PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – Embattled FIFA vice president Austin Jack Warner maintained his innocence of corruption charges against him, but the much publicised release of an email which he said had been sent to the President of the world’s football governing body, Sepp Blatter, fizzled yesterday.
Last week, Warner, who was suspended by FIFA pending the outcome of the investigations, said he would release the email sent to Blatter detailing what took place at the controversial meeting here last month that has become the centre of the corruption probe.
Warner and former FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam have been accused of offering US$40,000 to national associations of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) at a meeting here on May 10 and 11, in return for their votes in the FIFA presidential election last Wednesday.
"I had planned to speak to you today (Sunday) a bit more on this matter. But the best legal advice I have received, both at home and abroad, has suggested that I do not do so at this point in time. And that advice I am going to respect.
"It is so foolish that it’s not funny. Nobody has accused me or can accuse me of taking any money. I eh thief nutten. I eh give anybody nutten and therefore, I don't see what all the hullabaloo is about,” Warner, the Minister of Works and Transport in the Trinidad and Tobago government, told supporters of his Chaguanas West constituency on Sunday as part of the activities marking Indian Arrival Day.
Warner, who has already received the full backing of Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar, reminded the crowd that he had “been vindicated by the FIFA of allegations made against me by Lord (David) Triesman.
“"It was the English government, in an independent study, who cleared all of us and said that Lord Triesman was not talking the truth. And when all of the evidence is examined by the FIFA, I am confident that I will also be cleared and vindicated in the current matter. It is just a matter of time and patience to let the process work.”
Lord Triesman had accused Warner of seeking England's assistance of erecting two projector screens in Haiti for Haitians to view the 2018 World Cup.
Warner said his “friend” Hammam had come here to meet with CFU officials as part of his campaign for the FIFA top post.
“He spoke with them and then he left. The rest is now history. Let the facts and the story come out, but I am not prepared to go into any discussion of any kind based on the advice I received,” he said, adding “you rest assured that your Member of Parliament's hands are very clean”.
In his address, Warner again criticised persons who were calling on him to step down pending the outcome of the FIFA probe.
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