World Cup rights for 2018 and 2022 as a ‘gift’ at a nominal fee,” said Warner in a press release. Fifa told Bloomberg that it would investigate Warner’s comments.