Jack Warner in another money fight - Wants T&T to play all home games abroad

Can FIFA VP and Concacaf President Jack Warner have any aspect of his life not surround buy chaos? If not, could the chaos at least not have anything to do with money just once?

Mr. Warner has asked FIFA to allow T&T to play all future home fixtures abroad because he is unhappy with the fees the T&T Ministry of Sport change the team to play at Hasely Crawford Stadium.

This fight over stadium costs almost lead to the cancellation of England's 'remember this visit come 2018 voting time' match earlier this month. In that case, a court ruled the ministry could not charge 10% of gate receipts as a fee. Instead, the court ordered a lump sum payment of $24,000.

Warner liked that idea then but when the ministry asked for the same rent for last weekend's match against Bermuda, he wasn't so thrilled saying it is 'ludicrous' to charge the same fee for Bermuda as for England. Perhaps the 10% plan might have worked out a little better.

So let's see, Warner is fighting with T&T's best players because he doesn't want to pay them the money he promised them ahead of the 2006 World Cup and know he is fighting with the T&T government over rent for the stadium. And let's not even bring up the issue of 2006 World Cup tickets. Awesome.

In the end, this might all be for nothing as T&T are down 2-1 going into their second World Cup qualifying leg in Bermuda.

Other Concacaf World Cup Qualifer results

As much fun as it is to only focus on the great show the US put on yesterday, there were ten other Concacaf Qualifiers over the weekend. So how did they turn out? Most of them went as expected, but there were a couple shocks.

Trinidad and Tobago 1-2 Bermuda - T&T get shocked at home by Bermuda. Could the team's dream of back-to-back World Cups crash out next weekend? If so, will Jack Warner get any heat for the way he destroyed the team?

Haiti 0-0 Netherlands Antilles - Haiti are the reigning Caribbean champions and Antilles held them on the road. Not as big an upset as T&T, but still something to watch.

Suriname 1-0 Guyana - The battle of the South American members of Concacaf ended in a minor surprise as Suriname beat the seeded Guyanese. The return leg is going to be fun.

Grenada 2-2 Costa Rica - This was a much tougher start then Costa Rica wanted. On the plus side, they did come back from two goals down to get the tie, but will this be enough for coach Hernán Medford to keep his job?

Panama 1-0 El Salvador - Panama has to be worried going into their second leg. The rains slowed this game down, which worked for El Salvador.

Belize 0-2 Mexico - Mexico continued their tradition of under performing against teams they do not respect. This match was never in question as Belize pretty much just sat 10 players behind the ball, but it is still a poor game by El Tri.

Guatemala 6-0 Saint Lucia - Looks like the US will have to deal with the little fish again as Carlos Ruiz netted four in this one.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 0-3 Canada - Ali Gerba was the hero for Canada as he netted two. Canada should have an easy time at home this Friday.

Jamaica 7-0 Bahamas - The Reggae Boys just smashed their way into group play. Six different players, including Andy Williams, scored so this was an all over effort.

Puerto Rico 2-2 Honduras - This result means Honduras advances to the first group phase with a 6-2 aggregate win. Puerto Rico went down a goal in the 22', but tied is a few minutes later. They then went up one right before the half, but it was not meant to be as Wigan Athletic midfielder Wilson Palacios knotted it up in the 52'.

Cuba and Antigua and Barbuda play their first leg tomorrow.

Concacaf President Warner wants England to host 2018 World Cup and USA to get 2022

Concacaf President and Fifa Vice-President Jack Warner hopes to convince the USA to abandon their bid for the 2018 finals in order to clear the way for England.

"My message to the USA - and they don't have to listen - is to try to make a deal for 2022 and I'm quite sure that would have universal support."

Although it is painful to say, Warner does make a strong point. The 2018 World Cup is all but assured to be held in Europe and England is by far the front-runner. That said, the US has a major advantage that could trump the somewhat emotional desire to give England only their second final and that is money.

With over 20 stadiums currently able to hold 70,000+ fans and a large diverse population already built in the US, a repeat of the 1994 event (in terms of tickets sold) is very likely. These tickets along with corporate sponsorship deals would likely make FIFA a huge sum of money, even by FIFA standards.

Then again, all that will still be there for 2022.

If there is any message to take from this, it is a warning to the US Soccer Federation that you can bid on 2018, but don't expect your region's president to strong-arm people to vote for you. Warner will stay with the US during the bidding process but he will not do the heavy lifting needed to win the event.

