Football storm engulfing the Caribbean

The fallout from the scandal in international football is having its effects on the Caribbean and in hemispheric footballing circles.{{more}} In spite of unsuccessful attempts to have FIFA’s Congress postpone scheduled elections, after the lone challenger to President Sepp Blatter was suspended and withdrew from the race, the election went ahead, with Blatter winning his fourth successive term. Even at the last minute there was drama, for the controversial Jack Warner, also suspended on bribery charges, had one day been quoted as saying that Blatter had to be “stopped at all costs”, only for him to be again quoted the next day as urging his hemispheric colleagues to support the same Blatter.

That was not all, for Warner’s acting successor as CONCACAF President, the Barbadian Lisle Austin, got himself into hot water for attempting to fire the CONCACAF General Secretary Chuck Blazer. His attempt was swiftly thwarted by the CONCACAF Executive, which not only re-instated Blazer, but later relieved Austin of his Vice-Presidency. Blazer is the one who had spilled the beans on Warner, accusing him of organising a May 10/11 meeting at the Hyatt hotel in Port of Spain, where CFU affiliates were reported to have been offered US$ 40,000 each to support Blatter’s challenger, Mohammed bin Hammam.

Warner has reacted angrily to the charges, being defiant and even almost hostile to the probing media. In one interview that I heard, he was downright rude when asked about the alleged bribe. “Go and ask your mother”, was his angry retort, in typical Caribbean style. He has received the backing of the Trinidadian Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who has also dismissed calls for his removal from the government, in which he is a senior Minister. On his arrival home last week, Warner was accorded a virtual hero’s welcome by supporters at the airport, and by his colleagues when he took up his place in parliament. The Opposition has called for his removal from the government until his name is cleared.

While his guilt is yet to be proven, Warner has had a quite chequered history where such matters are concerned. In 1989, for instance, he faced charges of selling twice the number of tickets as the capacity of the venue for Trinidad’s final qualifying match for the 1990 World Cup. In 1990, Warner became CONCACAF President and then Vice President of FIFA in 1997. In the process, he has become an important power broker, leveraging the critical 35 votes that the hemispheric associations command and emerging as what one newspaper calls “a virtual cash cow” for channelling FIFA financing to the region.

He has had other controversies too, being implicated with family members in making an estimated US$1 million from the sale of 5000 tickets for the 2006 World Cup. He was involved also in a controversy over the sale of TV rights and was at the centre of a storm, in which Trinidadian footballers had to take their association to court for not honouring a pledge to share proceeds from their 2006 World Cup campaign. So, Jack has had his battles.

Yet to his credit, he has been able to maintain his place among the elite of world football, no mean accomplishment. His admirers also praise him for raising significant support for Caribbean football, placing it on the international map. He is popular in many footballing circles and in political circles as well. But his detractors will point to other once-popular achievers, such as the disgraced financier Allan Stanford and Jamaica’s reputed drug baron ‘Dudus’ Coke, both of whom, incidentally, are awaiting trial in the USA.

What the whole sordid affair has done is to once more sully the reputation of international sport. Corruption is rife in many high circles in global sport, because there is big money to be made, billions of dollars in sponsorship and TV rights are up for grabs and clever souls position themselves to benefit from it. Cricket has had its fair share, based around illegal betting; cycling has numerous doping scandals; and even the hallowed Olympics have not escaped. The infamous Salt Lake City scandal of 2002 resulted in disciplinary charges against 20 members of the International Olympic Committee, for bribery around the award of the rights to host the 2002 winter Olympics.

Clearly, sport needs cleaning up at all levels. We can only hope the FIFA scandal provides an impetus in that direction.

Renwick Rose is a community activist and social commentator.