June 15, 2010 – A warm welcome for Jack Warner at the airport on his return from FIFA’s World Cup in South Africa. Later, Mr. Warner attended a Puja in his honour.
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UN chief Ban Ki-moon praises Jack Warner
June 12, 2010 – newsday.co.tt
The UN Secretary General thanked the Senior FIFA Vice President for all his efforts in bringing the World Cup to South Africa.
“Mr Warner, you are an influential man. This event has united a nation under one banner, football. There is hope again in South Africa,” Ban said.
Earlier this week at the Opening Ceremony of the 60th FIFA Congress in Johannesburg, Head of the Organising Committee of the World Cup Dr Ivan Khoza publicly thanked Warner for efforts in ensuring that South Africa was given the opportunity to host the world tournament.
“We spent almost seven hours in a meeting trying to convince Jack Warner we in South Africa can do it. Mr Warner was open with his criticism but he gave us valuable advice. To this day it is unknown whether he voted for us but when one of the world’s most influential leaders in football speaks you must listen. Without you, South Africa would have never been able to welcome the world,” Khoza said.
But this isn’t the first time Warner has been credited for his actions in ensuring the FIFA 2010 World Cup is brought to South Africa. Back in June 2009, President Jacob Zuma, also praised Warner for his efforts in getting the tournament to South Africa. The South African President stated: “Without your efforts and personal intervention, none of this today would not have been possible in South Africa. South Africa owes you a debt of gratitude.”
In 2004, Former South African President and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela flew to Trinidad and Tobago to hold talks with Warner in an attempt to solicit his support for his nation’s World Cup bid.
Warner promised then that he would help South Africa show the world what “the great people and the nation can do despite any obstacles.”
http://www.newsday.co.tt/sport/0,122353.html
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Jack is man of the moment in South Africa
The top brass of the World’s Governing Body of Football are all in South Africa attending the Senior Men’s World Cup, but despite the numerous dignitaries it is Trinidad and Tobago’s Jack Warner, who is the most sought after by World Leaders.
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Flashback:
President Zuma praises FIFA’s Warner
FIFA vice-president Jack Austin Warner came in for high praise from South African President Jacob Zuma for his efforts in getting the 2010 FIFA World Cup to South Africa.
South African President Jacob Zuma Praises Jack Warner
South African President Jacob Zuma says that his nation owes FIFA Vice President Jack Warner a debt of gratitude.
As a national of Trinidad and Tobago now residing in Canada,I felt great pride in reading about the recognition given Trinidad’s Jack Warner by world dignitaries for his successful
efforts in having South Africa selected as the host of the FIFA
World Cup Championship 2010.
This accomplishment serves to bring together peoples of several
continents in peaceful competition, and provides great opportunities for fostering better understanding among nations of our world.It is this of leadership which is needed today and in the future to empower us to overcome the destructive forces that seek to impede human progress and enlightenment
It is my hope Lane , that you will display similar pride moving forward,when uncle Jack inevitably decides in the political game of chess, to capture your Queen ,and move to checkmate as King.
You and others did not think for a moment,that he made the personal and financial sacrifices, to then hold on forever to the petticoat of Madam K, so as to see his people continually trampled under feet did you?
Oh how dey love Jack Warner today, and de man can do no wrong for them . Playing dead to catch Cobeaux alive,eh Uncle Jack!
Jack named down under
By Lasana Liburd
June 30, 2010 – trinidadexpress.com
FIFA vice-president and Trinidad and Tobago government Minister Jack Warner received dishonourable mention ‘Down Under’ yesterday as the Australian daily newspaper, the Melbourne Age, revealed a string of questionable and expensive payouts made by the FFA (Football Federation of Australia) as part of the nation’s bid to host the 2022 World Cup tournament.
The Age article, which carried the headline ‘World Cup money trail: lobbyists to make millions’, alleged that the FFA will spend $64 million (Aus$11.37 million) ‘one-quarter of the taxpayer-funded bid’ on fees and bonuses to two controversial European lobbyists, Peter Hargitay and Fedor Radmann.
The FFA also allegedly failed to disclose a fund of $36.6 million (Aus$6.5 million) in taxpayers’ money set aside for distribution to football bodies in Africa, Asia and Oceania.
The FFA confirmed that Trinidad and Tobago has already benefitted from such a ‘grant’.
Ben Buckley, CEO of the Australian football body, admitted that the FFA funded the Trinidad and Tobago national under-20 team’s trip to Cyprus in September 2009.
The Cyprus tour was part of the local team’s warm-up for the 2009 World Youth Cup in Egypt.
‘As a developed nation within football, FFA has a responsibility to promote football and social development amongst less developed nations,’ stated Buckley, in a letter to the Age.
‘Commitment to furthering international relations and football and social development is also a critical requirement within the bidding process. The funding of the Trinidad and Tobago U20 national team to attend a training camp in Cyprus with the Australian U20 team falls into this category.’
Buckley’s assertion that Australia funded Trinidad and Tobago’s pre-World Youth Cup training camp has raised eyebrows from Ministry of Sport officials.
The Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago paid $150,000 to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) last year after a request ‘to assist the body in pre-World Cup expenses’.
The well-placed source, who spoke under condition of anonymity, revealed that, as per usual, the TTFF did not give a breakdown regarding how the State funds would be spent, nor did they provide receipts after the fact.
