Jack Warner was ‘an accessory to corruption’ says leaked Fifa report

• Former Fifa vice-president’s evidence was ‘self-serving’ • Mohamed bin Hammam ‘intended to influence voting’ Fifa will face renewed pressure to reopen its investigation into the former vice-president Jack Warner after a leaked report from its ethics committee alleged he had been told last week that it was quite likely he was, at the least, “an accessory to corruption”. The full report of the ethics committee also finds that there is “comprehensive, convincing and overwhelming” evidence that the presidential challenger, Mohamed bin Hammam, tried to bribe voters, and that Warner helped facilitate this. The full report of the ethics committee, which suspended Bin Hammam and Warner on the eve of the election while an independent investigation took place, outlines the scale of the evidence against both men. It concludes there is “prima facie” evidence that Bin Hammam and Warner arranged a special meeting of the Caribbean Football Union at which delegates of the member associations were offered cash payments. “The comprehensive, convincing and overwhelming evidence permits to conclude prima facie that the accused [Warner] has initiated and arranged a special meeting of the CFU member associations for Mr Bin Hammam,” said the 17-page report of the committee, headed by the Namibian judge Petrus Damaseb. “Furthermore on the occasion of this meeting it seems Mr Bin Hammam offered, at least indirectly and under the pledge of secrecy, to each of the member associations, an envelope containing $40,000.” Warner is believed to have received the full report last week and on Monday announced he was resigning as Fifa vice-president, with the world game’s governing body saying that all investigations into him had been dropped and the “presumption of innocence maintained”. A parliamentary report into Fifa and the World Cup bidding process is due to be published within the next fortnight. It is expected to repeat calls for transparency and reform. Damian Collins, the MP who is trying to form a global consensus for reform, also sits on the culture, media and sport select committee that will deliver the report. “You’ve got to seriously question the judgment of [the Fifa secretary general] Jérôme Valcke and [the president] Sepp Blatter in their handling of this whole affair,” said Collins, who believes it points to a “cover-up”. “With this information, the idea that they could have approved the statement of Warner’s presumed innocence beggars belief. They just don’t seem to understand why this is an important issue and I don’t see how we can have any confidence in their future leadership.” The leaked Fifa report finds that Warner offers no compelling evidence as to why his accusers, described as “credible”, would lie about the $40,000 (£24,500) payments they claimed they were offered at a special meeting of the CFU at the Regency Hyatt in Trinidad on 10 and 11 May. The ethics committee report rejects the claim by Bin Hammam that he was not able to travel to an earlier meeting of the Concacaf congress in Miami due to visa issues as “incredible”, finding that he instead chose to work with Warner to organise the separate meeting. Warner’s evidence to the 29 May hearing is described as “mere self-serving declarations” and that he “failed to provide the Fifa ethics committee with a plausible explanation”. It describes as “inconceivable” the idea that Warner, a Fifa committee member since 1983, could not have known about the cash payments offered to the 25 delegates. The report states: “The Fifa ethics committee is of the primary opinion that the accused [Warner] had knowledge of the respective payments and condoned them. It seems quite likely that the accused [Warner] contributed himself to the relevant actions, thereby acting as an accessory to corruption.” It adds: “The committee is also of the opinion that the respective money gifts can probably only be explained if they are associated with the Fifa presidential elections of 1 June 2011. Therefore it appears rather compelling to consider the actions of Mr Bin Hammam constitute prima facie an act of bribery, or at least an attempt to commit bribery. “It appears prima facie impossible, in the opinion of the Fifa ethics committee, that the accused [Warner] could have considered the money distributed … as legally or ethically proper and without any connection to the upcoming Fifa presidential election. Consequently, the accused would at least be considered as an accessory to the aforementioned violations.” The ethics committee report goes on to say that the facts “eventually lead to the primary conclusion that Mr Bin Hammam appears to have intended to influence the voting behaviour of the CFU member associations on the occasion of the Fifa presidential elections in his favour.” An ongoing investigation by the former FBI director Louis Freeh is expected to report by mid-July. Warner questioned why Fifa would have dropped the investigation if the evidence against him was so strong. He said: “Let me once again reiterate for the sake of those with hidden agendas; I, Jack Warner, did not partake in the distribution of any cash gifts to my members.” Bin Hammam has indicated to friends that he will continue to fight to clear his name. “There is nothing I can say more than I deny the allegations and insist that I have not done anything wrong during the special congress at Trinidad,” he said in a statement. Fifa failed to respond to a request for comment. In a detailed statement, Warner said he was the victim of an “ongoing malicious agenda”. The statement read: “It is instructive to note that the investigation into these allegations is still ongoing and therefore any suggestion that the report being circulated is the final conclusion of the Fifa ethics committee is both misleading and false. Everyone must therefore be well aware that this document is not the ethics committee final report. “I can only therefore conclude that this development is part of an ongoing malicious agenda to destroy the cohesion which has made the Caribbean Football Union a factor to be reckoned with in Fifa affairs; and thus diminish CFU’s significance in various areas of Fifa decision making. “Yesterday, in announcing my self-determined resignation from the positions I held in world football, Fifa confirmed that its ethics committee procedures of which I was a subject had been discontinued. In its statement, Fifa took pains to emphasise that the presumption of my innocence is maintained. “It is now evident that there are those in a section of the Fifa fraternity who are not only pathologically mendacious, but in the face of Fifa’s stated position and its voluntary recognition of my contribution to world football and by definition to Fifa, will stop at no length to destroy my legacy and destabilise the Caribbean region whose interests I have always vigorously advocated. Despite the attacks of division neither the Caribbean nor I will allow all that we stand for to be destroyed. “I expect that these vicious attacks will continue but I will confront them head on every time they arise. Let me once again reiterate for the sake of those with hidden agendas; I, Jack Warner, did not partake in the distribution of any cash gifts to my members. I hope for the good of the game good sense will prevail or at least I will continue to live in hope.” Jack Warner Fifa Football politics Mohamed bin Hammam Owen Gibson guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 22, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.