By Andrew Warshaw
September 22 – The net appears to be finally closing in on former FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF supremo Jack Warner after extradition proceedings to the United States on corruption charges were approved by Trinidad’s attorney general.
Attorney General Faris Al Rawi has signed “authority to proceed” documents for Warner’s extradition. But there may still be some way to go after Warner, who is fighting extradition with every means at his disposal, had his case adjourned until Friday for the relevant documents to be examined further.
Warner, one of the most powerful figures in world football during his long tenure at FIFA when he frequently courted controversy, is among nine major footballing officials along with five sports marketing executives indicted by US prosecutors. The 72-year-old faces 12 charges related to racketeering and bribery.
Last week, Switzerland approved the extradition of another former FIFA vice-president, Uruguay’s Eugenio Figueredo who was one those arrested in May just prior to the FIFA congress.
As the head of Caribbean football and CONCACAF, Warner wielded enormous clout, his support invariably seen as crucial among World Cup-bidding nations. But few figures in FIFA have hit the headlines with such regularity and US authorities believe he was involved in corrupt practices for the best part of two decades.
Arrested in June in his homeland and released on bail, Warner has denied all wrongdoing but among the charges laid against him is that he profited personally from a $10 million payment from South African football officials to CONCACAF, which U.S prosecutors claim was linked to Warner’s support for South Africa’s bid to host the 2010 World Cup even though the South Africans insist it was destined for the African diaspora in the region.
On Monday, Danny Jordaan, South African FA president who led the country’s World Cup bid and his SAFA predecessor Molefi Oliphant both had criminal charges laid against them back home by the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) which claimed they knew the money was a bribe.
Lawyers for Warner had asked Deputy Chief Magistrate Mark Wellington to discharge their client because Al Rawi missed a September 16 deadline for signing the relevant documents. Queens Counsel James Lewis, representing the state, argued this was merely a technicality but agreed to adjourn the case to Friday.
Loretta Lynch, the US Attorney-General whose bombshell allegations of $150 million worth of money laundering and racketeering plunged FIFA into unprecedented turmoil, said earlier this month she was confident all those charges in the indictment would eventually be brought to stand trial and that in certain cases, they could be tried in absentia.
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