Former FIFA vice president accuses Sepp Blatter of influencing Trinidad’s 2010 election

Former FIFA official Jack Warner accused the soccer body and its departing president, Sepp Blatter, of influencing his native Trinidad and Tobago’s election in 2010, saying that he was prepared to release reams of evidence of corruption at FIFA.

Mr. Warner, who is one of 14 people named in a U.S. indictment accusing them of complicity in widespread fraud in world soccer, said in a televised address in Trinidad on Wednesday that he feared for his life after compiling a series of documents that he alleged prove links between FIFA and his nation’s government.

“It also deals with my knowledge of international transactions at FIFA, including—but not limited to—its president, Mr. Sepp Blatter, and, lastly, other matters involving the nation’s current prime minister,” he said in the address, a paid political ad titled “The Gloves Are Off.”

Mr. Blatter, FIFA’s long-running president, wasn’t named in the indictment but announced he would resign Tuesday, just days after being re-elected as chief of the world’s soccer governing body. A FIFA spokeswoman declined to comment on the allegations relating to FIFA or to Mr. Blatter personally.

Mr. Warner, who again denied any wrongdoing, said he had a series of documents, including checks—which he had now placed in “different and respected hands”—detailing links between FIFA, its funding and the major political parties in Trinidad. He apologized for not making the documents available sooner. But, “I will no longer keep secrets for them who actively seek to destroy the country,” he said.

The investigations have reverberated across the world of professional soccer. A transcript of the 2013 plea hearing of former U.S. FIFA official Chuck Blazer, which was unsealed on Wednesday, detailed some of the allegations. Mr. Blazer—who provided information that helped lead to last week’s charges—told a U.S. judge in Brooklyn that he had agreed with others to facilitate bribes in connection with selecting some World Cups and other soccer tournaments.

Neither the prime minister’s office in Trinidad and Tobago nor the country’s embassy in London could be reached for comment.

“I have suffered derision, indignity and ridicule, and I have kept my mouth shut,” Mr. Warner said in his televised address. “I will do so no more.”

Separately, the head of Australia’s soccer federation said the organization was awaiting the results of an inquiry into a $500,000 donation it made to Concacaf, the soccer federation for the Caribbean and North and Central America, to fund a feasibility study for a Center of Excellence in Trinidad and Tobago. Australia had made the donation in the run-up to its failed bid to host the 2022 World Cup, along with funds for other sports-development and humanitarian projects abroad.

In an open letter Wednesday, Football Federation of Australia Chairman Frank Lowy said that an initial inquiry conducted by Concacaf found that Mr. Warner had committed fraud and misappropriated the money. Mr. Lowy, one of Australia’s wealthiest individuals, said the inquiry found other instances of wrongdoing by Mr. Warner over many years, though he didn’t elaborate.

“We ran a clean bid,” Mr. Lowy said. “I know that others did not, and I have shared what I know with the authorities.”

Mr. Lowy said that FIFA and former U.S. prosecutor Michael Garcia—who had been appointed by FIFA to investigate the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process but resigned in December in protest—then took over the inquiry. Mr. Lowy said that inquiry wasn’t yet finished. “We asked Concacaf to give our money back because it wasn’t used for the purpose we intended, and were advised by FIFA to wait until the inquiries were complete,” he said.

Mr. Lowy said the center in Trinidad and Tobago had asked for a donation of $4 million, but the Australian federation, or FFA, compromised with an offer of $500,000. He said Mr. Warner was behind the center, but he didn’t say in what capacity.

“The chief executive of the center, not Warner, gave us the bank account details for Concacaf. We paid the money into that account and received confirmation it was received by the bank,” Mr. Lowy said. “It was paid into a Concacaf account, not Jack Warner’s personal account.”

He said the FFA provided information about its donation when Concacaf got in touch to say it was conducting an inquiry into its accounts. The initial inquiry was conducted by two former judges and a senior accountant. The FFA also became aware that U.S. law-enforcement authorities were looking into the matter, Mr. Lowy added.

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A new strategic marketing and brand management plan has been launched by the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) to help it achieve its target of winning at least 10 gold medals by 2024.

The TTOC claims it is adopting an entrepreneurial, vibrant and dynamic market driven, new business development approach to revenue generation for its programmes and projects.

