The Curse of Jack Warner

Pity the poor Soca Warriors of Trinidad and Tobago. They have officially received the curse of Jack Warner. On Tuesday with Franz Beckenbauer by his side, Warner, the head of football in T&T and the FIFA vice-president, proclaimed that the Soca Warriors would defeat England in the World Cup. Coming from most people you might just interpret this as a bit of bravado and a foolish prediction. But Jack Warner isn’t your average guy and if I am a fan of T&T I wouldn’t want the guy anywhere near my team.

For those who haven’t been following the Jack Warner story, it is a case of corruption on steroids. Warner worked his connections at FIFA to make sure that his family’s travel agency controlled Trinidad and Tobago’s allocation of World Cup tickets. A nifty move that would have netted him more than $7 million until the story was revealed in a local Trinidad paper.

Warner has denied doing anything wrong even though FIFA’s Ethics Commission is set to punish him at its meeting in March.

Meanwhile, Franz Beckenbauer, the global ambassador for the World Cup, publicly turned a blind eye while he stood next to Warner in Trinidad and essentially said that FIFA doesn’t care if Warner screws his country. “Our business is to give the participating countries the tickets they deserve. What they are doing with the tickets, it’s not our business,” said Beckenbauer.

Nice message there, Kaiser. We’ll give the killer a gun but we don’t care what he does with it once he has it and please don’t hold us responsible.

This happened on the same day that new allegations surfaced that Warner helped to manipulate stadium construction contracts when Trinidad and Tobago was building stadiums to host the U17 championship a few years back. Warner denies these charges.

Sensing a pattern here?

Some people have asked me why I have been blogging so much about this story. I guess corruption at FIFA is expected and since we are talking about the smallest nation in the World Cup this year I guess it really shouldn’t matter. But it does. Any time people use their power to exploit others for their own personal gain it is wrong. Even if Jack Warner is the nicest man in the world and even if he has done more for Trinidad and Tobago football than anyone in history, he is still a crook who should be held accountable.

Trinidad and Tobago deserves better. Jack Warner should resign immediately.

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