FIFA fines Jack Warner’s son for touting World Cup tickets

Daryan Warner, son of FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, has also been told their family travel company is banned from dealing in tickets, writes investigative sports reporter Andrew Jennings in the LondonDaily Mail.

The deals were set up by FIFA vice-president Jack Warner. His Trinidad-based travel company, Simpaul Travel, acquired more than 5,400 tickets from FIFA and then sold them at huge mark-ups to tour operators in England, Japan and Mexico. Warner diverted a further 1,700 tickets, allocated to the Trinidad World Cup team, to the travel company Simpaul. He was found guilty in early 2006 of breaching FIFA’s ethics code.

Jack Warner disposed of his Simpaul shares, but his son, Daryan Warner, continued as managing director and during the World Cup passed hundreds of more tickets to touts. As revealed at transparencyinsport.org, auditors Ernst & Young alleged that the Warners stood to make nearly $1million (about £490,000) profit.

In secret, the executive committee imposed a fine, equal to the expected profit, to be donated to the charity SOS Children’s Villages. The extraordinary decision to impose the fine was suppressed. In public, FIFA president Sepp Blatter would only say they "disapproved" of Jack Warner’s conduct and he should not let Daryan "abuse the position held by his father" and that the case was closed.

FIFA insiders, however, believe there will be no action if the fine remains unpaid. Jack Warner controls 35 of the 207 votes available that president Blatter needs for re-election at the end of May. 

Warner re-elected
In the meantime, CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) has announced on its website that Jack Warner of Trinidad & Tobago is to be re-elected as CONCACAF President for another four-year term, which will run from 2007-2011.

With the passing of the deadline for nominations to all positions up for election at the XXV CONCACAF Ordinary Congress to be held in Toronto, Canada on 12 May 2007, Jack Warner was the only nominated candidate for President and will formally commence his fifth term at the Congress.

Read Andrew Jennings’ story on FIFA:
www.transparencyinsport.org