With Fifa’s name dragged through the mud time and time again, these latest allegations are set to rock the soccer world.
The former vice-president of soccer’s world governing body and President of CONCACAF for over two decades, Jack Warner, has been accused of receiving over $2.3 million from a Qatari firm, just days after the 2022 World Cup was awarded to the Middle East country.
According to an investigation by British newspaper, The Telegraph, Warner appears to have been personally paid $1.2 million from a company controlled by a former Qatari soccer official just after the decision to award the desert country the World Cup. Allegedly, another $750,000 was also paid to Mr Warner’s sons and a further $400,000 was paid to one of his employees.
Warner, Fifa’s vice-president for 14 years until 2011 when he stepped down following a Fifa ethics committee found him guilty of encouraging bribes. A report from the ethics committee said there was “compelling” evidence that Mr Warner was “an accessory to corruption.”
When approached by the Telegraph in his Trinidad home but refused to comment on the payments when asked about them. Warner is currently being investigated by the FBI, with reports about bank accounts in the Cayman Islands and New York are being scrutinized, and his eldest son who lives in Miami is said to be co-operating with their investigation.
(MORE: Warner resigns as national security minister of Trinidad & Tobago following fraud report)
Reportedly the documents unearthed by the Telegraph’s in-depth investigation, which saw numerous journalists scour the globe to find out details on the alleged deals, state that two weeks after Qatar won the right to host the 2022 World Cup, a statement dated December 15, 2010 was made “payable to Jack Warner” by Qatar’s Fifa executive Mohamed Bin Hammam.
Also the Telegraph claims that Warner’s two sons and an employee were paid a further $1 million by the same Qatari company, where a document allegedly states the payments were to “offset legal and other expenses”, but another letter claims more than $1 million cover “professional services provided over the period 2005-2010”.
Warner, 71, was one of the 22 members of the Fifa executive committee which voted to give Russia the 2018 World Cup and then controversially hand the 2022 tournament to Qatar. Looking back on the decision made in 2010, it was one of the most sensational stories in soccer history as the tiny Arabic nation was handed one of the world’s biggest events. At the time, I remember thinking that something didn’t quite add up as bribery allegations were rife even before the announcement was made in 2010, after two Fifa members were found guilty of agreeing to sell their votes six weeks before the decision was made.
More fallout on Warner will arrive in the next few days and hours, but the 2022 World Cup in Qatar continues to be encapsulated with controversy. A spokesman for the Qatar World Cup had the following to say.
