Port of Spain, April 1 (IANS/CMC) Former FIFA Vice president Jack Warner says he has nothing to fear following international media reports that he is the subject of a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States.
Warner, Minister of National Security in the Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration in Trinidad and Tobago also said that he will not be “crucified” by persons calling for him to be dismissed.
CMC Sunday reported that the FBI has been examining more than $500,000 in payments made by the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) over the past 20 years to an offshore company headed by top U.S. soccer official Chuck Blazer.
“I do not think you know of any other politician who for the last three years has been maligned and who has been crucified as I have been,” said Warner, who held the offices of vice president of FIFA and president of CONCACAF until his suspension and eventual resignation from these roles in 2011.
“The one objective in mind to get rid of Jack Warner because there are those who believe that if you get rid of Jack Warner then you get rid of a major chunk or chink in the government’s armour.”
A report said that an FBI probe into alleged corruption in international football has recently intensified after investigators persuaded a key party to be a cooperating witness.
The report said that Warner has not been charged with any wrongdoing but quoted sources as saying that Daryan Warner, son of the former football executive, is assisting the probe.
“At the end of the day, I don’t have to respond to them,” Warner told reporters in Trinidad.
“Yesterday was the crucifixion. Today is not, and I will continue and I will do what I have to do. I have nothing to be afraid of and I sleep very soundly at night.”
The main opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) in the southern Caribbean nation has intensified calls for Warner’s dismissal, accusing Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar of shielding her embattled minister.
–IANS/CMC
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