So what should the US do? The 2018 and 2022 cups will be awarded at the same time, so the bidding process is the same time frame. Should they try to reach a deal to obtain England and other European votes or take the risk?

My thought is go for 2022.

On another note of interest, at no point does Warner point to any other CONCACAF countries as possible hosts, which suggests both Mexico and Canada are out in the cold on this one.

Trinidad and Tobago finally paid for 2006 World Cup

CONCACAF president and FIFA vice president Jack Warner tried to keep the players of Trinidad and Tobago's 2006 World Cup squad from their rightful payday, but in the end a London arbitrator, like most judges do, ruled against Warner.

At issue was the complete disregarded for law that the T&T FA and Warner showed for the players. In a contract signed before the 2006 World Cup and negotiated in part by Warner, the players were to get a 50-50 split on all money from licensing and endorsement deals made with the federation. In the end, the FA received $28 million in gross profit from the World Cup, but each of the 23 players only collect $5,000. Somebody's calculator is broken.

Although the judge ruled in the players' favor, the exact amount each one will get will not be known till June, presumably after England plays their 'hay, why not vote for us to host the 2018 World Cup' match in T&T on June 1.

Warner has said that if the T&T FA disagrees with the ruling, they will pursue justice in some other way. Any guess as to what that way will be.

Is England really counting on Concacaf President Jack Warner to deliver the 2018 World Cup?

The English FA is fighting hard to win the 2018 World Cup and they are willing to put their team into the mix to make it happen. Last week news surfaced that they are trying to organize a friendly in Trinidad & Tobago to celebrate the centenary of the local federation.

Why is this of interest? Concacaf President and Fifa Vice-President Jack Warner just happens to be from T&T and is very, very involved with their federation. He also happens to control 3 of the 24 votes on the Fifa executive committee and has a major influence over the three Latin America members, all of whom will be voting on the location of 2018.

The interest level jumps up a few more notches once you look at some of Warner's past statements, specifically this classic, "England - who invented the sport - has never had any impact on world football. England at no time has had the love and support of Europe. For Europe, England is an irritant."

What is he saying now? "[The] fact is that what I did say was nothing but the reproduction of opinions and background whispers offered by false friends in Europe.

"Numerous European football grandees have often made depreciative remarks about England in the past. What I did was merely to state them and share them with the public at large."

See, no change of opinion, he was just passing along information that other bad people had told him.

So everything is happy for jolly old England right? Well maybe not so much as Jack Warner has this habit of getting himself in situations that don't look to be just right, which brings us to Dominica.

"Last month Warner presented himself at the Dominica Football Association, demanding the resignation of the chief executive, Dexter Francis, and the dissolution of the DFA's executive board. Dominica, which has only 500 registered players, complained to Fifa about what it called his 'illegal' actions."

As the Dominican FA put it, "He tried to bully us in our little country."

Fifa looked over the events and ruled that Warner went well beyond his authority and that "the Dominica FA and the Dominican football community [that] the associations committee fully recognizes the democratically and rightfully elected president, Dexter Francis, and his board as being in charge of the football association and the organisation of football in Dominica."

Could this finally be the issue, unlike so many before, that brings Warner down? One reason it might is Warner counts on the small countries like Dominica to stay on as Concacaf president. If these small countries start to see him as a bully, they could bail on him and open up the confederation to new leadership that might not be so willing to except a friendly in return for World Cup votes.

Concacaf President Jack Warner lies about meeting Nelson Mandela

Everybody's favorite scandal plagued President of Concacaf and Vice-President of FIFA Jack Warner has found himself in the middle of another lie. Mr. Warner, who is running to become Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago went to South Africa last week to meet with Nelson Mandela in hopes of scoring political points back home. However, there was a little problem with this as 'Warner did not meet Mandela after he refused to sign an agreement that the meeting would not be used for political purposes.'

Yet Fifa put out a press released that stated: 'Fifa vice-president Jack Warner paid a whistle-stop visit to SA today to meet with Nelson Mandela as well as executives of the country’s Premier Soccer League [PSL].'

Oddly enough, Fifa has now removed the press release from their website, but here is the cached version from google.

So it looks like Jack Warner does not limit his creative ways to his soccer dealings alone.

