(Trinidad Guardian) Works and Infrastructure Minister Jack Warner admitted yesterday that the voice on an exclusive video posted on the Internet by the Telegraph newspaper in London was his voice. In the video, Warner urged fellow Caribbean officials to accept US$40,000 cash gifts from Mohamed bin Hammam, a former presidential candidate for world football governing body FIFA. Warner was at the time speaking at a meeting of the Caribbean Football Union on May 11 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Port-of-Spain, in the run-up to FIFA’s presidential elections. The gifts were an alleged payment for Caribbean Football Union (CFU) members to support bin Hammam’s candidacy.
Warner was suspended pending investigations into the incident. He subsequently resigned as FIFA vice-president. The charges brought against bin Hammam were heard yesterday. Warner, who continued his regular government schedule yesterday, was questioned during a tour of Diego Martin yesterday. He admitted to telling the delegates at the meeting to take the money and use it for development. Warner said the tapes were doctored. “I say it is my voice and the tape had been spliced with other things that I have said and I am going to reveal (prove) that,” he told reporters at Victoria Gardens yesterday.
He said he would not deny anything that he had said about the entire matter. He admitted to knowing the person who produced the video. “I know who made it, son, I know who did everything, I know the timing and so on, but why all you so precipitate?” he said. “Wait nah man, wait.” “When I am prepared to speak (in detail) the whole world will listen.” Asked why was he refusing to speak, Warner responded sharply: “I am not refusing to speak. Why should I speak when bin Hammam has a case? Why should I in any way jeopardise his position?”
Warner said the entire matter was “a piece of cake” for him to deal with. He insisted that he had been the longest serving member of FIFA and he was the only one who had the authority to speak out on FIFA. He said at the right time he will speak out because there was need for serious change in the organisation. In an earlier release, Warner said it was “rather interesting” that on the said day CFU delegates were appearing before the Disciplinary Committee of FIFA, the tape was released to international audiences. He said it was “tantamount to contempt because it seeks to influence international opinion against what is clearly a conspiracy against the CFU.
“So this leak is clearly sub judice and contrary to the very principles of law and justice,” he added. He said CFU delegates “must be found guilty if Sepp Blatter (FIFA president) is to appear as an honourable man weeding out corruption in the FIFA.” Warner said the CFU must be the scapegoat. He said there was a Swiss conspiracy in FIFA. “Clearly the Swiss seems to have a morality of its own,” he said. The Works and Infrastructure Minister said all he wanted was “a few more moments of blissful silence, as “in the near future, all will be revealed.”
