Submitted by Terence Blackett
On the eve of Britain’s FIFA World Cup Bid 2018 in Zurich, a Panorama documentary again highlights and exposes the sheer cesspit of corruption endemic within this monolithic, monopolistic organization controlled by Sepp Blater (who for all intents and purposes is the proverbial “fox” guarding a multibillion dollar hen house).
The three FIFA bosses in the news piece are being cited for dodgy insider dealings with ISL (a Swiss consortium) accused of paying huge sums of money for commissions when in actuality they were nothing more than bribes, kick-backs and dubiously secretive payments for God knows what – routed, deposited and shrouded in the murky offshore tax-haven world of Liechtenstein.
But what is remarkable in this film and from the reports was the historical track record surrounding Trinidad “don” and CONCACAF football cartel BOSS* as well as Sepp Blater’s Gestapo Lieutenant – Jack Warner, who as a West Indian and a Caribbean power-broker is portrayed as nothing more than a miserable ingrate, a chauvinistic swine, a nasty piece of work and a pathetic excuse for a human being.
Jack “the eel” Warner has grown rich and powerful through his unrivalled officialdom as FIFA vice president, controlling the football sporting politics of the Caribbean, North & Central America immersed and based on mass corruption, heavy-handedness and his insidiously demure ostentation tactics – and allowed to run amuck with hardly any real oversight, controls or accountability.
Two weeks ago, in the Trinidad Court of Appeal, Warner in duplicitous cahoots with the Trinidad & Tobago Football Association was ordered by the court to honor the tidy sum (a king’s ransom) of some £6 million (almost TT$60 million) to those players he and the football association had promised to make good on.
However you look at it, Jack Warner’s track record as a “BULLY” of the worst kind – a charlatan invested with a title and a group of powerful political lackeys as friends as well as sporting merchants and ideologues who makes him believe he is endowed with some primordial aura of invincibility and somehow ranks more highly on the food chain than any of us mere mortals – making him pecuniary an “Untouchable” is a bad joke of the worst kind.
The sad irony is that the “glorious game” is being held to ransom by these “demi-gods” who believe they can promise and not deliver while holding on to monies from sponsorships, TV rites, under-the-table deals, commissions and other forms of bribery exposed in the news media over the years.
So as England’s PM David Cameron host Jack “the eel” Warner tomorrow in the hope of wooing his [3] votes in the bid to host the 2018 Football World Cup – what is shameful is the disgustingly ludicrous remark made – that dealing with this kind of vermin was a “necessary evil” given that England’s bid is worth some £4 billion to the economy which would guarantee the Tories reasonable prospects at another run at government for the next parliament in 2014 through 2018.
Unashamedly this piece chose to focus on Warner specifically (not oblivious to the other crooks & ‘gangstas’ in the FIFA organization) but for the mere reason that many young Caribbean footballers and their families in the CONCACAF regions depend on the “glorious game” to make their living.
Clearly no one in Trinidad & Tobago has the size “balls” to take on Jack “the eel” Warner or anyone anywhere else in the Caribbean for that matter. The cruel hand of fate it seems will have to deal with this monkey as he climbs even higher exposing more and more of his backside.
So for those on BU who are not familiar with Warner and his shenanigans – here is a piece you may find interesting entitled:- THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT:-FROM ‘VILLAIN’ TO GODFATHER, FIFA VICE-PRESIDENT, AUSTIN JACK WARNER TURNS MISFORTUNE INTO DOLLARS
If we continue to harp on about integrity, transparency and accountability from our politicians and religious leaders – then why are our business and sporting leaders apparently exempt from similar scrutiny while “scum” like Warner is allowed to roam the halls of Europe and elsewhere as a modern day “pirate” without fear of reprisal, recrimination or reprobation?
Any inbred corruption in any organization left undiagnosed will only fester, metastasize and eventually destroy any progress that good folks have worked hard to accomplish. The choice is clear – doing nothing cannot be an option…
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