PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – The Trinidad and Tobago government will await the outcome of a probe by the International Football Federation (FIFA) before it decides on any action against one of its senior ministers, Austin Jack Warner, who is facing bribery allegations in his capacity as a FIFA vice president.
“It would be unfair to Minister Warner for us to make any sort of pronouncement against him adverse to his character,” said Attorney General Anand Ramlogan, adding “if however there is any findings adverse to Minister Warner that impeaches or impugns his integrity that is a different matter because that may very well be a matter for the Prime Minister in her capacity as leader of the government.
“But we will cross that bridge if and when it comes to it,” he said, reminding reporters Warner has not been proven to have committed any sin as yet.
‘It is an allegation…FIFA is not run by the government and it is not part of the government so it will be premature for us as a government to make any pronounecement adverse to Mr. Warner in a matter that we know nothing about,” he added.
But Warner told reporters on Friday that he was not afraid of the allegations made against and predicts a “football tsunami” over the coming days.
Warner is to appear before the FIFA’s ethics committee on Sunday to answer allegations of bribery tomorrow. He is accused, along with FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam, of offering bribes to members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) at a meeting here in exchange for votes in the FIFA presidential elections on Wednesday.
“I tell you something, in the next couple days you will see a football tsunami that will hit FIFA and the world that will shock you. … The time has come when I must stop playing dead so you’ll see it, it’s coming, trust me you’ll see it by now and Monday,” said Warner.
“I have been here for 29 consecutive years and if the worst happen, the worst happen,” he told reporters during a break during the meeting of the Parliament.
Warner, who is also the Minister of Works and Transport, said he was prepared to walk away from FIFA.
“If that is what it comes to so be it, you must never get too attached to anything, it clouds your judgment and therefore whatever happens, happens, que sera sera. I am not even remotely bothered. I had planned to leave Saturday morning in any case because I have meetings on Sunday afternoon. … They can do what they want, it doesn’t bother me”.
He told reporters he was also not afraid of anyone going into the meeting.
“I have lived three score and almost ten and my Jack hasn’t been hanged as yet, why should it be hung now? By whom? The American Chuck Blazer? His American lawyer John Collins? Give me a break. I am not the faint-hearted you know … Let them go ahead, I have no problem with that. But I’ll tell you something, I will hold my head high to the very end because, I repeat here again, I am not guilty of a single iota of wrongdoing.” (CMC)
