Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner banned from football for life

30 September 2015 09:09

Jack Warner, the disgraced former FIFA Vice-President, has been banned from all “footballing activities” for life.

He quit his job as head of the Caribbean and North and Central American football (Concacaf) in 2011 and is currently fighting extradition to the US to face corruption and receiving million dollars’ worth of bribes.

The FIFA world governing body’s ethics committee said that the 72 year old Trinidadian committed "many and various acts of misconduct continuously and repeatedly".

On Tuesday FIFA found Warner guilty of violating the organisation's code of ethics several times, following an investigation that began in January that looked into the bidding process of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

A statement from the FIFA’s Ethics committee read: “In his positions as a football official, he was a key player in schemes involving the offer, acceptance, and receipt of undisclosed and illegal payments, as well as other money-making schemes."

In an email to the Press Association on Tuesday, Warner commented "I do not believe however that this will serve as the distraction to FIFA’s present problems as FIFA’s wishes it to be. Given what is happening in Zurich with Blatter I wish to say that there is no such thing as coincidence."

The Swiss Federal Office of Justice released a statement saying "This lifetime ban won't come as a big surprise football fans around the world because he is already a discredited man within football.

"Sepp Blatter at FIFA headquarters. He arrived early on Tuesday morning as he did on Monday - business as usual. He has told staff that he has done absolutely nothing wrong.

"He may become the subject of an ethics committee investigation himself - they are deciding on their next course of action.

"If they do investigate him and they do find him guilty of any wrongdoing they will suspend him. But that could take days, it could take weeks."

FIFA President Sepp Blatter has also had criminal proceeded started against him over an ‘unfavourable’ contract between him and Warner - referring to 2005 TV rights deal.

Source: DSG