Warner, the present Minister of Works, has held the post of ‘Special Advisor’ to the TTFF for over a decade and is influential in most financial matters involving the football body.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Cyprus tour, according to the Age, was brokered by Hargitay, a controversial Hungarian businessman who was twice acquitted for cocaine trafficking in Jamaica and Miami. He spent seven months in a Miami cell.
Hargitay’s role also allegedly extends to arranging meetings between overseas football officials and FFA chairman Frank Lowy and Australian politicians. Former Australia prime minister Kevin Rudd is believed to have met Warner in Trinidad and Tobago last November during the Commonwealth Summit.
Buckley defended Hargitay’s FFA role by insisting that Australia’s World Cup bid required ‘the input and expertise of international consultants with specific experience in the area of bidding for major football events’.
Several partners of FIFA executive committee members received a gift of a Paspaley pearl necklace valued at $14,000 (Aus$2,500) from the FFA. The FIFA bigwigs also received pearl cufflinks.
There is speculation in Australia as to whether such gifts flaunt FIFA’s rules regarding the bidding process.
FIFA’s rule of conducts declares that bidding associations should refrain from providing to any representative of FIFA ‘any monetary gift’, ‘any kind of personal advantage that could give even the impression of exerting influence, or conflict of interest, either directly or indirectly, in connection with the bidding process, such as at the beginning of a collaboration, except for occasional gifts that are generally regarded as having symbolic or incidental value and that exclude any influence on a decision in relation to the bidding process’ and ‘any benefit, opportunity, promise, remuneration or service to any of such individuals, in connection with the bidding process’.
Buckley denied any wrongdoing.
Warner has been at the centre of a controversy over his decision to remain a member of the FIFA executive committee along with his Cabinet post with the support of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
Up to press time, Warner had not responded to an e-mailed request from the Express for information regarding the national youth team’s trip to Cyprus in 2009 and a detailed list of how State funds provided for the tour were used. A call to his mobile phone went straight to voice mail.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/nart?id=161708610&weba=NWSNews
It is this capacity to discredit our country, by being associated with dishonorable monetary sehenanigans in an international organization, where to the Jennings and other reporters his name was already mud; that cause many to query whether it is appropriate for his to bethe deputy prime minister of Trinidad and tobago, while also being FIFA vice-president. In the headiness of victory members of the nw ruling party shouted down all concerns, an Mr. Arner himself called for he resignation of an official who gave is considered opinion, who had previously bee considered a serious spokesperson for political issues.
The question must now be raised again, by one with no fiscal inters, no vote, and too old to be fired by anyone, because I don’t work for them. Is this new smell of rotten fish good for us as a people.Must JAck take us down into disrepute with his stubborn retention of former position. Is this one man bigger than the country? Can the country afford one so big?
At least apologists for the nonsense that curently passes for smooth government, cannot accuse me of being racist. Jack is an Arican descended person, who has the conglomerate ruling the country, by the balls.
Read the article properly, it is crap. Same, old, same old and innuendos. If Jack was PNM-till-ah-dead you would be singing another tune.
Would Keith tell us how much he is paid as
“Rothweiler In Chief” for the party now in power? FIFA Is A Law Unto Itself. Already it is encouraging rebellion within the Nigerian squad, in the light of that country’s President’s ban on their participating in international competition for two years, since in Mr. Johnathan’s view they , his squad, are “the bigest losers”. Would FIFA, that law unto itself, demand that the Nigerian squad stage a coup against Mr. Johnathan, the President, in order to be participants, despite the ban? I am not sure which comparison is more odious, to compare FIFA to an octopus, a giant squid, or a giant boa constrictor.Am I, a proud Trinidadian, supposed to be enthusiastic about Mr. Warner’s participation in this group, when he is also a senior member of the new government?
Or are these questions inappropriate for a WOMAN to ask, since I obviously do not play football? At any moment now, censors will begin interdicting comments on Trinicenter.com, perhaps the last bastion of true democracy in the country.Until that time though, I continue to raise intelligent questions on behalf of all those who are afrai dto ask, scared for their jobs, and fer being put on blacklist for business purposes. As my father said to Dr. Boucaud in 1949, when asked why he did not remove his hat at the white man drove by.”I don’t wuk for you, Sah”. Had he been a gardener in that village, instead of an employee of the American Armed Forces at Waller Field, he would have been fired for not raising his hat in subservience. We are not returning to that, are we? Will there be an official list issued of whom we do obeisance to? and the penalties for failing to show appropriate subservience? Would people’s jobs be at risk?
Warner retains top British QC in defamation suit
Thursday, July 1 2010
Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner has retained top defamation lawyer Ronald Thwaites, QC, to represent him in the slander lawsuit against former prime minister Basdeo Panday over statements he allegedly made on a radio talk show in 2009. On August 11, 2009, Panday claimed that Warner received the funds on behalf of the UNC for expenditure in the 2007 general election, and has failed to account for how it was spent.
Aussies in the clear?
Leaders of Australia’s 2022 World Cup bid expect FIFA to clear them of allegations that they offered illegal gifts and inducements in their campaign. Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy told The Associated Press he believes FIFA’s ethics committee could publish its favorable report “within days.”