By Andrew Warshaw
September 29 – Four years after he resigned all his FIFA roles rather than face being thrown out, the past came back to haunt Jack Warner today when the notorious former FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF chief was banned for life from all football-related activity, at national and international level, by FIFA’s independent ethics committee.
Announcing the outcome of an investigation into Sepp Blatter’s disgraced former colleague, who is facing extradition to the United States to face charges as part of the ongoing $150 million corruption scandal, the ethics committee said Warner “was found to have committed many and various acts of misconduct continuously and repeatedly during his time as an official in different high-ranking and influential positions at FIFA and CONCACAF.”
“In his positions as a football official, he was a key player in schemes involving the offer, acceptance, and receipt of undisclosed and illegal payments, as well as other money-making schemes.”
“He was found guilty of violations of art. 13 (General rules of conduct), art. 15 (Loyalty), art. 18 (Duty of disclosure, cooperation and reporting), art. 19 (Conflicts of interest), art. 20 (Offering and accepting gifts and other benefits) and art. 41 (Obligation of the parties to collaborate) of the FIFA Code of Ethics.
Warner, arguably the most tainted individual in the history of FIFA, has hired a powerful legal team in his bid to stay out of the hands of US officials. Apart from his reputation being further tarnished, he won’t worry too much about his ban which begins at the same time the ethics committee examines evidence that could also lead to the suspensions of Blatter and Michel Platini over a SFr2 million payment to the UEFA president.
Until now, the ethics committee has chosen not to throw the book at Warner because he was no longer involved in the game anyway having been suspended over the cash-for-votes scandal of 2011 and subsequently resigning all his posts before he was kicked out for good. But with the US justice authorities eagerly pursuing him, a symbolic worldwide ban was deemed necessary.
According to its statement the ethics committee began their investigation into Warner’s activities in January following an investigation into the bidding contest for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
One plausible interpretation of banning Warner is that the ethics committee, which didn’t exist in its current format when he walked away, is keen to tie up as many loose ends as possible before it can consider possible action against the current big hitters.
Warner, in a brief response, poured scorn on the ban given the length of time since he stood down, and suggested he was being used by a manipulative ethics committee.
“Given what is happening in Zurich with Blatter I wish to say there is no such thing as coincidence. I left the FIFA in April 2011 and if, in September 2015, FIFA wants to ban me for life without even a hearing then so be it,” he was quoted as saying. “I do not believe however that this will serve as the distraction to FIFA’s present problems as FIFA wishes it to be.”
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