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Jack may not be back!

Apr 23, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

One of the most colorful figures of all time in Trinidad and Tobago has departed the political scene. The flamboyant former head of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), Jack Warner has resigned his position as a Minister and has since also tendered his resignation as chairman of the United National Congress (UNC).  These resignations follow on the heels of another damaging report about his actions when he was at the helm of CONCACAF.
Jack was a commanding figure both in regional football and in the politics of Trinidad and Tobago. He was not afraid to lock horns with anyone. Despite the many controversies that surrounded him, he was hugely popular because he was viewed as a politician who got the job done.
If he came into your area and you complained to him that there was a problem and he promised to fix the problem in a certain way, you could bet your bottom dollar that he would get the job done. It is always hard for political to let go of such men of action, persons who delivered on what they had promised. But in the end the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago was left with no choice because it seems as if the issue of the affairs of Caribbean football and that of CONCACAF are not going to go away in the near future.
Mr. Warner despite being a survivor and a fighter was forced to call it quits as a minister and as chairman of his party. All this controversy began a few years ago over allegations of persons being paid to support a candidate in his quest for the position of the Head of FIFA. Jack was forced eventually to resign from Caribbean football after an investigation was done and there were calls for him to be fired but the Prime Minister persisted with him, as it now seems to her own peril.
FIFA was not going to put this matter to rest simply because Jack resigned from the administration of regional football. This is something that the government of Trinidad and Tobago did not seem to recognize. They must have hoped that with his resignation from the administration of regional football that Jack has put his problems behind him.
But there are clearly forces that are not going to allow these matters to end so simply. Already there are news reports about an FBI investigation in which a relative to Jack is said to be cooperating witness. The government of Trinidad has written to the authorities in the US about this but, as is typical of that country, there has not yet been any reply.
They will however act as they see fit and when they see fit just as how they did in the case of the allegations surrounding a minister of the government of Guyana. If the PPP feels that that problem is over, they had better take a second look at what happened to Warner. It is not going to be over until Uncle Sam gets what it wants.
Meanwhile, a new administration has been put in place for the management of local football. If that administration feels also that it can simply make a fresh start and put the past behind it, it had better once again look at what is being done to Jack Warner.
It should be recalled that one of the allegations made that triggered Warner’s withdrawal from regional football was that at a regional meeting of football officials, brown paper bags, each with US$40,000 or eight million Guyana dollars was shared out in what was supposed to be a vote-buying operation.
There is supposed to be video evidence of who received and who refused the money but it seems that not many persons, including the media in Guyana, are interested in finding out whether any person from Guyana actually received any money and if so where is the money and if it is accounted for in the official accounts of the local football association, or whether if it was received whether it was treated as a private gift. Or indeed if no one from Guyana ever received any such gift.
The new administration of football has to understand the direction in which FIFA is going. They are not going to allow these allegations to fade away. As such the local football authorities have to ensure that they too launch, with the cooperation of FIFA, their own investigation as to what went on at that ill-fated meeting.
And more importantly that they determine on which side Guyana stood when it came to the distribution of that money in those brown paper bags.

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