The Shadowy Figures Behind It All

Harry Pearson (The Guardian, Oct. 21, 2011):

Former vice-president of Fifa Jack Warner is like a V1 rocket, he does the most damage when he falls silent. So it was a relief to us all this week when the Trinidadian announced that his recent tumble from grace was the result of a Zionist conspiracy.

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Fifa, for those who’ve never kicked a soccer ball, is the acronym of the worldwide boss organization of what the rest of the world calls ”football,” Fédération Internationale de Football Association. The Association had been hit by many accusations of scandalous misbehavior (reacting with head-in-the-sand alacrity to deny all) before enough public evidence about bribes for World Cup votes caused Fifa earlier this year to act. It imposed bans on Fifa executive committee members from such sporting powerhouses as Tunisia, Mali, Tonga, and Botswana.

Further, two officials of loftier status, Jack Warner of sporting powerhouse Trinidad and Tobago and Mohamed Bin Hammam (President of the Asian Football Confederation) of equally-mighty Qatar, were suspended last May while Fifa undertook to investigate bribery charges against them (having to do with the election of the president of Fifa). Warner was at the time Fifa vice-president and president of the CONCACAF region, the association of North American, Central American, and Caribbean soccer nations. Considering that the United States and Mexico are the two most prominent members of CONCACAF, one can only guess at what shenanigans a person from such a small national association (and with such a smell about him*) was up to over the years to stay in power as head of CONCACAF for more than two decades.

At any rate, immediately after his suspension Warner tendered his resignation. Fifa’s official statement of acceptance is laughable**.

As Harry Pearson has noted, Warner has broken his silence. In response to an apparently incriminating video, he posted a letter last week to the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, in which he says that he will in the future “talk about the Zionism, which probably is the most important reason why this acrid attack on Bin Hammam and me was mounted.”

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Now is perhaps the appropriate time to update for the 21^st century the famous proclamation by Dr. Johnson; the last refuge of a scoundrel is not patriotism—it is a conspiracy theory.

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*See for instance:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-404756/FIFA-chiefs-World-Cup-ticket-scam.html

** See: http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/bodies/news/newsid=1455834/index.html