FORMER FIFA vice president Jack Warner has said he got the World Cup television rights for Trinidad and Tobago for $1 after helping Sepp Blatter get elected president of the soccer ruling body.
Warner, who quit world soccer’s governing body in June after accusations of bribery, said yesterday in a statement that he got the rights from Fifa in 1998 via a Mexican company and also acquired them for the 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 editions.
He used the revenue from selling on the rights to develop the sport in the Caribbean, where he is from, according to the statement.
Warner quit during a Fifa investigation into allegations about him and another vice president, Mohamed Bin Hammam. They were accused of giving Caribbean officials $40,000 in cash to gain support for Bin Hammam’s presidential campaign against Blatter.
At the time, Warner denied wrongdoing and said he had been “hung out to dry” after 30 years with Zurich-based Fifa.
Fifa said in an e-mail yesterday it would “look into” Warner’s comments. Its London-based spokesman Brian Alexander declined to make any immediate response.
Warner said he refused to endorse Blatter in the June election even though he was offered the rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup for a nominal fee.
He also alleged that he was offered other "inducements" to develop soccer in the region, including relaying turf at a stadium in Trinidad and Tobago and $1 million in grants, according to the statement. Bin Hammam withdrew his candidacy in May and Blatter was re- elected on June 1st as the only candidate. Bin Hammam denies wrongdoing and is appealing a life ban from soccer at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. – (Bloomberg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)