On a different matter, if Warner did become Prime Minister, would he have to resign as Concacaf boss? It would make sense, but I can't find anything to suggest that he would.

World Cup rotation dead - Fifa spits on Concacaf - Why is Jack Warner still in charge?

Fifa made it official today, the rotational system will die after the 2014 Brazil finals, meaning everyone except for little Oceania and Concacaf got a piece of the World Cup pie.

This comes as no surprise as Fifa boss Sepp Blatter has been hinting at this for some time now but still, one has to wonder why Concacaf President and Blatter's BFF Jack Warner was not able to bring his confederation the finals as he promised. Since it was Concacaf's to lose and Warner lost it, hopefully all the FAs will realize that Warner is not the great strength he portrays himself to be.

So 2018 now becomes an open bidding tournament much like, as Blatter points out, the Olympics. I guess that means 2018 process will be a lot like those for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Blatter listed China, Australia, Mexico, the United States, England and one combined offer from the Netherlands and Belgium as countries already showing interest in the finals. However, seeing that those in Europe pushed this moved, it is pretty safe to say that most of them are already unofficially out. I'm sure Fifa will keep as many countries 'in the game' as they can so as to milk as much out of it as possible, but in the end, 2018 is now England's World Cup to lose.

Blatter clearing the 2018 field for England?

Everyone's favorite Sepp is making news again as the FIFA president has told advisors that he wants to do away with the World Cup rotational system. Now all the boss needs in order to make this thought into a fact is the approval of the executive committee, which is all but certain.

The new rule will allow any continent to bid on the finals except for the hosts of the most recent two finals.

Had the rotational system stayed in place, Concacaf would get the 2018 finals, which would mean either the US, Mexico or Canada would play host. However, it now looks like the plan to rotate through all the confederations will stop a bit short.

But what makes England so interesting to Blatter? Could it have something to do with their World Cup ambassador?

An English bid, which has the support of prime minister Gordon Brown, will face competition from China, Australia, Russia and possibly Italy. Brown's World Cup ambassador, Richard Caborn, is currently considering offers of support from consultancy firms, including one with exceptionally close ties to Blatter.

But the fun doesn't stop there:

The bid could also be boosted by the announcement that Lord Coe, chairman of Fifa's ethics commission, will act as the watchdog for the bidding process. Coe's role with Fifa has attracted criticism, largely because in the year since its foundation his commission has met only once and, because it cannot act retrospectively, has not tackled any of the serious allegations levelled against Fifa, including those made against the vice-president Jack Warner.

So let's see, England might hire a consulting firm with close ties to Blatter while the enter bidding process is being watched over by a former English athlete who is in charge of a 'major' committee on ethics that has only met once. Yeah, nothing to see here.

So will Concacaf ever get another World Cup?

England has never had any impact on world football - FIFA VP goes after 2018 England World Cup big

The decision on the location for the 2018 World Cup is still 5-years away but that hasn't stopped FIFA VP and Concacaf President Jack Warner from attacking England's plans as if it was the final month of a tight political campaign.

Warner, who is very good at using the sport of soccer to enhance his own financial situation, lead heavy into England's hopes in an interview with BBC World Service to air on Saturday. Warner thinks that even if the 2018 finals were held in Europe, England would not get them because "nobody in Europe likes England."

He went on to say: "England - who invented the sport - has never had any impact on world football. England at no time has had the love and support of Europe. For Europe, England is an irritant." Those are some heavy words.

At the center of all this is the fact that Concacaf would be denied a chance to host the finals if the rotational system is scrapped.

There are moves to give it to England. I must fight that.

I really don't believe that we should just lay down and play dead to anyone who wants to take the World Cup from CONCACAF.

I know in FIFA there are those persons who believe the rules should be changed to satisfy Europe but I tell you this today we shall fight it to the very end.

I'm sure Warner's motives for bringing the games to the region in 2018 have at least as much to do with personal desire as they do confederation pride, but this is an interesting theme he is playing. If he can try to play the rest of the world vs. Europe, he might be able to force FIFA's hand.

I'm no fan of Warner, but I do like that he is standing up for Concacaf. Now how much of what he says is just blowing hot wind to try and land some other benefit and how much of it is sincere, we'll find out over the next few years. But for now, don't expect to see Warner having high tea with Steve McClaren at Wembley anytime soon.

Jack Warner's definition of a principled stand

Concacaf President Jack Warner saluted the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) for “its principled stand in resisting being blackmailed by certain players going into the CONCACAF Gold Cup.”