In an effort to support the marketing plan and vision, the TTOC has set up an in-house marketing department that will handle its marketing, branding, new business and commercial development, merchandising and licensing programme.

The mandate of the TTOC marketing department is to break down barriers with new ideas and approaches to help it achieve its goal of 10 Olympic and Paralympic gold medals by 2024.

The scale of the the challenge can be seen by the fact that since making its Olympic debut at London 1948, Trinidad and Tobago have won only two gold medals, thanks to Hasely Crawford in the 100 metres at Monteal 1976 and Keshorn Walcott in the javelin at London 2012.

The country has never won a medal in the Paralympics, having made their debut in 1984 and appeared at Seoul in 1988 before a 24-year absence until they returned at London 2012, sending a competitor in athletics and another in swimming.

"As an organisation we must always strive to celebrate and embrace disruptive thinking and challenge conventional wisdom," said TTOC President Brian Lewis.

"This department will drive the TTOC's business and commercial agenda, growth and value strategy.

"We are at a critical juncture, and it is of even greater importance for us to achieve financial independence and strength for the TTOC while at the same time maintaining the TTOC's identity and not compromising its core Olympic values and ideals."

The TTOC intends to put in place the required legal checks and balances for Rio 2016 to protect its Olympic franchise, including the TTOC, the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Team and the legitimate TTOC Olympic sponsors and partners, from opportunistic marketing and ambushers, it has warned.

In highlighting the issue, Lewis stressed that the TTOC has to ensure that cash flows into, not out of its coffers so that the organisation can support not only athletes, but key projects and programmes that aim to develop sport in Trinidad and Tobago.

"It's one thing to understand what your brand stands for but it matters not unless you protect your brand," said Lewis.

"Defending your rights and what you stand for is central to what the Olympic Movement is all about.

"Ambush marketing is not a game.

"It's a serious issue that can undermine the TTOC's efforts to fund its 10 gold medals by the year 2024, Athlete Welfare and Preparation programme and other programmes such as women in sport and sport for all."

Exclusivity is deemed the cornerstone of the Olympic Movement's marketing programmes, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and National Olympic Committees providing partners with one of the highest levels of protection of any major sports property.

In keeping with this, the TTOC will look to take all the necessary advertising and legal measures to educate the public on who the TTOC and TTO Olympic Team sponsors are, and take steps to protect its right and those of its partners, it has promised.

Under the IOC Olympic Charter, the TTOC has sole and exclusive authority for the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Team, Olympic Movement and Olympic franchise in the jurisdiction of Trinidad and Tobago.

"We have to protect our sponsors and partners promotional rights," added Lewis.

"We will not be turning a blind eye.

"At this time we want to assure our sponsors and partners that our Olympic team will be protected by the TTOC.

"At the TTOC we have a duty, obligation and responsibility to develop and use the Olympic brand to its full potential.

"It's something we take quite seriously, and our in-house marketing department will form a key part of this."

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ON MAY 27th an early-dawn raid at a posh Swiss hotel brought nine bigwigs from FIFA, football’s international governing body, into custody for allegations of corruption. After years when the game’s leaders managed to avoid any consequences for their unsavoury mismanagement, fans around the world cheered the round-up as a first step towards cleaning up the sport. But the American indictment that put these seemingly untouchable fat cats in the dock had nothing to do with FIFA’s best-known dirty laundry, such as the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. Instead, it focused entirely on wrongdoing by officials in the Americas, and in particular on CONCACAF, one of the relative weaklings among FIFA’s six constituent continental federations, which includes North and Central America and the Caribbean. The two biggest fish, Jeffrey Webb and Austin “Jack” Warner (pictured)—the current CONCACAF president and his predecessor—hail from two of the smallest countries in the world, the Cayman Islands and Trinidad and Tobago.

