Warner’s swansong?

Jack Warner, Trinidad and Tobago’s infamous former FIFA Vice-President, is blessed with an unmatchable capacity to mortify.

Sport fans who hoped that his resignation from FIFA last June meant that he would vanish into obscurity were left gasping for air last week when he was accused of misappropriating emergency relief funds meant for earthquake ravaged Haiti, one of the world’s poorest nations.

FIFA wired US$250,000 for Warner, who was then CONCACAF and Caribbean Football Union (CFU) President, to disburse to Haiti while a source at the Korean FA told the UK Sunday Times that it sent US$500,000 for the same purpose. Dr Yves Jean-Bart, President of the Federation of Haitian Football (FHF), said only US$60,000 of that aid money actually got to Haiti. It is a career-ending scandal for most. But Warner responded flippantly.

“I have nothing to answer to anybody,” Warner told ctntworld.com. “Who wants to make allegations, make allegations... There is nothing anybody could say or do to make me look bad anymore.” “Everything that has been said about Jack Warner has been said. Everything that has been written has been written and I still continue to do the people’s work.”

Renowned Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger once remarked that “the target of anything in life should be to do it so well that it becomes an art.” Say what you like about Warner, and most of us do, but there is surely consensus that he has elevated shamelessness into something resembling a dark art.

Last December, he attacked FIFA President Sepp Blatter for bribing him with the Caribbean’s World Cup television rights at the price of just US$1 for nearly two decades. (Incidentally, Blatter had not been President long enough to match Warner’s timeline.)

A year earlier, Warner had urged the English FA to buy the same World Cup rights as a gift for Haiti from an unnamed owner; with the FIFA Vice-President serving as a middleman. Such details barely merit a shrug from the Trinidadian.

Warner insisted that the money was given to the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), which he left penniless and initially unable to even locate its bank accounts following his abrupt exit last June. His exodus, one should recall, was prompted by a FIFA investigation into his role in a bribery scandal that overshadowed its 2011 Presidential election.

Left with the bile and the bill
Like the CFU, the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) was left with a gaping hole where its finances should be. On 8 February 2012, a court-appointed marshal, led by a party of frustrated ex-international players, marched into the TTFF headquarters and carted away everything that wasn’t nailed down to partially satisfy a US$724,000 debt.

The TTFF lost a legal battle at the London-based Sports Dispute Resolution Panel (SDRP) and the Port of Spain High Court with 13 World Cup 2006 players over unpaid bonuses. Warner negotiated the bonus agreement himself and also banked all World Cup revenue. The local football body was left with the bile and the bill. The TTFF told the High Court that it lacked the necessary documentation to determine what its players were owed; let alone to pay them.

The TTFF’s failure to account for FIFA’s aid money to Haiti prompted the global football body to withhold its annual subvention of US$250,000 to the twin island republic and the football body would be bankrupt but for the local Ministry of Sport.

“The TTFF realises the final responsibility for any account in its name lies with us,” stated the TTFF on 16 February 2012, “but confesses that it surrendered its authority to Mr Warner, who has been for more than three decades a larger than life figure in national and international football and was a trusted agent and member of our organisation.”

“We never questioned his authority or actions and are now in a position of despair as we are starved of funds by FIFA until full disclosure, which we are unable to provide without Mr. Warner’s input.  Sadly Mr Warner seems disinclined to comply with our repeated requests.”

On 17 February 2012, the TTFF sent Warner a pre-action protocol letter and — after repeated urgings and the threat of a contempt of court charge by High Court Judge Devindra Rampersad — is expected to launch suit against its former special advisor by the first week of April. The Trinidad and Tobago government, which employs Warner as its Minister of Works and Infrastructure, has shown diminished appetite for its controversial MP recently. 

‘Teflon Jack’ is not done yet
The Works Ministry’s most lucrative project, the Programme for Upgrading Roads Efficiency (PURE), has been halted since last year after Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar claimed auditing discrepancies were found. So, with the High Court closing in, a State audit ready to be unleashed and facing widespread condemnation at home and abroad for the Haiti aid scandal, has Warner finally reached the end of his rope?

As always, rumours of Warner’s demise seem exaggerated. FIFA is not fond of police action — fancy that — and is unlikely to seek legal redress with the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service over its missing aid money. And, as Warner suggested to the press, he has never been unduly troubled by popular opinion.

The TTFF’s suit might have been more worrisome if its lawyer, Deryck Ali, did not spend breaks between sessions listening spellbound to the instructions from Warner’s attorney, Om Lalla.

Justice Rampersad has shown no hint of being cowed by Warner. But it will be no easy task to protect the “Soca Warriors” from collusion between the TTFF and its former special advisor in this case.

And the Prime Minister’s displeasure with the audited report from PURE? The PURE report was completed over a month ago and is yet to be made public. Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar is part of the United National Congress (UNC) political party that is chaired by Warner and, with UNC internal elections set for March, there is the possibility that its contents might become a bargaining chip.

When politics enters the room, morality is shown the door. And Warner, who burst to prominence as the local FA’s General Secretary in 1973, is a good negotiator when morals are not at the table. He has made it clear too that he has unpalatable information on a Prime Minister who is obsessed with her carefully manicured image. Her vanity and disinclination for open battle might play into Warner’s hands.

So, “Teflon Jack” is not done just yet. Warner doesn’t travel much anymore; and there may be a few global lawmen who take their duties more seriously than their Trinidadian counterparts. Regardless, as the Haitian furore suggested, he can still unite the globe in indignation without leaving the southern twin-island republic.

There are more than a few politicians with the odd skeleton privately stashed away; Warner has a walk-in closet full. The international press awaits the next outrage like an invalid anticipates the flu season.

Lasana Liburd is the publisher of the Trinidad-Tobago online paper www.wired868.com, which has more stories on Jack Warner.