A quick recap of what 'blackmail' he is talking about. T&T World Cup players were only paid $5,000 a piece even though their contract, which the great and mighty Jack Warner negotiated, promised them a 50-50 spit of all money from licensing and endorsement deals made with the federation. The exact numbers are not known, but the TTFF did get $5.5 million from FIFA for making it to the World Cup and another $11 million from an agreement with Adidas.

So to FIFA Vice President and BFF of Sepp Blatter, players demanding their federation live up to the agreement they signed is equal to blackmail.

“I want to publicly commend you both, and, by extension, your entire Executive Committee and Federation, for the principled stand you guys have taken in resisting being blackmailed into doing what could never have been right for your country and/or your Federation by bending to the will of a mercenary few,” Warner said in a letter to TTFF President Oliver Camps and General Secretary Richard Groden.

The most interesting word in that whole sentence is 'mercenary' because it doesn't fit at all. A mercenary is someone from another nation that comes in to fight for pay. Unless Warner knows something we don't, all 23 members of the T&T World Cup squad were/are citizens of T&T and they didn't get paid.

One last thing, how much value can we give to Warner to know what a principle stance is? This is the same man who steered all of T&T's 2006 World Cup tickets to a travel company owned by his son, allegedly secured stadium construction contracts at more then twice their value, obtained the Caribbean TV rights to the World Cup for a fraction of the cost and then resold them at a huge profit, sold World Cup tickets on the black market, and sold 65,000 tickets to a 1990 World Cup qualifying match in a stadium that held about a third of that number. I don't know about you but my definition of a principled person does not include any of these sorts of things.

So why should any of us care about this? Jack Warner has massive control over soccer in our region and has the full backing of Blatter. If Warner doesn't like what federations are doing, he can force people out and replace them with his own supporters. This power stifles the ability of the region to improve the overall soccer being player.

For proof of this, look no further then T&T. Had the full team been present for the Gold Cup, they could have got out of the group, thus earning more money for the federation and more international praise. Both these things would lead to better development programs as well as more local boys signing overseas and that is the formula for growing a team long term.

For Concacaf to earn more international respect, we need more teams to challenge on the international stage. Warner's actions in T&T as well as other counties have made this task harder, thus even teams like the USA or Mexico suffer.

To learn more about Warner and FIFA, take a listen to this great interview with Andrew Jennings (thanks to fullback for the link).

Another financial controversy with Jack Warner at the center

Sixteen players from Trinidad & Tobago's World Cup roster are threatening to sue the Trinidad & Tobago Football Federation over millions in World Cup revenues they say have been denied them. Shock of all shocks, CONCACAF President and Sepp Blatter's favorite FIFA vice president Jack Warner is at the center of this mess.

A quick summation of the issue is the players signed a contract where they were promised a 50-50 split of World Cup participation monies, a 50-50 split of profits from World Cup warm-up matches and a 50% cut of money from licensing and endorsement deals made with the federation.

In typical FIFA fashion, all the numbers are not known, but we do know that they got $5.5 million for the World Cup and signed an $11 million agreement with Adidas. However, the T&TFF says they only got $300,000 from the Adidas deal.

So how much money are the players going to receive for taking T&T to their first World Cup ever? About $5,000 each.

Now who negotiated this contract with the players? Jack Warner.

In case you've missed it in the past Jack Warner who steered all of T&T's World Cup tickets to a travel company owned by his son. It is the same Jack Warner who was suspected, but cleared by Blatter's boys, of selling World Cup tickets on the black market. It is the same Jack Warner who allegedly secured stadium construction contracts at more then twice their value and obtained the Caribbean TV rights to the World Cup for a fraction of the cost and then resold them at a huge profit. It is the same Jack Warner who sold 65,000 tickets to a 1990 World Cup qualifying match in a stadium that held about a third of that number.

Makes one wonder where all that other money from FIFA and Adidas, not to mention all the other deals, went.

The federation says they deducted expenses and set aside money for 2010 World Cup qualifying. Let's see, $5,000 each at 23 players equals $115,000. Total income that we know about, $16.5 million. So the federation had $16.385 million in expenses? That must have been some room service bill.

It is a shame that these players who gave so much for their team and country got so little in return. It is a bigger shame that FIFA not only does nothing about it, but also keeps promoting the people responsible.