Given CONCACAF’s relatively modest stature, the American prosecutors’ focus on the federation is striking. They say that further investigations are still underway, and it would be no surprise if they subsequently reveal additional targets—though any FIFA officials with skeletons in their closets who escaped the first round of arrests will now presumably take extra care to review extradition agreements before they travel. If the dragnet does not wind up extending beyond this group, the simplest explanation would be that the Justice Department took the greatest interest in its local federation. (There is one American among the defendants, Charles “Chuck” Blazer, who has already pleaded guilty.) Another potential reason is that illicit money flows from the region Americans once condescendingly called their “backyard” are more likely to pass through the United States’ financial system—one of the grounds on which the Justice Department claimed jurisdiction—than are similar payments originating from Europe, Asia or Africa. The third theory is that the lords of Caribbean football simply happened to be sloppier in covering up their tracks than their counterparts abroad.

Football is a relative newcomer to the Caribbean sporting scene. Historically, its Anglophone islands have focused on cricket—the “Windies” team dominated much of the 1980s—while the Spanish-speaking countries, such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic, preferred baseball. But in recent years the world’s favourite game has made significant inroads. That owes largely to globalisation, as the colonial past of the British Commonwealth islands fades further into the rearview mirror. But CONCACAF itself has also played an important role.

The federation is an ungainly beast, consisting of two giants (the United States and Mexico) alongside Canada, a dozen smallish countries and 26 tiny Caribbean nations with populations of less than a million. Its smallest member, the British overseas territory of Montserrat, has just 5,000 people and a bad-tempered volcano. Just as in the UN General Assembly, each country gets one vote regardless of its size. As a result, the Caribbean bloc has banded together to out-vote its larger neighbours and secure a comfortably outsize share of the federation’s budget.

For over two decades, Mr Warner was both the architect and the operations manager of this redistributive scheme, to the benefit of both Caribbean footballing nations and, apparently, himself. By controlling so many votes in both CONCACAF and FIFA, he made himself a power broker with the ability to bestow or withhold the organisations’ funds largely as he saw fit. That in turn enabled him to prop up small-island officials when they faced grass-roots rebellions, ensuring their loyalty. Thanks to his ability to direct the largesse in his native Trinidad and Tobago and the prominent public role his perch offered, he also became involved in politics: he once chaired the United National Congress, the current ruling party, and served as minister of works and transport after being elected to Parliament in 2010 by a landslide.

Mr Warner hit his first speed bump in May 2011, following a Caribbean football meeting in Trinidad ahead of FIFA’s presidential election that was organised to support the challenger, Mohammed bin Hamman of Qatar. Envelopes each containing $40,000 in banknotes were distributed at the event; a Bahamian delegate photographed the money, and complained of the “insult” to the Caribbean. Mr Warner promptly resigned from his football-related posts, which forestalled a FIFA inquiry into his actions; 32 others either also resigned or were warned, reprimanded, fined or banned for varying periods. An investigation by the Trinidadian police went nowhere.

Mr Warner’s exit from football had little effect on his political fortunes at first. He was named Trinidad and Tobago’s minister of national security well after the envelopes scandal broke—though he later had to resign following a CONCACAF enquiry into the ownership of a sports complex, which found that using a “balance of probabilities” standard, he had committed fraud and misappropriated funds. Nonetheless, he quickly bounced back by resigning from Parliament, forming a new party, and winning his seat back in the subsequent by-election, this time with 69% of the vote.

It remains an open question whether even the American indictment can ensnare him. He did spend the night of May 27th in Port of Spain’s forbidding Frederick Street prison because his bail, though agreed to, was not yet paid. But he forcefully maintains his innocence, and can fight his extradition all the way to the Privy Council in London, which remains Trinidad and Tobago’s final court of appeal. Two local business figures, Steve Ferguson and Ishwar Galbaransingh, have successfully resisted extradition to America since 2005; they have spent a lot of money on lawyers, but remain free.

Trinidad and Tobago’s parliament will dissolve next month, with a general election expected in September. At the very least Mr Warner is likely to lose his seat. But he still has supporters who see him as the man who made the small islands a powerful force in world football, and who spruced up the neighbourhood sports ground. If the money to do that was bilked from foreigners, all the better. In this view, America’s indictments are simply a politically motivated plot, perhaps to confound Russia’s 2018 World Cup, or avenge the failed American bid to play host in 2022. The Caribbean public is well accustomed to patronage networks. Given the region’s demonstrated apathy towards corruption and incompetence in general, fans are highly unlikely to return their affections to cricket in protest against a bit of palm-greasing.

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